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External Examining Key Updates and Comms

Find regular key updates to the External Examining processes and an overview of the emails sent to Board Teams and External Examiners.

Key Updates

  • 2023/24 Change of Chair/Deputy Chairs: Please note that there has been a change to the process of nominating and appointing new Chairs and Deputy Chairs which has devolved to Faculty Boards of Examiners. Please see Chapter 4, Section 11.6 ‘Chairs and Deputy Chairs’ of the Academic Manual. 

  • Expenses: There is now updated guidance on External Examiners expenses available on the Fees and Expenses FAQs webpage. Please ensure to read through the information and share it with External Examiners who are attending Boards of Examiners in person.

Communications

 

 

To External Examiners: Welcome to the New AY (2023-24)

Thank you for your service as an External Examiner for UCL. The Chair and Administrator of your Board of Examiners will be in regular communication with you already and will no doubt have sent you lots of information. We would like to draw your attention to key information and webpages to assist you in your role and we hope you find this useful.

Regulations and guidance

Please refer to the following webpages:

Induction and Tenure

Induction for UCL External Examiners is conducted locally (e.g. by the Board Team or Department etc.) At the start of and during each Academic Year you will receive details and guidance from your Board teams and a list of what to expect can be found within the Planning Toolkit for Board Teams: ‘Checklist of materials to send External Examiners’ document. If they haven’t already sent it to you, please do contact your Board teams for this information and for your local induction arrangements.  

External Examiners are normally appointed for a period of four years. If External Examiners wish to terminate their appointment, this should normally be arranged to take effect at the end of an academic year, but in any case, is subject to three months’ notice. If you are a PGT External Examiner who has served four years, your appointment will come to an end after the upcoming PGT Board of Examiners, and we will update your record as appropriate after the reporting cycle has been completed. 

Board of Examiners Report and Response

UCL’s formal reporting process is administered through the online Portico System. A link to the report will normally be sent to External Examiners during the week that the final Board of Examiners meeting takes place. The report should be completed within one month of that meeting, or one month from the date you received the link to the report (whichever gives you more time) so that the Department can respond to and action any recommendations in time for the following academic session. The link is a single-sign on link, so you do not need UCL credentials to access this.

In the final stage of the reporting process, once the Board Chair has responded to your report and we have ‘closed’ it, you will be emailed a html copy of your report that will also include the Department’s response. External Examiner reports and Departmental responses to the reports will be made available to students.

We have a dedicated section on our External Examining webpage that covers FAQs relating to the External Examiners annual report and process. Please refer to webpage ‘Guidance for External Examiners: Completing Annual Report’.

Fees and Expenses

Please refer to the section on our External Examining webpage Fees and Expenses FAQs for more details on fees and expenses rates extracted from the UCL Expenses Policy. 

External Examiners are permitted to claim reasonable expenses as required using the UCL General Expense Form (for external visitors) available here: www.ucl.ac.uk/finance/spending-money/policies-forms-info/forms-relating-expenditure. If travel and accommodation is required when visiting UCL, examiners are encouraged to liaise directly with the relevant Department or Division to arrange this.  

Fee payment will be made on receipt of your formal written report submitted on Portico within the one month deadline.

Postgraduate External Examiners will be paid by bank transfer and registered at UCL as self-employed and are therefore required to declare their income and payment of any sums owed to the Inland Revenue directly.

IT access (including Moodle and AssessmentUCL)

Board Teams are responsible for arranging IT access to Moodle (our Virtual Learning Environment) and AssessmentUCL (if these platforms are being used). Please liaise with them and they will support you through the process.

 

Board Teams: External Examiners Pre-Board Task for 2022/23 - Deadline by 31 May 2023

The Boards of Examiners Data Hub in Portico has now been rolled over for the 2022/2023 External Examining session.

In preparation for this year’s Boards of Examiners we would like to ensure we have the correct information on the system for your External Examiners (EEs). Please complete the below tasks by 31 May 2023.

