Changes to Academic Manual Chapters 4 and 9

Changes to Academic Manual Chapters 4 and 9

1. Chapter 4 Section 11: Boards of Examiners

• Parts 11.4, 11.6

Faculty Boards of Examiners and Appointment of Chairs and Deputy Chairs

From 2023/24 Faculty Boards of Examiners will approve new Chairs and Deputy Chairs as part of the Board’s responsibilities. 

Currently the Chair of Quality and Standards Committee is responsible for approving new Chairs and Deputy Chairs. From 2023/24 the Chair of the Faculty Board of Examiners will approve these appointments instead. Faculty teams will be given access to amend the Chairs and Deputy Chairs within Portico, speeding up the post scrutiny process. 

From 2023/24 we are removing the need for the outgoing Chair of a Board of Examiners to recommend their successor. To align with the reality in most departments, the nomination by the Head of Department/Division will be sufficient. To that end, Heads of Departments must ensure that their nominees meet UCL’s minimum appointment requirements before they submit their nomination to the Faculty.

• Parts 11.6 

Responsibilities 

Currently there is some inconsistency in how Faculties have interpreted the requirements for External Examiners to approve all summative assessments and assessment methods. From 2023/24, the requirement that External Examiners must approve all new summative assessment tasks prior to students being assessed is changed and instead, External Examiners should review new summative assessment tasks to ensure that they are being set at an appropriate level and standard for the module. 

Regulations remain unchanged and the rewording is to ensure there is clarity in how colleagues are interpreting and following the requirements to ensure appropriate standards are in place for the assessments. The requirement for internal scrutiny of assessment tasks remains. 

2. Changes to Forms

Change of Chair of Board of Examiners form 

The following amendments have been made to the Change of Chair of Board of Examiners form for the 2023/24 Academic Year to support colleagues processing these changes.

• Head of Department/Division will nominate new Chairs instead of the outgoing Chair.
• The form is a template that Faculties and Departments may choose to use to record the changes and the process will be managed locally. 
• Fewer signatures required (Head of Department and Chair of Faculty Board of Examiners). 

3. Chapter 9 Section 4: External Examining

• Parts 4.2, 4.3

Responsibilities of UCL and External Examiner

As covered in changes indicated for Chapter 4, Section 11, currently there is some inconsistency in how Faculties have interpreted the requirements for External Examiners to approve all summative assessments and assessment methods. From 2023/24, the requirement that External Examiners must approve all new summative assessment tasks prior to students being assessed is changed and instead, External Examiners should review new summative assessment tasks to ensure that they are being set at an appropriate level and standard for the module. 

Regulations remain unchanged and the rewording is to ensure there is clarity in how colleagues are interpreting and following the requirements to ensure appropriate standards are in place for the assessments.  

• Parts 4.4

Nomination and Appointment

Currently there is some additional information about the nomination process included in the ‘further guidance’ area which is unnecessary to consider as part of the regulations. From 2023/24 colleagues will be able to find key and simplified information within the nomination process section in the Academic Manual and the additional information will now be available in a separate dedicated webpage for External Examining activity.  

Currently External Examiners are required to complete the UCL expenses form to claim their expenses. From 2023/24 External Examiners who wish to claim their expenses will be sent details to the UCL online system to process their claim.