External Examining - Key updates and tasks

**Key updates and tasks related to the External Examining activity – please cascade to relevant colleagues in faculty and department*
 

1. 24-25 AY Nominations deemed as late requests- submit now

• Reminder that All nominations and extensions require Faculty approval prior to submitting the MS Forms. Board and Faculty Teams must first discuss their nomination or extension request with the Faculty who must provide a rationale for the request. This rationale and confirmation from Faculty colleague should be included in the MS request form.
• For the straightforward nominations, we ask that Faculty are cognisant of and have agreed to the nomination. A brief rationale is required for nominations that conflict with the criteria for appointment or where a new EE position is being requested (other than for new programmes of study).
• For External Examiners still to be appointed for24-25 AY, please urgently submit nomination details through ‘External Examiner Details for Nomination Form’ with a clear rationale for the reason of the delayed request and support from Faculty.
• NB: For any late UG nominations, we will require their Right to Work evidence at the latest by 6 May. Please refer to your Department’s HR Contact for advice and read the HR guidance for acceptable Right to Work documentation and undertaking Right to Work verification checks. 
• If your EE will be on multiple Boards, it is advisable to submit a nomination for the UG level to ensure the Right to Work checks are conducted prior to the start of their appointment. We will then add the additional Board(s), especially PGT level Board, to their record once formally appointed

2. Check staff assigned to your Board of Examiners on Portico - action now

• Please ensure you have the correct staff appointed as Chair, Deputy Chair, Board Admin 1 and Board 2 on Board of Examiners container on Portico. There is no need to wait for the roll over to review and amend.
• If there are any changes prior to the board, make sure to update this on Portico now to avoid any delays in BoE arrangements. There is no need to wait for the roll over to review and amend details.
• The Faculty Education Team can support in this area for Board Chair/Deputy Chair changes and Admin changes can be managed at the Board level.
• Please note that every Board requires all four positions to be filled with different named individuals (Chair, Deputy Chair, Admin 1, Admin 2). For more guidance on how to complete this step, please refer to Planning Toolkit for Board Teams. 

3. Portico view is still 2023-24 AY – roll over in May

• The External Examining activity is still in the 2023/24 AY stage as we close off the tasks for 23/24 which primarily include Departmental Responses to External Examiners annual reports.
• Once all tasks are completed, around early May we will aim to roll over the Data Hub to reveal the 2024/25 AY. Only after the roll over can colleagues complete the pre-Board tasks, assign modules to External Examiners etc. Please do not attempt to do these tasks until we have contacted you to let you know that the Data Hub is ready.
• An example of this is where External Examiners appointed to start their term in 2024/25 appear as ‘Future’ and those who have already finished in 2023/24 still appear as ‘Current’. This will change once the data has rolled over and EEs will appear as Current and Historic accordingly.  

4. Reminder - EE Queries directed via the Faculty Education Teams

• Reminder of item published in October and January, Academic Policy, Quality and Standards team (APQS), underwent a restructure and now operates as a Faculty Liaison Team model. As part of this change, how we review queries relating to External Examining activity has changed.
• In the first instance, Boards teams should contact your own Faculty for advice. Faculty Education Teams are directly in touch with us and can collate queries to bring to us through the Faculty Liaison model.

Please refer to the External Examining webpage for further guidance (screen shots included for certain tasks): Planning Toolkit for Board Teams

Contact details for further information: 

• Contact your Faculty Education Team in the first instance who can collate queries to bring to us through the Faculty Liaison model.
• externalexaminers@ucl.ac.uk may be used for urgent Portico link queries or any issues unresolved at the Faculty level.