Report submission (University of Essex)
Please note that these resources are currently unavailable to External Examiners for the University of Essex's partner institutions. Partner institution External Examiners should refer to the information and resources on the partner External Examiner report submission webpage.
External Examiner Report Portal
The External Examiner Report Portal is an online submission system for External Examiner reports. Reports, and Departmental Responses to said reports, will be saved within the system and will be accessible to relevant members of departmental and faculty staff so as to feed into the University of Essex's quality assurance processes.
HR Organiser
External Examiners may access HR Organiser to inform the University of Essex of changes to their personal details, as outlined in the External Examiner User Guide.
Guidance for External Examiners External Examiner
New User Registration Guide
The New User Registration Guide (.docx) takes a newly nominated External Examiner nomination through the initial nomination and appointment process, from submission of their online application up to the generation of a University of Essex IT log-in.
External Examiner User Guide
The External Examiner User Guide (.pdf) explains to External Examiners the fundamentals of using University of Essex IT systems, including the External Examiner Report Portal for submission of reports, and for viewing departmental/school responses and course/module schedule details. Guidance for systems used to share information with External Examiners, including Moodle and FASER, are available on request.
External Examiner Webinars
The Quality and Academic Development Team deliver two webinars a year for internal External Examiners; Introduction to External Examining (Autumn term) and Exam Boards and Annual Reporting (Spring term). The links to these webinars are circulated to all internal External Examiners as soon as they are available and the link to the recording and any additional resources are shared following the meeting. Internal External Examiners without this link should contact external.examiners@essex.ac.uk for access.
Guidance for University of Essex staff (Report Portal)
Information for departments
Late submission
External Examiner reports should be submitted within four weeks after the date of the Exam Board and/or work was reviewed.
External
Examiners who appear to be late in submitting a report will be contacted by the
Quality and Academic Development team initially as a prompt. All undergraduate
reports relating to June or July Boards of Examiners meetings should be
submitted by the end of August at the latest and postgraduate reports
relating to November or December Boards of Examiners meetings by the end of December at the latest.
If a report has not been received by the deadlines, and the Quality and Academic Team are unsuccessful in further requests for the reports, they will escalate to a senior member of the University. If this is unsuccessful consideration will be given to terminating the examiner’s appointment on the grounds that the specified duties have not been fulfilled.
Reports must be submitted within three months of the examination board to be considered 'received', since reports received after this point can no longer contribute meaningfully to other quality assurance mechanisms.
Response to External Examiners
On receipt, reports are available to the Head of Department/School (in the case of joint awards, the report will be available to the heads of all relevant departments/schools), the Department/School Manager, the appropriate Faculty Dean and the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education).
The Head of Department/School should discuss the reports at a team level and make a considered and timely response to each External Examiner. Internal departments/schools should provide this response via the External Examiners Report Portal. The response should outline any action to be taken (or the reason why there will be no action if this is the case) in response to External Examiners’ recommendations. Partner Institutions should complete this response using the relevant field on the Partner External Examiner Report proforma and provide this to the Dean of Partnerships (or nominee) and QUAD. The Head of Department/School then reports back to the University in the relevant Annual Review of Courses report.
Role of Faculty Dean
The Faculty Dean does not routinely consult with the Head of Department/School on departmental/school level issues, unless they are of particular concern and require urgent action. The Faculty Dean considers External Examiner reports to identify issues which cross departments/schools and/or which merit consideration at the level of the faculty or at University level via the appropriate committee.
Undergraduate External Examiner issues for faculty consideration are normally referred by the Faculty Dean to the Autumn Term meeting of the Faculty Education Committee. Taught postgraduate External Examiner issues are normally referred by the Executive Dean or nominee to the Spring Term meeting of the Faculty Education Committee. The consideration of issues in this way enables departments/schools to reflect upon relevant Faculty Education Committee discussions of External Examiner issues when finalising their Annual Review of Courses reports.
Overview of External Examiner Reports
Departments/schools are asked to review their reports and respond to External Examiners.
Faculty Deans provide a verbal overview from their Faculty at committees such as Faculty Education Committee.
Departments/Schools consider and report on External Examiner comments as part of their Annual Review of Courses reports. Quality and Academic Development review all External Examiner reports and provide overviews of key themes to the Academic Quality and Standards committee as part of their annual cycle of quality assurance.
Timeline for External Examiner and Annual Review of Courses Reporting 2023-24
Correspondence
Copies of correspondence between Heads of Departments/Schools, Faculty Deans and External Examiners should be retained by departments/schools. Records and extracts of relevant Board minutes will be held by the Assessment Team.
Student access to reports
Students should have access to External Examiner reports via their representatives on Faculty Education Committee and on departmental/school Student Voice Groups, or equivalent.