Check active externals for 2022/23 Academic Year

Ensure that you have the correct number of EEs in preparation for this year’s boards (active EE’s will appear as Current on Portico). To complete this step download the ‘Contact’ spreadsheet with current EE details from Portico. Report guides are available on our website Planning Toolkit for Board Teams.

All EEs should be formally appointed at this stage and board teams should have conducted Right to Work checks and submitted documents for UG externals. NB: payment delays will occur if paperwork for UG externals is incomplete.

If there is an issue with an EE’s status on Portico please email us as soon as possible. If your board isn’t running or there are any last-minute changes to your EE’s term let us know by 31st May.

Assign modules to External Examiners

For 2022/23 cycle, link the relevant modules in the BoE Data Hub on Portico. NB: if the correct modules are not linked to your EEs then this will cause payment delays. For more guidance on how to complete this step, please refer to Planning Toolkit for Board Teams.

Check staff assigned to your Board of Examiners

Please ensure you have the correct staff appointed as Chair and Deputy Chair on Board of Examiners container on Portico. If there are any changes to Board Administrators prior to the board, make sure to update this on Portico to avoid any delays in BoE arrangements. For more guidance on how to complete this step, please refer to Planning Toolkit for Board Teams.

Populate Board Meeting Dates – now through Portico

Student Records shared a spreadsheet on your Faculty Teams sites to capture all Board dates with a completion deadline of 28th April. If you were unable to meet this deadline, please now enter any BoE dates on Portico, and also email your SR contact with the details. For more guidance on how to enter BoE dates on Portico, please refer to Planning Toolkit for Board Teams.

Annual report links to External Examiners are triggered by the BoE Meeting date, so its important that we have accurate information well in advance of the Board meeting.

To External Examiners: UCL External Examining activity for Main Boards in 2023

We wanted to send a brief email to welcome you to the upcoming Exam Board season from the central UCL external examiner team. The Chair and Administrator of your Board of Examiners will be in regular communication with you already and will no doubt have sent you lots of information. We would like to draw your attention to some central resources to assist you in your role.

Regulations and guidance

Please refer to the following webpages:

Induction and Tenure

Induction materials for UCL External Examiners are arranged locally (e.g. by the Board Team or Department etc.), and we do not provide any central induction events. At the start of and during each Academic Year you will receive details and guidance from your Board teams and a list of what to expect can be found within the section ‘Checklist of materials to send to External Examiners’ in our Planning Toolkit for Board Teams. If they haven’t already sent it to you, please do contact your Board teams for this information.  

External Examiners are normally appointed for a period of four years. If External Examiners wish to terminate their appointment, this should normally be arranged to take effect at the end of an academic year, but in any case, is subject to three months’ notice.

Board of Examiners Report and Response

UCL’s formal reporting process is administered through the online Portico System. A link to the report will be emailed to you during the week that the final Board of Examiners’ meeting takes place. The report should be completed within one month of the final meeting of the Board of Examiners or one month from the date you receive the link to the report (whichever gives you more time) so that the Department can respond to and action any recommendations in time for the following academic session. The link is a single-sign on link, so you do not need UCL credentials to access this. If you have any issues with the link, please email us at examiners@ucl.ac.uk.

In the final stage of the reporting process, once the Board Chair has responded to your report and we have ‘closed’ it, you will be emailed a html copy of your report that will also include the Department’s response. External Examiners’ reports and Departmental responses to the reports will be made available to students.

We have a dedicated section on our External Examining webpage that covers FAQs relating to the External Examiners annual report and process. Please refer to webpage ‘Guidance for External Examiners: Completing the Annual Report’

Fees and Expenses

Please refer to the section on our External Examining webpage Fees and Expenses FAQs for more details on fees, expenses process and expenses rates extracted from the UCL Expenses Policy. 

Fee payment will be made on receipt of your formal written report submitted on Portico within the one month deadline.

IT access (including Moodle and AssessmentUCL)

Board Teams are responsible for arranging IT access to Moodle (our Virtual Learning Environment) and AssessmentUCL (if these platforms are being used). Please liaise with them and they will support you through the process, or let you know if they are not using these platforms.