Quality Matters for Students - External Examiners Report
Welcome to the third in our series of briefings on matters of quality in higher education, following briefings on Institutional Audit and Periodic Review. This report focuses on external examiners an area that has received increasing attention in recent months and has been highlighted by several witnesses, including the NUS, during the recent Inquiry of the Innovation, Universities, Skills and Science Select Committee of the House of Commons.
The Quality Assurance Agencies’ Code of Practice Section 4 describes the external examiners system as providing “one of the principal means for maintaining nationally comparable standards”. In a recent article in the Times Higher Professor Colin Riordan, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Essex, said that the sector could be “proud” of the external examining system but that “it must show more transparently that it can ensure the comparability of standards”. We would agree with Professor Riordan and believe that the system of external examiners is barely understood by students.
We believe that this could be partly addressed by having their reports discussed with student representatives. In recent discussions with students’ unions the University of Warwick highlighted that a sub-committee of the Board of Undergraduate Studies, which has two student representatives, looks at external examiners reports. Another university highlighted that the reports are considered at staff/student forum meetings and we believe that this should be common practice across the sector.
The briefing gained significant coverage in last week's Times Higher Education - you can read the article here.
Download the briefing here.
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