ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES GUIDELINES FOR CHAIRS OF BOARDS OF EXAMINERS. 1.1 Appointment of External Examiners for the New Academic Session

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1 UCL REGISTRY AND ACADEMIC SERVICES APPENDIX 37 ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES GUIDELINES FOR CHAIRS OF BOARDS OF EXAMINERS 1. Appointment of Examiners 1.1 Appointment of External Examiners for the New Academic Session External Examiners are appointed for a four year term, subject to annual confirmation of their continuation in appointment. External Examiners may have their term extended for a further academic session, subject to the approval of the Chair of the UCL Board of Examiners. It is the responsibility of the Chair of the Board of Examiners to nominate new External Examiners and confirm the continuation of External Examiners appointments for each new academic session. Chairs should initially approach the External Examiner and obtain their agreement in principle to act before a nomination is submitted or a continuation in appointment is confirmed. External Examiners Continuing in Appointment Chairs of Boards of Examiners will confirm that External Examiners are continuing in appointment annually. An examiner has the right not to seek continuation in appointment at any time during the period that they are eligible to serve and UCL has the right not to continue the appointment at any time during the period that the examiner is eligible to serve From October 2009, Chairs of Boards of Examiners, or their nominees, will confirm that an examiner is continuing in appointment by using an on-line form. Upon confirming that an examiner is continuing, the examiner will automatically receive an appointment letter and a number of attachments by including a link to the Regulations for Boards of Examiners for Taught Programmes, an annual report template, the extract from the regulations setting out the role and responsibilities of External Examiners and guidance about the payment of fees and expenses. When an examiner is not confirmed as continuing in appointment, for whatever reason, a new examiner should be nominated Chairs of Boards of Examiners may request UCL approval for an extension of the appointment of an External Examiner for one additional academic session by contacting examiners@ucl.ac.uk. Chairs should note that such a request will be forwarded to the Chair of the UCL Board of Examiners for consideration on a case-by-case basis. New External Examiners 1

2 1.1.5 For the academic session, Chairs of Boards of Examiners will be sent nomination forms for new External Examiners in the first week of October The nomination form should be completed in discussion with the nominee and submitted to the Curricular Development and Examiners Section, Registry and Academic Services. When nominating new External Examiners, Chairs are requested to consider the travelling distance involved from the nominee s place of residence to UCL, practicalities of travel and the likely costs to UCL in expenses, noting that from the academic session onwards, UCL Registry and Academic Services will pay up to a maximum of 400 for External Examiner expenses and any additional sums will be charged to the relevant department/ division. The appointment of overseas examiners should be avoided if at all possible Nominations for new External Examiners are approved by the appropriate Faculty Board of Examiners, by Chair s Action. It is therefore essential that the nomination form is signed by the Faculty Chair before the form is submitted to the Registry and Academic Services. The Registry and Academic Services makes the arrangements for the final stage of the approval process by presenting the nominations to the Chair of UCL Board of Examiners for approval by Chair s Action. It is the responsibility of the Chair of the Board of Examiners to ensure that the relevant bodies responsible for making approvals are provided with enough information on which to make an informed decision about the suitability of a nominee. Failure to complete the form in full or the omission of a Career Summary form may result in the nomination and appointment being delayed until the appropriate paperwork is received. Particular care should be taken to complete the nomination form in full. Chairs are encouraged to ensure that their forms are completed to give the full information required by UCL for Quality Assurance reasons. 1.2 Appointment of Internal Examiners Full Board Members Internal Examiners no longer need to be appointed via the Registry and Academic Services. Internal Examiners must be nominated by the Chair of the relevant Board(s) of Examiners. Chairs are requested to update lists of Internal Examiners for the current session as appropriate, sign the list and return it to their Faculty Office for the approval of the Faculty Board of Examiners, by the end of the Autumn Term (i.e. mid December). Internal Examiners do not receive a formal letter of appointment. Undertaking the responsibilities of an Internal Examiner is considered by UCL to be a normal part of the duties of members of academic staff, covered by the contract of employment which exists between UCL and the member of staff. Internal Examiners are not paid expenses in connection with their examining duties. 2

