Planning Toolkit for Board Teams

Useful resources for Board Teams

External Examiners reports and common issues raised – with ACTION POINTS for Board Teams

We wanted to highlight some of the quantitative questions that External Examiners (EEs) repeatedly highlighted as an issue in the 2021-22 reports. This is in the hope that you can clarify with them these points before this year’s BoE meetings, or, if there are issues that need rectifying, can ensure that these points are addressed.

The short version:

Q2.11 ‘Did you receive all draft assessments?’ (and the follow on: Q;2.12 ‘If not, was this at your request?’)

Q2.24 ‘Did you receive an induction?’
ACTION: Please make sure that your EE is provided with all of the baseline information that departments are required to send them (see the list: AM Ch9 S4.2.7: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/academic-manual/chapters/chapter-9-quality-review-framework/section-4-external-examining). You may also want to refer to our ‘Checklist of information to send to External Examiners’, which includes the baseline as stated in the AM, but also further guidelines on what to send. This can be found under the ‘Planning Toolkit’ section of our website: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/srs/academic-policy-and-quality-assurance/external-examining/planning-toolkit-board-teams.

Q2.28: ‘Did you receive External Examiners' reports and any responses from the previous year?’

ACTION: In advance of the BoE, please send all your EEs the EE reports and departmental responses from the previous year.

Q2.30: ‘Were you given access to the Virtual Learning Environment (i.e. Moodle)?’
AND: Q2.31: ‘Were you given access and guidance to AssessmentUCL our digital assessment platform? If the samples of work were handled differently by the department, please state this in Q3.05 below’.

ACTION: Please ensure that your EEs are aware of whether they should have access to Moodle and AssessmentUCL. If they should not have this access, they can choose ‘NA’ for these questions when filling out their report. If they should have been given access but there were access issues please do make sure that they detail these issues in their report (or you can do in your departmental response), so that the nature of the issue can be identified.

The long version (contains more detail and references to the regulations):

Q2.11 ‘Did you receive all draft assessments?’ (and the follow on: Q;2.12 ‘If not, was this at your request?’). The regulations state that: ‘all new Assessment Tasks should be approved by the External Examiner (although if a task has been used on a previous occasion, repeat approval does not need to be sought)’ (AM Ch4 S3.3.2: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/academic-manual/chapters/chapter-4-assessment-framework-taught-programmes/section-3-module-assessment), so this is a requirement. What we found was that for the most part, if an EE indicated that they had not been sent these draft assessments, the Chair would confirm that this was because the assessment in question was approved on a previous occasion, so in fact it was not an issue that the EE hadn’t received it. We have changed the wording of this question to clarify this point, so it now reads: ‘Did you receive all new draft assessments?’. We hope that this will clear up the confusion, but we would also appreciate your help to ensure EEs are aware of what they have been sent and why this is the complete requirement, so please do make this clear to them if they do not get sent all the draft assessments they are expecting.

There has also been some confusion over which assessments EEs should be sent, with some departments only sending draft examination papers. Please note that the AM states: ‘External Examiners will comment on the appropriateness of new or amended methods of assessment’. (AM Ch9 S4.3.4: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/academic-manual/chapters/chapter-9-quality-review-framework/section-4-external-examining). So, the expectation is that all assessment types should be reviewed.

ACTION: Please ensure that you send your EEs all new draft assessments, and where you are not sending them because they are being re-used and have been approved previously, please make sure that they are aware of this so that they can select either ‘NA’ (if they did not need to be sent any draft assessments), or ‘Yes’ – if they were sent only some draft assessments, but others were not sent because they has been reviewed on a previous occasion. Please note that EEs should be sent all assessment types, not just examination papers.

Q2.24 ‘Did you receive an induction?’ This question received a high ‘No’ response rate, because it suggested that an induction event should have taken place. Most EEs were in fact sent materials that we consider suitable for an induction. We have changed the wording to ‘Did you receive induction materials?’ to make it clearer, but we would also appreciate your help in flagging up to them what is provided. While we do not hold central induction events/meetings for EEs, when they are appointed we email them with details of UCL’s examination policies and procedures and links to the relevant webpages of the Academic Manual. This year, we also emailed EEs as a welcome to the upcoming Exam Board period, and highlighted the relevant regulations and our External Examiner webpages, which provide helpful FAQs (you can see a copy of this email on our webpage: External Examining Key Updates and Comms). Please note the requirements for departments in relation to providing an induction/induction materials as set out in the Academic Manual:

As a minimum, Departments must provide new and continuing External Examiners with the following information by the start of the academic year:

i. The name of departmental/divisional board contact (e.g. Examinations Liaison Officer, or Board Administrator).

ii. The date(s) of meetings of Board of Examiners to which the External Examiner is invited (when known).

iii. The Terms of Reference, Constitution and Membership of the Board (e.g. number of Internal Examiners and any interdepartmental/ interdivisional involvement).

iv. The number and subject area of other External Examiners appointed to the Board.

v. The Student Handbook or equivalent, Programme Summary and/ or syllabus information.

vi. The programme regulations to be used in determining student Progression, Awarding and Classification.

vii. The marking criteria for individual papers (when known).

viii. The previous year’s External Examiners’ report and the departmental response.

