ANNEX C - Policy for External Examining of Taught Programmes
External Examiner Nomination Form
for Taught Programmes
Academic Quality & Partnerships Office
This form is designed to be completed electronically, including with electronic signatures.
If there are any questions with regards to the form, please contact exex-admin@bris.ac.uk or tel: 0117 92 88041.
UoB school1
Please arrange for the nominee to be considered and appointed as an external examiner.
SECTION A - THE NOMINEE’S DETAILS (to be completed by the nominee)
Name and title:
Current post:
Higher Education Institution
(incl. department), or place
of work
Contact address
Contact email address
Contact
tel no.
PREVIOUS EXTERNAL EXAMINING EXPERIENCE
Please indicate whether you have acted as an external examiner before?
If you have acted as an external examiner before please include details in
either Appendix 2 or your CV (which must be attached to this Form).
(This is to ensure we provide you with the appropriate level of support to carry out the role)
Please delete, strike-through
or tick as appropriate
YES
NO
SECTION B - NATURE AND PERIOD OF APPOINTMENT (to be completed by the school)
1. Please give full details of the award/s, programme/s, unit/s to be covered by the external examiner
2. Level at which the external examiner will be working (please delete, strike-through or tick as appropriate)
Undergraduate
Postgraduate
Diploma
Certificate
3. The normal period of appointment is four years, (except for examiners covering the MBChB, BDS, and
BVSc where the normal appointment period is five years).
Appointment to commence (e.g. Oct 2015):
Please indicate above if the appointment should be for a lesser period than the normal four (or five) years.
Date of examination board (if known):
1
Note: Use of the word school in this document can also relate to departments or centres.
ANNEX C - Policy for External Examining of Taught Programmes
SECTION C – ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION (to be completed by the school)
1. If the new appointee is directly replacing another external whose appointment is ending please give the
name of the outgoing external examiner below:
Name:
2. Please give the name of an appropriate contact person within the school to whom we should direct the
external examiner:
Name:
Position:
Email address:
Tel no.:
3. Copies of external examiners’ reports are sent to the Head of School, the Programme Director(s), and
the relevant School Administrator(s). Please provide details: (add extra lines as required):
Programme Director:
School Administrator:
4. Please enter the annual fee to be paid to the external examiner. This is at the discretion of the school; it
may be subject dependent or based on the University guidelines, http://www.bristol.ac.uk/academicquality/assessment/exexs/fees.html
Fee
£
Please provide the name of the person within the school who is responsible for fees and expenses:
SECTION D – APPOINTMENT CRITERIA (to be read & agreed by all parties signing section G)
For quality assurance purposes the University must be satisfied that the nominee is appropriate for the
post. Schools and nominated external examiners should ensure that the appointment fulfils the criteria as
set out in the extract from the Policy for External Examining of Taught Programmes in Appendix 1.
The following statements must be agreed by the nominated external examiner, the Head of School (or
nominee) and the Faculty Dean (or nominee). Please note that exceptions may be allowed under 5 below.
1: Person specification
The nominated external examiner meets the person specification criteria.
A copy of the nominee’s CV or a completed Appendix 2 must be attached. If the nominee has retired, he
or she must provide sufficient evidence in Appendix 2 of continuing involvement in the subject area and
with current developments in higher education learning, teaching and assessment.
2: Number of appointments
The nominated external examiner does not hold an unreasonable number of other external examiner
appointments (recommended that there are no more than two appointments at any one time).
3: Avoiding reciprocal and long-standing arrangements
The nominated external examiner does not come from the same department in the same institution as the
outgoing external examiner or as any other external examiner covering the programme(s).
The appointment does not create a reciprocal arrangement with a cognate programme at another
institution.
4: Conflicts of interest
Any conflicts of interest that may prevent the nominated external examiner from being able to undertake
the role are declared in Section E.
5: Exceptions and special cases
Any legitimate reasons for exceptions and special cases with regards to the appointment criteria are
declared in Section F.
ANNEX C - Policy for External Examining of Taught Programmes
SECTION E – CONFLICTS OF INTEREST (to be completed by the nominee, school and/or faculty)
Please refer to the extract on conflicts of interest from the Policy for External Examining of Taught
Programmes in Appendix 1.
Declaration of conflicts of interest – if you consider that there are potential conflict/s of interest that
should be assessed prior to formal appointment please declare these here:
(to be completed by the nominee, school and/or faculty)
Completed by:
Signed:
SECTION F – EXCEPTIONS AND SPECIAL CASES (to be completed by the school and/or faculty)
Please refer to the extract on exceptions and special cases from the Policy for External Examining of
Taught Programmes in Appendix 1.
The Faculty Board must give close consideration to this section before giving approval to the nomination.
The University Academic Quality and Standards Committee will maintain an overview at University level of
all cases where approval of exceptions and special cases have been given.
Declaration of an exception or special case – if there is a legitimate reason why the nominated external
examiner does not fit all of the appointment criteria, please set out the details here, including how this
would be managed (eg provision of appropriate support, etc.):
(to be completed by the school and/or faculty)
Completed by:
Signed:
ANNEX C - Policy for External Examining of Taught Programmes
SECTION G – AGREEMENT TO APPOINT (to be completed by the nominee, school & faculty)
This form can be completed electronically, and electronic signatures are permissible.
