External Examiner visits and meeting students
A consolidated taught course External Examiner policy has now been approved by Senate. This policy document does not include any changes in policy since 2024/25 and instead brings together all policy information into a single point for clarity and ease.
All policy information has been removed from these External Examiner webpages and can instead be found in the policy noted above. The remaining information present on these External Examiner webpages is guidance and supplementary information.
For the purposes of these webpages, and the taught course External Examiner policy, ‘department’ can be read as interchangeable with ‘school’ or other equivalent. ‘Partnerships’ are included under references to ‘departments’ unless a partnerships-specific note is included.
Please note that the policy and information on these webpages relates specifically to taught course External Examiners. For Postgraduate Research External Examiners, please see the Postgraduate Research webpages and contact pgresearch@essex.ac.uk with any queries.
External Examiner visits
External Examiners for internal University of Essex provision may be invited to visit campus by their link department.
This is typically a single visit in the first year of appointment to meet staff and students in person, and see facilities.
All campus visits must be approved in advance.
For departments
If you would like to arrange an External Examiner visit to campus you must first get approval by emailing external.examiner@essex.ac.uk. As part of this email, you must include:
- The rationale for the visit and how it will contribute to the External Examiner's work
- The estimated dates
- The estimated cost.
You must not arrange the visit with the External Examiner until approval has been granted.
Visits that occur without approval will not be paid from the QUAD budget.
For External Examiners
Your link department will contact you once they have received approval from QUAD to arrange the visit details.
We recommend that you double-check with your department that approval has been granted before any expenses are incurred.
The Quality and Academic Development team are not involved in the visit outside of arranging for approval and processing expense claims so all other queries about your visit should be directed to your link department.
Meeting with students
Students play an essential role in our quality assurance and enhancement processes at Essex. The University believes that it can be helpful for External Examiners to meet students as part of their role. The Quality Assurance Agency also encourages these meetings in their External Examining Principles.
These meetings both enhance the student understanding of the role of External Examiners and provides the External Examiners a valuable means of gathering feedback from across the course(s) they are responsible. This could be at either Award or module level.
Meeting with students can be difficult, especially as there is currently no compulsory requirement for External Examiners to attend the University in person. External Examiners are offered the opportunity to visit campus at least once during their appointment term and this visit could encompass meetings with students. However, Zoom or other video link resources can be used as an alternative during term time to facilitate virtual meetings.
For departments
Organising meetings
Student representatives should attend any meetings organised. Departments may wish to extend the invitation to all relevant students, but student representatives should always be included, where possible. Members of academic staff from the department may not influence or attend the meeting.
The Department should explain the purpose of the meeting and the role of the External Examiner to the students as part of the invite.
Indicative agenda
Whilst the meeting is to primarily seek feedback from students, it is recommended that some questions or themes are prepared in advance to help guide discussions and provide a more valuable feedback session.
External Examiners are encouraged to discuss any relevant issues, but may wish to consider:
- How useful students have found feedback on assignments
- Student experiences of year abroad, work-based and placement learning, and joint courses
- What the students are particularly enjoying or finding challenging
- Whether students feel they opportunities to apply what they have learnt
- Whether they feel the curriculum in inclusive
- Should the External Examiner be responsible for an End-point assessment module, they may wish to discuss experiences of this with the apprentice
Informing students
Departments/Schools should ensure that students are fully aware of the role that External Examiners play, and what their responsibilities entail. For example, it should be made clear to students that:
- External Examiners only advise on academic matters
Feedback on non-academic issues, such as parking or accommodation, should be voiced through the appropriate University channels.
- External Examiners cannot influence individual circumstances
External Examiners cannot and will not change or influence individual assessment marks, complaints or academic appeals, except under exceptional circumstances in accordance with the University’s policies.
Students must not contact External Examiners outside of the structured meeting. External Examiners will not respond to any students contacting them directly and will refer all such instances to their department contact.
Quality and Academic Development can support training for students in engagement with all quality processes. Additionally, advice can also be sought from the Students’ Union.
For External Examiners
If you are interested in meeting with students, please liaise with your link department to organise. Aside from providing this guidance, the Quality and Academic Development Team are not involved in student meetings or their organisation.
Please reflect on any student meetings you have had within the academic year in your annual report.
