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Traditionally the role of the external examiners in UK universities or more formally Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) is that of quality assurance (QA). Typically, an experienced academic who is not affiliated with the HEI (i.e., someone from another university) is invited to act as an external examiner for a particular course or a module. The external examiner’s primary role is to provide impartial and independent advice to ensure academic standards are upheld for a degree program; and that the degree is comparable with similar programs across the country and that the achievements of students are also comparable with students on courses at other universities. This primary role makes external examiners highly valued people in UK universities, and as a result, their views are nearly always taken seriously. Over and above this recognized primary role of QA, external examiners can also be engaged by the host university in other ways. These additional roles or tasks of the external examiner can help enhance teaching and learning in higher education. This chapter will reflect on the range of roles, including the ones that go beyond QA.

This study compares quality assurance across two case studies in the UK; a commercial organization operating in the private sector and a university. Case Study A is a private education organization specializing in the delivery of business and management programs. Case Study B is a university that delivers courses across four academic schools and through a number of partnerships. The business school offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in business management, economics, accounting, events, tourism, marketing, entrepreneurialism, and human resources. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 organizational members from across the two organizations including 8 academics/tutors, 6 of whom are also employed as external examiners and/or external quality assurers (EQAs). The study compares the remit of both EQA working on behalf of awarding bodies and external examiners working on behalf of universities. The EQA role is conceptualized as an “arbiter of standards” whereas the external examiner is more likely to be considered as “critical friend.” This variance in conception has important implications for the way the process of quality assurance is conducted and utilized in support of program and institutional development. The research finds that one of the most significant differences between quality assurance processes in Case Studies A and B is the way in which student feedback is collected and utilized to support and enhance the process of review. This chapter provides recommendations designed to capitalize on the value of the quality assurance process through greater alignment of teaching and assessment strategy and policies and procedures in practice.

The primary roles of external examiners at the University of Mauritius (UoM) are to assist the university in ensuring that degrees awarded meet international standards, that assessment is valid, and that procedures and arrangements for assessment, examinations, and determination of awards are sound and conducted rigorously, fairly, reliably, and consistently. External examiners come from a wide range of highly reputed institutions across the globe and the UoM has a set of external examining policies that act as a guide to external examiners. At the end of their visit, the external examiners submit their signed reports to the Vice-Chancellor. The reports, which include their concerns, are circulated to all administrators and academic staff for their review and analysis. Analysis of the external examiners’ reports (UoM, 2016–2019) reveal that 28% of the UoM external examiners come from the UK, 39% were from South Africa, and the remaining 33% from Australia, India, and other European countries. Overall, 98% of external examiners have rated the UoM programs as average and above compared to institutions where they had experience of external examining. The contributions of external examiners are highly valued in the continued growth of the new vision of the institution aspiring to be a research-engaged and entrepreneurial institution.

Using an external examiner in an institution is not a new phenomenon; the evidence of having an outsider to scrutinize the quality control process has been prevalent since the 1800s. However, the concept has undergone considerable changes and has been subjected to mounting criticism and validity of the process. There are several challenges that are faced by institutions in recruiting and defining the role of external examiners and the assumption that they are assessment literate. Universities are engaged in safeguarding the procedure, and at the same time, enhancing the quality standards. Researchers have been collaborating to create best practices and working on key developments that would ensure that degree standards are maintained in higher education. There is no “one size fits all” guidelines, but hiring an external examiner with the view to safeguarding academic quality is the prevalent norm across the globe. The book on the role of external examiners put forth such challenges and best practices by academia in various parts of the world. Authors have written about how to mitigate disadvantages and how to create opportunities without compromising the quality assurance process. International standards have been discussed with the view to make external examining a rigorous process that is fair, reliable and consistent.

The purpose of this paper is to review and identify changes in systems of external examinations in Denmark, the UK and Norway.

Comparative analysis of studies, reviews and documents concerning the purpose and functioning of systems of external examination in three selected countries.

The paper concludes that systems of external examinations are being transformed from a focus on student performance to a focus on programme quality and coherence in all three countries studied.

The paper shows that older and newer forms of quality assurance are becoming more integrated with the potential of creating quality assurance procedures addressing teaching and learning issues more directly.

Much attention has been given to newer forms of external quality assurance schemes. More traditional forms of quality assurance have, as a consequence, received less attention although they may still provide benefits to higher education.