3 Assistant Examiners Assistant Examiners can be nominated and appointed at the same time as Full Board Members. However, it is recognised that the names of Assistant Examiners may not be known by the end of the first week of December. In these circumstances Assistant Examiners may be nominated at any time up until the end of the Spring Term of the year of acting. As a general rule, it is better to nominate persons who are likely to be needed as Assistant Examiners rather than to wait for this to be confirmed later in the year Assistant Examiners no longer need to be appointed via the Registry and Academic Services. Their names should be sent to the Faculty Office for appointment by the Faculty Board of Examiners (Chair s Action). 1.3 Appointment Letters Sent to External Examiners External Examiners will receive an annual letter of appointment from the Director of Student Services and the following documents will be attached: i. External Examiner s Report Form ii. Expenses Claim Form and accompanying Notes for Guidance iii. Notes on Responsibilities of External Examiners and Entitlement External Examiners will also be directed to the Regulations for Boards of Examiners for Taught Programmes on the Registry and Academic Services website at The Department /Division or Board of Examiners is requested to send its External Examiners the following: i. Name of Departmental/Divisional/Board contact (e.g. Examinations Liaison Officer). ii. Departmental/ Divisional booklet, such as Student Handbook and syllabus information. iii. Composition of the Board of Examiners (e.g. number of Internal Examiners, any interdepartmental involvement). iv. Number and subject area of other External Examiners appointed to the Board. v. Scheme for the award of Honours (if applicable) or scheme of assessment used in determining other awards. vi. Marking scheme for individual papers (when known). vii. Date(s) of meetings of Board of Examiners to which the External Examiner is invited (when known). viii. Outline of procedures of Board of Examiners (e.g., point of contact for External Examiner, time allowed for marking, procedures for setting and scrutinising papers). 3

4 1.3.3 All correspondence relating to External Examiners, their work and appointment, should be treated as confidential; envelopes should be marked as such by both Chairs and External Examiners. 2. Chairs Of Boards Of Examiners 2.1 It is the responsibility of outgoing Chairs, in consultation with their Head of Department and the proposed new Chair, to decide on their successors. Both Chair and Deputy must be full members of the Board. 2.2 The normal period for which a member of UCL staff is expected to act as Chair of the same Board of Examiners is a minimum of three academic years. All changes of Chairs of Boards of Examiners should be notified to the Registry and Academic Services on the Notification of Change of Chair form and on the list of Internal Examiners submitted to the Faculty. The Registry and Academic Services will continue to send correspondence to the individual previously acting as Chair until informed by submission of the form of the name and Department/ Division of the successor. All changes have to be endorsed by the Head of Department/ Division and approved by the Chair of the UCL Board of Examiners (or nominee) for Quality Assurance purposes. 2.3 It is the responsibility of out-going Chairs to conclude all matters related to the last academic year for which they were Chair of the Board, even if these matters cannot be dealt with until the new academic year has started. This includes the appointment of External Examiners for the coming year. The incoming Chair may deal with the appointment of External Examiners in consultation with the out-going Chair but it should not be merely assumed that the successor will deal with this. 2.4 Chairs of Boards of Examiners do not receive a formal letter of appointment. Undertaking the responsibilities of a Chair of a Board of Examiners is considered by UCL to be a normal part of the duties of senior members of academic staff, given by the Head of Department/ Division concerned and is covered by the contract of employment which exists between UCL and the member of staff. 3. External Examiners Fees From the academic session, in most cases, all graduate and undergraduate taught programme External Examiners will receive a fee for their professional services calculated by: The number of students examined per module X The total number of ECTS1 per students 0.22 per ECTS 1 European Credit Transfer Scheme (established as part of Bologna activities) 4

