External Examining Updates – Board Responses and External Examiner Appointments

Board Chairs response to External Examiner Reports

If you haven’t already submitted your departmental response to your External Examiner reports from the summer Board, please do so now.

Exam Board Chairs are responsible for ensuring that a departmental response is recorded on Portico within four weeks of the EE submitting their report. We will close any reports without responses on the 31^st October, so please make sure you have uploaded your response before that date (any reports without responses will need to provide offline responses).

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).

A response is also required for any issues flagged up in the quantitative questions (the questions in sections 1 & 2 with yes/no/NA answers).

Please ensure that your response is as detailed as possible includes:

1. Any further details on the EE recommendation that would be helpful to understanding the issue.
2. The action you will take
3. The person responsible
4. The timeframe for completion

Open reports can be found in the Portico Intray of the Board Administrators, Board Chair and Deputy Chair.

For further guidance around responding to External Examiner reports, please see our help page ‘Information for Board Teams: Annual Report and Responses FAQs’. You will also find a copy of the most recent annual report on the same page.

Guidance to EEs – we have created a section on our webpage with some guidance aimed at EEs which you can find here. Please flag this up to your EEs.  

Please note that External Examiner reports cannot be closed (i.e. finalised) until a departmental response has been entered. Once closed, reports and departmental responses are made available to the External Examiners (via html file), Staff and Students (via their Portico page).  

External Examiner Nominations and Appointments

For External Examiners starting in 24-25 AY, please submit nomination details through ‘External Examiner Details for Nomination Form’ as soon as possible so they are formally appointed by September 2024.

Please refer to Chapter 9, Section 4 of the Academic Manual for (Section 4.1) criteria for appointment and further guidance on the (Section 4.4.1) nomination and appointment process. There is also an useful checklist on the EE webpage on Nomination and Appointment.

Note on PGT and Late Summer Assessment (LSA) Boards reviewing assessments relating to 2023/24 AY.

***For PGT External Examiners (EE) in their final year***

PGT EEs complete their duties after the Final Board has met and therefore are still active for the current 2023/24 External Examining session for BoE meetings that occur during the coming Autumn term (2024). There is no need to request an extension for those External Examiners to complete the forthcoming PGT BoE meeting, even if this meeting takes place after 31st August 2024.

On Portico we are required to set up EEs to start on 1^st September YYYY for a four-year period to finish by 31^st August YYYY, however the PGT EEs are still valid for the Autumn term Boards. The Data Hub reflects the External Examining AY and not necessarily the current AY which may cause some confusion over the start and end dates of an EE.

***UG External Examiners (EE)***

Those EEs active in the Summer Boards are also the same ones for any LSA Board requirements. There is no need to appoint any new EEs for the LSA period even if on Portico their record shows they are finishing 31 August 2024.

Contact details for further information: externalexaminers@ucl.ac.uk