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Find regular key updates to the External Examining processes and an overview of the emails sent to Board Teams and External Examiners. Updated January 2026
Key Updates
Reminder of Board tasks for 2024-25 AY
Responses on Portico to Summer Exam Board External Examiner reports
- Responses were due on Portico by 31st October and the summer reports have now been closed. For reports closed without a Board response, colleagues are now asked to submit offline responses directly to their External Examiner and make these available to students via a relevant channel (such as Moodle). A list of reports requiring ‘off-line’ responses will be submitted to the Quality and Standards Committee (QSC) and faculty colleagues will be asked to report back on these reports. For further guidance around responding to External Examiner reports, please see our help page ‘Information for Board Teams: Annual Report and Responses FAQs’.
PGT Board tasks for 2024-25 AY
- BoE dates and module assignments
For remaining Boards, colleagues are requested to urgently enter BoE dates on Portico and check the correct module is assigned to the External Examiner if this has not been done. For more guidance on these tasks, please refer to Resources for Faculty and Board Teams.
- External Examiners term
Please check all your External Examiners’ term and those finishing in 2024-25 Academic Year have been thanked and if required, a replacement found. Refer to the criteria and nomination guidance in the Academic Manual and submit the nomination form as soon as possible so the incoming EE is in place for this term for 2025-26 AY.
NB: Let us know as soon as possible if your Board is not running or if there are any changes to the External Examiner's term.
3. Reports and Responses
PGT reports are due within a month of the Board meeting and colleagues are asked to remind their External Examiners to submit the report in a timely manner. Board teams should enter a response to the entire report on Portico within a month of receipt. A named individual, specific actions and a timeframe is required in the response. Please note that a response is still required even if the report is entirely positive i.e. to thank the External Examiner for their report). Please enter your final response on Portico at the latest by 15th February 2026. APQS will close all open reports by end of February.
We’ve taken on Board feedback reviewed how the UG round went, and have made the following refinements to the process:
Essential Recommendation (relating to Central system / service)
- Where an Essential Recommendation raises an issue arising from a centrally provided system or service, APQS will request a response from the relevant central team and add it to the report on Portico. Departments should also include, where relevant, a response about how the issue was addressed locally.
- Faculty to submit a response to those essential recommendations deemed as a risk to standards where the risk is within the gift of the Faculty to address and work with Board teams to submit a final response on Portico.
- If an Advisable or Desirable Recommendation relates to a centrally provided system or service, the departmental response should outline how the issue was managed and what steps were taken to escalate it at Faculty or central level.
Extracted from the process update email shared in May 2025 | ||
APQS | FET | Board team |
Provide Faculty with a response to essential recommendations where these are caused by a centrally provided system or service and request a faculty and department response.
| Submit a Faculty response to those recommendations deemed as a risk to standards where the risk is within the gift of the Faculty to address and work with Board teams to submit a final response on Portico. | Work with Faculty and programme colleagues to provide a full response on Portico to those recommendations deemed as risk to standards. |
Communications
Welcome message to External Examiners
Updates on External Examining activity and tasks for 25-26 AY
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 your External Examiners to support them through the process, or let them know if you are not using these platforms.