External examining activity is a recognized indicator of subject expertise and peer esteem. It also evidences understanding of quality assurance, course, and assessment design. As such, it contributes to the enhancement of an academic CV and may impact on promotion and career prospects. Fair access to external examining opportunities is thus an equity issue for universities. In the context of race equality, where both staff and students of color in academia show consistently differential outcomes to their White counterparts, professional development can mitigate disadvantage, especially where it is focused on access to opportunity. Professional development for external examiners has been an underdeveloped area but the recent establishment in the UK of the Degree Standards Project has begun to address this. The authors propose that there is nevertheless a gap in provision to support academics who aspire to become external examiners but who have had no previous experience. This chapter describes an institutional initiative to promote access to initial external examining roles through professional development and reports on participant outcomes. Evaluation data suggest that an approach such as this can help with obtaining a first appointment and may help to mitigate some of the barriers of access to external examiner roles for staff of color. The authors argue that the sector urgently needs to diversify the ethnicity of the external examiner pool in order to provide an essential critical lens which could impact on the equity of degree outcomes for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic students.

A key role of the external examiner is to review student work submitted for assessment plus the feedback and grading undertaken on that work by academic staff. The aim of this is to ensure equitability between the assessments of individual students’ achievement and consistency and comparability across courses throughout the program and with commensurate study levels and programs at other institutions, whilst safeguarding academic standards. The variety of assessment-types that an external examiner may review can be diverse. When the primary focus of the work being assessed is tangible, such as with written examinations or assignments, external examiners are able to view student achievements and assessor actions through a lens comparable to that of the original assessors. However, this process cannot adequately capture assessment-types where the only evidence is proxies to the original achievement. In this chapter, the authors explore the concept of authentic assessments, the benefits of incorporating them within study programs, identify challenges pertaining to their presence to holistic quality assurance (QA) processes in general, and the role of the external examiner in particular. The authors will demonstrate how adopting non-intrusive technologies for recording and verifying authentic assessment practices can strengthen the QA process for the benefit of all stakeholders. For illustration, a case study is employed to demonstrate how these challenges have been tackled regarding performance-based authentic assessments at an institution in Norway. The chapter concludes with a summary plus a call to arms for further research into how quality and consistency can be assured when authentic assessments are employed.

The external examiner is the backbone of the system for PhD awards in the UK. Yet, when external examining is discussed in the abstract, the examiner is often seen as a villain who victimizes poor, helpless students. The assumption frequently seems to be that if students complain about the examining process, their view is automatically justified against the examiner. This paper draws on extensive personal experience, both in chairing research examinations and in being an external PhD examiner, to present the other side of the coin: the perspective of the examiner. It concludes with seven recommendations to improve the present system of PhD examining.

The external examiner (EE) is the most important arbiter of whether a student’s submission earns the research degree for which it is entered. Based largely on personal experience as a research degree examiner and administrator, suggests that there are two main characteristics that should be required of any potential external examiner: they should be sufficiently aware of the intellectual frontiers of their subject that they can judge whether the thesis makes a contribution to knowledge or scholarship sufficient to justify the award; and they should also be mature adults, of enough humanity to ensure that the examination process is a worthwhile and developmental experience for the candidate, irrespective of the outcome. Argues that there are thus two principles that underlie the successful selection of an external examiner (EE): institutions should have carefully constructed regulations defining the qualifications and experience expected of the EE, and a scrutiny framework sufficient to ensure that they are followed; and supervisory teams have a duty to prepare and inform themselves well in advance of the selection of external examiners. Ways in which these principles can be made effective will be discussed and current practice at Nottingham Trent University outlined.

The Flemish Examination Centre designed an intervention to establish a professional learning community on the topic of writing assessment. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of this intervention and explain how this intervention succeeded in establishing a professional learning community.

A mixed method design was used to answer the research questions. Quantitative analysis of comparative judgement data provided insight into the effects of the intervention. More specifically was analysed whether examiners judged more in line after the intervention. Qualitative analysis of the conversations within the intervention served to examine how interdependent examiners behaved in the professionalisation exercises and to gain insight into how a professional learning community was established.

The analysis showed that the intervention of the Flemish Examination Centre facilitated the formation of a professional learning community. This was visible in the quantitative analysis. The qualitative analysis showed that highly interdependent activities were helpful in establishing the professional learning community.

This study shows that interactions of high interdependence are beneficial to facilitate professional learning communities.

This study shows that the assessment data can guide a well-thought out design of interventions to establish professional learning communities among assessors. Assessment data can be a guidance for supportive group constellations and discussions to improve assessment practices. The key in this regard lies in the level of interdependence that is created among participants.