Information for Internal Colleagues

External Examiners must be appointed for all provision leading to a higher education award, including those offered under franchise agreements or for validated programmes offered through collaboration with external partners.

The Nomination Process

The nomination of new external examiners must go through the following process:

1. Complete an external examiners nomination form - please look at the last page of the form for guidance on who can and cannot be appointed.
2. The nomination must be approved by the School Quality Panel before being submitted to Registry: externalexaminers@yorksj.ac.uk.
3. Registry will forward the nomination to the External Examiner Nomination Scrutiny Panel (a sub group of QSC, with approving powers on behalf of QSC), who will make a final decision.
4. The decision will be reported back to the School.

• External Examiner Nomination Form (DOC, 35.3kB)
• Collaborative Partner External Examiner Nomination Form (DOC, 79kB)

External Examiner are usually appointed for a period of four years. Exceptionally, e.g. where a programme will only be running for one further year, this cycle may be extended by one year.

The national context for External Examiners is provided by in the UK Quality Code Advice and Guidance: External Expertise (PDF, 1,4MB). The criteria for appointment is set out in the York St John Code of Practice for Assessment document and is included as an appendix to the nomination form itself.

Working with External Examiners

Academic Quality Support co-ordinate information for External Examiners.

York St John University External Examiners are provided with a clear guideline to their role and responsibilities when they start. National indicators set out in the UK Quality Code Advice and Guidance: External Expertise (PDF, 1,4MB) are also clearly referenced.

Responding to the External Examiner's Report

As a fundamental part of the University's system for monitoring academic standards, it is essential that External Examiners receive a written response to their report to outline how the programme/School/University will be responding to any issues raised.

To ensure that any concerns are addressed at the right level within York St John University, External Examiner reports are sent directly to the Registrar. Once received the reports are given a 'grade' by Academic Quality Support, which Schools will be notified of. This grade determines who will write the response to the External Examiner and where this should be approved, before it is sent back to the External Examiner for information. More details are available in the 'Procedure for Reviewing External Examiner Reports' document, which is listed along with the template for responses below.

• Process for the Annual Consideration of External Examiner Reports (PDF 0.3MB MB)
• Procedure for Reviewing External Examiner Reports (PDF, 96.8kB)
• Response to External Examiner Report (DOCx, 22.5B) - Template

The response to External Examiners report will be attached to the Annual Monitoring at the end of the year, as part of our monitoring process. Responses will be approved by QSC and sent to External Examiners by Registry.

External Examiner Reports and Our Students

In compliance with the UK Quality Code, External Examiners' reports must be shared in full with students. This is generally done  through Moodle.