Proposal for the Appointment of an External Examiner
The information on this form will be handled in confidence. It is required to help the
University fulfil its obligations under the UK Quality Code for Higher Education on External
Examining.
PLEASE ATTACH THE NOMINEE’S FULL ACADEMIC CV TO THIS FORM
1. Proposed External Examiner
(show title, name and qualifications)
(attention is drawn to the requirement of the QAA
Code of Practice that potential conflicts of interest
are identified and resolved prior to appointment)
2. Present Post and Place of Work
Please indicate the period for which appointment
has been held.
(If retired, please give details of last post/current
experience)
3. Contact address, Email address and
telephone number
(Institutional and Home Address required)
4. Programme(s)/ Portfolio
Module Numbers and titles
(where appropriate, and where examiners are
appointed to modules only, please indicate the
subject specific modules and their titles that the
nominee will be responsible for.)
5. Proposed period of appointment
(Normally 4 years)
From: SEPTEMBER OR JANUARY (PLEASE SELECT)
To:
6. Name of Examiner whom it is proposed to
replace
(and their period of appointment)
7. Names of other External Examiners for this
Programme (show areas of responsibility. Other
examiners who are about to be appointed may
also be listed here.)
Revised November 2013
Page 1
Criteria for Appointment
Set out below are the UK-wide criteria for the
appointment of External Examiners (QAA)
Comments
Please indicate below how the nominee meets the
Criteria for Appointment
External examiners will be expected to be
persons of sufficient standing, credibility and
breadth of experience within the discipline to
be able to command the respect of their
academic peers, and where appropriate,
professional peers.
This criterion should not, however, preclude the
nomination of appropriately experienced
individuals who do not hold senior positions in
their home institutions. Where this is the case, the
Faculty is asked to provide information to clarify
the nominee's suitability for the role of external
examiner.
An external examiner's academic and /or
professional qualifications should be relevant
to at least the level of the qualifications being
externally examines, and or extensive
practitioner experience where appropriate.
Both the level and subject of their qualification
and, where appropriate, their practitioner
experience should broadly match what is to be
examined so that comparability of standards
can be maintained.
The nominee should demonstrate meeting
applicable criteria set by professional,
statutory or regulatory bodies
External examiners should have appropriate
knowledge and understanding of UK sector
agreed reference points for the maintenance
of academic standards and assurance and
enhancement of quality.
Standing, expertise and breadth of experience
may be indicated by:
 the present post and place of work;
 the range and scope of experience across
Higher Education/professions;
 current and recent active involvement in
research/scholarly/professional activities
in the field of study concerned.
External examiners should evidence
competence and experience in the fields
covered by the programme of study or parts
thereof and familiarity with the standard to be
expected of students to achieve the award that
is to be assessed. It is desirable that they
Revised November 2013
Page 2
should also have experience of external
examining elsewhere to provide a wider basis for
comparison of standards.
External examiners should evidence
competence and experience relating to
designing and operating a variety of
assessment tasks appropriate to the subject
and operating assessment procedures
Proposed examiners without previous external
examining experience should, where possible, join
an experienced team of examiners or, work
initially alongside an experienced current
examiner on a related module/programme. If the
individual has no previous external examiner
experience at the appropriate level, their
nomination should be supported by:
 other evidence of ‘externality’; or
 extensive experience of internal
examination i.e. assessment moderation
and verification procedures; or
 other relevant and recent experience
likely to support the examiners role i.e.
involvement in programme validation and
quality monitoring processes.
External Examiners should evidence
awareness of current developments in the
design and delivery of relevant curricula, and
competence and experience relating to the
enhancement of the student learning
experience
External examiners should normally hold no
more than two external examiner
appointments for taught programmes/modules
at any point in time.
Where the nominee already holds two external
examinerships at other institutions, the proposing
department/Faculty must provide supporting
arguments to EESC; for example, the addition of a
third examinership may be mitigated by the
(small) volume of student work to be examined
and its distribution (timing) during the year.
External Examiners should evidence fluency
in English, and where programmes are
delivered and assessed in languages other
than English, fluency in the relevant
language(s) (unless other secure
arrangements are in place to ensure that
external examiners are provided with the
information to make their judgements)
Restrictions and ‘conflicts of interest’
Comments
External examinerships should not be
reciprocal. The proposing Department/Faculty
Revised November 2013
Page 3
should state if a member of its staff holds an
external examinership in the corresponding
Faculty/Department in the institution at which
the proposed external examiner is employed.
In exceptional circumstances, it may be necessary
to nominate an External Examiner where one or
more of the above conditions need to be set
aside. For example, in the case of discipline
areas that are very small and specialist it is
recognised that reciprocity is sometimes
unavoidable, and where the pool of potential
external examiners is restricted – this will be
on submission of a proposal to EESC which
makes the case for exception and include an
account of the measures already taken to
recruit
External examiners should not be involved in
the delivery of the course at Edge Hill,
advising students about the course or its
examination and assessment, or have been a
consultant for validation within the last three
years.
Nominees should identify potential conflicts of
interest prior to their appointment. The phrase
‘consultant at validation’ applies specifically to
individuals who have provided advice to course
teams in their preparations for programme
approval, and not to external members of
validation panels. Where the latter has been the
case the maximum period of office should
normally be limited to three years.
The examining team should not contain two
examiners who are (or were recently)
colleagues in the same institution, nor should
such colleagues be appointed consecutively
to take over from each other.
Former staff and students of an institution can
only be appointed as external examiners for
the same institution after a period of not less
than five years has passed since leaving the
institution or when all students taught by or
with the proposed external examiner have
completed their programme(s), whichever is
the longer.
Exceptional Circumstances
Revised November 2013
Please Provide the Information Requested
Page 4
External examiners, are in the majority of cases
most appropriately appointed from other
institutions in the higher education sector. In
some circumstances, however, nominations for
appointments from outwith the sector may be
appropriate, for example from industry or the
professions. Where the nominee is not of the
HE sector, the Faculty/Department making
the nomination is asked to provide details,
for EESC, of the relevance of their expertise
and their recent experience of standards in
higher education and how they will maintain
the currency of their knowledge and
experience.
Proposed by (Department):
Head of Subject/Course Leader
Signature
Date
With the approval of:
PVC/ Associate Dean of Faculty
Signature
Date
Chair of External Examiner Sub
Committee
Chair of the Learning & Teaching
Committee
Revised November 2013
Page 5