(AM Ch9 S4.2.7: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/academic-manual/chapters/chapter-9-quality-review-...)

And in Chapter 4, it is noted that it is the Chair’s responsibility 'to ensure that newly appointed External Examiners, and particularly those with limited or no previous experience as an External Examiner, are fully inducted into UCL’s assessment regulations and procedures'. (AM Ch4 S11.6.4.e: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/academic-manual/chapters/chapter-4-assessment-fram...)

ACTION: Please make sure that your EE is provided with all of the above information annually, and ideally package it in an ‘induction’ pack, also flagging up that they would have been sent the links to the relevant AM policies by the central EE team. You may also want to refer to our ‘Checklist of materials to send to External Examiners’, which includes the baseline as stated in the AM, but also further guidelines on what to send. This can be found under the ‘Planning Toolkit’ section of our website: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/srs/academic-policy-and-quality-assurance/external-examining/planning-toolkit-board-teams.

Q2.28: ‘Did you receive External Examiners' reports and any responses from the previous year?’ Please note that the requirement to send EEs the previous year’s EE report and departmental response does not just apply to new EEs. Existing EEs should also be sent their report and departmental response (even though they also receive this when we ‘close’ the report)).

ACTION: In advance of the BoE, please send all your EEs the EE reports and departmental responses from the previous year.

Q2.30: ‘Were you given access to the Virtual Learning Environment (i.e. Moodle)?’. AND
Q2.31: ‘Were you given access and guidance to AssessmentUCL our digital assessment platform? If the samples of work were handled differently by the department, please state this in Q3.05 below’.

Not all EEs are required to have access to these platforms, as they are provided the relevant information by other means. Please ensure that they are aware of this. We have changed Q2.31 to: ‘Where modules are on AssessmentUCL, our digital assessment platform, were you given access and guidance to it?’.

Assigning modules to External Examiner on Portico

In preperation for Boards of Examiners we will ask you to link modules on Poritco to your External Examiners. This is completed as a part of our annual Pre-Board Task excercise. Contact the Student Lifecycle team: lifecycle@ucl.ac.uk if your module is not appearing on the Board, providing the correct Board of Examiners code.

Llinking_Modules_to_EE.pdf

Checklist of materials to send to External Examiners

We recommend that you send relevant information to your External Examiner at the start of and during each academic year. We have created a checklist for Board teams to help with this task.

Please note this list is not exhaustive and you may need to add additional items depending on the Programme structure.

Checklist of information to send to External Examiners

Assigning Board Roles to Staff

To check your Board roles, in Portico go to the Board of Examiners container (within Awards, Assessments and Achievements tab). Click into the relevant Board, and check on the people assigned to the roles of Chair, Deputy Chair, Admin 1, Admin 2. If anyone is listed under multiple roles please rectify this by removing them from the incorrect role and (where applicable) adding in the correct person. Details of how to do this are provided below. Please note that every Board requires all four positions to be filled.

This role restriction relates to Board of Examiners container on Portico and not exam board tasks relating to Awards and Progression which fall within Student Records Team’s remit.

Chair and Deputy Chair changes:

NB: Please note that there has been a change to the process of nominating and appointing new Chairs and Deputy Chairs.

HoDs, instead of the outgoing Chair, will now nominate new Chairs and Deputy Chair’s, and will notify the Faculty team. The Faculty BoEs will approve and process the Change of Chair and Deputy Chair using the 'Appoint a Chair or Deputy Chair' task on Portico. There is no longer a need to email examiners@ucl.ac.uk about the change, and you should instead inform the Faculty team, who will approve the change and update Portico.

To Appoint a Chair or Deputy Chair to a Board of Examiners

Admin changes for Board Admin 1 and 2:

DMs, ELOs and current Board Administrators can access the ‘Appoint administrator to board’ task through the Board of Examiners container on Portico within the Awards, Assessments and Achievements tab. Faculty colleagues who have access to the External Examining Portico tasks will also be able to use this function as required to make necessary changes.

Entering BoE dates

Annual report links to External Examiners are triggered by the final BoE Meeting date you record on Portico, so it’s important that we have accurate information well in advance of the Board meeting.

Entering_BoE_Dates_.pdf