All parties should indicate their approval of the nomination and their acceptance that the nominee meets
the appointment criteria by signing below.
Nominated External Examiner: agrees the appointment will conform to the statements in Section D.
Signed:
Date:
Head of School (or nominee e.g. Director of Teaching, Programme Director): agrees the appointment
will conform to the statements in section D.
Signed:
Date:
Name:
(Faculty approval can be given at any time and then the appointment reported to Faculty Board)
Faculty Dean (or nominee): confirms the appointment has been approved by the Faculty, including a
consideration of any conflicts of interest and any exceptions or special cases.
Signed:
Date:
Name:
Only once all the boxes have been signed and it has been approved by the Faculty, the completed form
must be sent to the Academic Quality & Partnerships Office at exex-admin@bris.ac.uk or by mail to
Senate House, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol, BS8 1TH.
AQPO will then send the external examiner an appointment letter, plus a copy will also be sent to the
designated School Administrator.
ANNEX C - Policy for External Examining of Taught Programmes
Appendix 1
The Appointment Criteria for External Examiners
Taken from the Policy for External Examining of Taught Programmes.
1: Person specification (Sections 1.4 and 1.5 of the Policy)
An external examiner should meet the following criteria:
a) Knowledge and understanding of UK academic standards and of the assurance and enhancement of quality;
b) Relevant academic qualifications, or where appropriate professional qualifications and/or extensive
practitioner experience;
c) Breadth of knowledge and standing within the subject to demonstrate credibility to peers;
d) Competence and experience in the areas covered by the programme (or parts thereof) and of assessment
methods appropriate to the subject;
e) Competence and experience of the standards expected of students to achieve the award and of the
enhancement of the student learning experience;
f) Awareness of current developments in curricula design and delivery;
g) Fluency in English, and for programmes that are delivered and assessed in languages other than English,
fluency in the relevant language(s); and
h) Where appropriate, any additional criteria set by professional, statutory or regulatory bodies.
Individuals who have retired may be appointed but they should provide sufficient evidence of continuing involvement
in the academic area in question, and with current developments in higher education learning, teaching and
assessment.
2: Number of appointments held by the nominee (Section 1.6)
The school must check that the incoming external examiner should not hold an unreasonable number of other
external examiner appointments. It is recommended that there should not be more than two appointments at any one
time.
3: Avoiding reciprocal and long-standing arrangements (Sections 1.7 to 1.10)
It is important for schools to ensure that they do not put in place reciprocal arrangements between cognate
programmes with another institution. Schools must refer to the list detailing where their own staff act as external
examiners, to avoid this occurring.
The Head of School is responsible for ensuring an accurate record is kept of the institutions where school members
of staff are currently acting as external examiners. This list should be available upon request.
Where there is more than one external examiner covering a programme/s, the incoming external examiner should not
be from the same department in the same institution as any other external examiner covering the programme/s.
The incoming external examiner should not be from the same department in the same institution as the outgoing
external examiner.
4: Conflicts of interest (Sections 1.11 and 1.12)
The nominated external examiner and members of the school involved in the nomination should declare, using the
Nomination Form, any conflicts of interests that should be given due consideration before the nominated external
examiner can be formally appointed; these include:
a) Significant involvement in recent or current substantive collaborative research activities with a member of
staff closely involved in the delivery, management or assessment of the programme(s) or modules in
question
b) Having a near relative as student or member of staff in the school
c) Personal association with sponsorship of students in the school
d) Involvement in assessing colleagues who are recruited as students to the programme
e) Holding a position which may have significant influence on the future of students on the programme
f) Membership of the University of Bristol Court or Council
g) Employment with one of the University’s collaborative partners
The incoming external examiner should not have been an external examiner for the University of Bristol or a member
of staff or student at the University of Bristol for at least five years.
5: Exceptions and special cases (Sections 1.13 and 1.14)
Where there is a legitimate reason for making an appointment that does not fulfil all of the criteria for appointment,
the details should be set out in the Nomination Form and approved by the Faculty Board. This consideration may be
assisted where there are other external examiners on a programme, so that the proposed appointee’s expertise is
complemented by that of others. Where a proposed appointee does not fully fit the criteria, appropriate induction and
support should be provided.
There may be exceptions when addressing nominations for external examiners in small and specialist subjects where
the pool of potential external examiners is limited. This should be set out in the Nomination Form and approved by
the Faculty Board.
ANNEX C - Policy for External Examining of Taught Programmes
Appendix 2
This form should be completed by the nominated external examiner if they do not wish to submit a
CV. Retired staff should provide sufficient evidence of continuing involvement in the academic
area in question, and with current developments in higher education learning, teaching and
assessment.
Please do not feel constrained by the size of the boxes on the form template; they will expand as you
type.
1 Higher Education: (please state your HE qualifications and where obtained)
2
Professional qualifications: (please state your professional qualifications and where obtained)
3
Recent employment history:
4
Previous/current experience as External Examiner: (please state institution, award and subject
and length of service)
5
Please indicate other examining experience:
6
Please indicate current teaching experience:
7
Please indicate any relevant professional expertise: (e.g. publications/research/consultancy)