Extract from the University's Role and Responsibilities policy document. (available in full here)

 
N.B. “Award External” is used where the responsibilities are only those of the Award External Examiner
“Module External “is used where the responsibilities are only those of the Module External
Where responsibilities are those of both Award and Module external examiners, the term “External Examiner” is used.
Introduction
 
1.      The University of Essex has two types of External Examiners, whose roles may be summarised as follows:
 
(a)        Award External Examiners.  Award External Examiners have overarching responsibility for the standards of the awards to which they are assigned.  They are required to attend Boards of Examiners for those awards.   Award External Examiners will also be Module External Examiners for the modules in the awards to which they are assigned, but not for any modules to which a separate Module External Examiner is assigned.
 
(b)        Module External Examiners.  Module External Examiners have responsibility for ensuring the standard of any particular modules to which they are assigned, and will be appointed for their specialist subject knowledge.  They do not attend Boards of Examiners unless they are also Award External Examiners.
 
2.      The responsibility for approval of the appointment of External Examiners lies with the Dean of the appropriate Faculty or of Academic Partnerships.
 
3.      The External Examiner System is governed by Ordinance 45 of the University of Essex
 
4.      The names and home institutions of external examiners will be published to students in online course information and handbooks.
 
 
Principles governing the role of the Award External Examiners and Module External Examiners
 
1)     Every taught award of the University shall have an Award External Examiner. 
 
2)     All modules that contribute to an award must be allocated to an External Examiner.  Responsibility for individual modules must not be allocated to more than one External, but an Award External may have overarching responsibility for this module as part of an award.
 
3)     Any one award should not have more than one Award External Examiner. In the case of Joint or Multi-disciplinary awards one Award External should be appointed from the lead department and at least one Module External should be appointed from the other department(s).  Exceptions to these principles may be made in special circumstances with the approval of the Dean, in discussion with the PVC (Academic Standards).
 
4)     An Award External is appointed to a degree course (or group of cognate degree courses) and any associated sub-degree awards and shall also be responsible for a reasonable proportion of the modules which comprise that award.
 
5)     Where appropriate (e.g. Joint or Multi-disciplinary awards), the department will arrange for liaison between the Award External Examiner and the External(s) responsible for the relevant modules that they have not had responsibility for, in order that the Award External Examiner may be assured that there are no areas of concern which might affect the overall quality and standard of the award. For awards where this is not possible (e.g. Areas awards) the external will have the right to see a sample of work for the purposes of duties A1 and A2 (below) only.
 
6)     External examiners shall normally be appointed for a period of up to four years by the relevant Dean, under powers delegated by the Council, receiving nominations from the departments or partner institutions concerned.   Exceptionally, an extension of one year may be granted to ensure continuity.  Appointments may be terminated with two months' notice by either party except in the case of breach of contract, or where a conflict of interest comes to light, when a contract may be terminated immediately following completion of the termination procedures.    External examiners for taught awards may not be re-appointed for another taught award by the University within five years.


7)     Factors affecting the number and range of External Examiner appointments in a department include:
 
·        Workload - quantity of assessed material being examined;
·        Academic diversity of the provision;
·        Capacity of individuals to make competent judgements against external reference points, eg Framework for Higher Education Qualifications;
·        Professional, regulatory and statutory body requirements;
·        Joint and multidisciplinary courses;
·        Diversity of assessments, electronic delivery, performances/presentations, work-based learning.