External Examiner for taught courses

An External Examiner, from another University, is appointed annually to each taught course Board of Examiners to oversee the examination of the whole cohort.

The Course Director or Senior Examiner will negotiate informally with a potential External Examiner. If the individual is willing, they will be nominated to the Degree Committee who in turn make a nomination to the University. It is the Education Quality and Policy office who are responsible for approval of External Examiner appointments for taught courses. Once appointment is approved, EQPO will write to the External Examiner providing the details of the appointment and a contractual letter.

The Senior Examiner for the course is the main point of reference for all details of the timetable and course content for the External Examiner.

Useful information

Please note that you will not normally be asked to mark papers or examine dissertations. You are asked to provide a degree of moderation in determining whether internal marking has been appropriately and consistently applied, particularly in the case of disagreement between markers/assessors of dissertations, and may be asked to attend a viva for students whose marks are marginal at the pass/fail boundary.

 

External Examiner's report

On completion of your duties you are required to submit a written report to the Vice Chancellor. A template report form is provided for this purpose. The report will then be considered by the relevant course teaching committee and their response, together with your report, will be considered by the Degree Committee and the General Board by the end of Michaelmas Term, if possible. Any amendments agreed to the course as a result of your feedback will be actioned as quickly as possible and you may wish to comment on whether the response has been satisfactory in your report in the following year.