Information for External Examiners

The University held its annual online External Examiner Welcome Briefing on 16 October 2024. Please click on the below link to access the slides and the video. 

University Briefing Powerpoint Slides- 2024-25

The handbook provides information and guidance in relation to:

• Appointment Details
• Roles and Responsibilities
• Induction
• Annual Reports
• Fees and Expenses
• Key Contacts

External Examiner Handbook

The University’s Learning and Teaching department have produced a visual guide for those External Examiners using Blackboard for the first time. All information on how to access student work via Blackboard and TurnItIn is therefore available at the following page:

Accessing Blackboard

 The University has introduced a new automated submission portal for receiving External Examiner Annual Reports. 

 Instructions on how to submit your report are avaialble at the bottom of the Annual Report form. These forms are available to download in the 'Downloads' section on the right hand side of this page. 

Once you have reviewed the student work, please complete your final annual report on the MS Word template and submit to the submission portal by following the instructions at the bottom of the report form. 

The dates below are absolute deadlines by which the University requires your annual report(s).

• For Boards held in the summer of 2024: 31st August 2024
• For Boards held in the autumn of 2024: 30th November 2024
  

In cases where student work has been reviewed after these deadlines, please provide your Annual Report as soon as possible thereafter.  

You should expect to receive payment on the last working day of each calendar month for reports submitted by the 5th of each month. If you submit your report after the 5th of the month, payment will be received at the end of the following month. PLEASE NOTE: for the month of December reports should be submitted by the 1st of the month in order to receive payment prior to the Christmas break.

Once submitted to the portal, your report will be sent to your Primary Contact, the Course Director, Head of School, Faculty Director of Quality and the Faculty Director of Learning and Teaching.

At School level, your report will be received, read and responded to, as appropriate.

At an Institutional level, the external examiner reports play a key role in the University's quality assurance and enhancement procedures. The outcomes of the annual external examiner reports are reported to the Faculty Quality Committee and the Education and Student Experience Committee periodically throughout the year.

For more information on how the University uses your report, please see the Annual Reports section of the External Examiner Handbook. 

 The following key documents can be found on the Regulation and Credit Framework section of the Quality and Standards Office webpage:

• Regulations for Taught Programmes
• Assessment Procedures
• Academic Framework
• Special Regulations