5 + The basic fee for attending Boards of Examiners meetings and any other meetings as required Appointment Procedures 3.2 Examiners will be sent a Letter of Appointment for their professional services together with a template for their Annual Report and an expenses claim form. The Annual Report template can also be obtained from: Payment and Inland Revenue 3.3 Examiners qualify for payment when they submit their report to UCL. Submitted reports will be acknowledged by UCL and accompanied by a Notification of Payment that sets out the fee they will be paid for their professional services. The information noted on the Notification of Payment will be processed as an invoice. Invoices will be settled by UCL Finance Division by cheque. Examiners should note that they receive a gross sum paid by cheque and that they are responsible for the payment of any sum owed to the Inland Revenue. 4. External Examiners Expenses 4.1 An Expenses Claim Form and accompanying Notes for Guidance, which detail current expenses rates and allowances, are sent to all External Examiners with their letter of appointment. Further copies of the form can be downloaded from: External Examiners should submit their expenses claims, with the receipts requested in the guidelines, directly to the Registry and Academic Services. Payment will be authorised as soon as the claim is checked, and the payment dispatched. To avoid delay in payment, External Examiners should not submit their expenses claims to the Department/ Division concerned unless specifically requested to do so, nor should Departments/ Division pay External Examiners from their own funds, unless this has been agreed beforehand for particular reasons and with the approval of the Chair of the UCL Board of Examiners. Departments/ Divisions may be asked to contribute to the costs of an External Examiner s expenses if those expenses exceed the limits set out in UCL s policies and rules (see below). 4.3 In accordance with UCL s Financial Regulations, claims may not be processed without full receipts. The Finance Division has informed the Registry and Academic Services that the Inland Revenue does not allow expenses to be reimbursed free of tax where the only evidence of the incurred expense is a credit card transaction counterfoil. Chairs should ensure that External Examiners are aware of this Financial Regulation. 5

6 4.4 The Registry and Academic Services may only authorise expenses incurred in accordance with the approved UCL policy and rubric. Expenses incurred in excess of the amounts stated will be referred to the Department/ Division concerned which may be asked to pay the excess balance. 4.5 External Examiners expenses for the MBBS will be reimbursed by the Royal Free and University College Medical School Administration, in accordance with the general UCL policy. 4.6 Expenses claims are not subject to Income Tax as expenses are not earned income for Income Tax purposes. It is therefore important that all claims are supported by receipts. 4.7 Cheques will be dispatched by the Accounts Department, Finance Division, usually within two weeks of the form being received at the Registry and Academic Services. 5. External Examiners Reports 5.1 All External Examiners are required to complete and submit an annual report on the External Examiner s Report Form within one month of the final Examination Board. External Examiners should ensure that the completed annual report forms are returned to the Director of Student Services, Registry and Academic Services, and not to Department/ Division or Chairs of Boards of Examiners. External Examiners should be asked to complete both sections of the report, submitting both their comments on programme content and the examination process (section 1), and completing the tick boxes on Examination Arrangements (section 2). 5.2 External Examiners will only be sent their fee when their report is received in the Registry and Academic Services. The Registry and Academic Services will copy the report to both the Chair of the Examination Board concerned and the Chair of the appropriate Faculty. Note will be made of any issues requiring comment in the Faculty Chair s Annual Report on the examination process. Where an External Examiner makes comments which have implications for UCL as a whole, the report will also be copied to the Chair of the UCL Board of Examiners. The Registry will handle the initial scrutiny of reports and decide if they should be copied to the Chair of the UCL Board of Examiners. Feedback from the UCL Board of Examiners on External Examiners comments will be sent to the Faculty Board of Examiners for onward transmission with any of its own comments to the Department/ Division. It is the responsibility of the Chair of the Examination Board to pass on the feedback to the External Examiner. 5.3 External Examiner s fees are not authorised for payment until the final report is received by the Registry and Academic Services. 6

7 5.4 External Examiners should be aware that, under the terms of the 1998 Data Protection and Human Rights Act, any data subject, whether a student or staff member, referred to in an External Examiner s report has a right to see the relevant excerpt from that report provided that (i) information relating to other data subjects is not disclosed and (ii) the author of the report gives permission. Refusal of permission could be contested by the data subject. Any queries should be made to the Data Protection Officer. 5.5 It is essential that UCL has a full set of External Examiner s reports for each programme for Quality Assurance purposes. The following procedure will be followed to chase reports which are not received within one month of the final Board of Examiners: (i) A standard letter from the Examiners Policy Manager will be sent no earlier than six weeks after the end of the undergraduate examination period and no earlier than six weeks after the final Boards of Examiners for Taught Master s programmes. (ii) If that letter is unsuccessful in producing a response, the Chair of the UCL Board of Examiners will write to the External Examiner to ask for the Report, and that letter will be copied to the Chair of the Faculty Board of Examiners concerned and the Chair of the Board of Examiners at programme level. If the second letter is unsuccessful in eliciting the Report, the Chair of the UCL Board of Examiners will contact the Chair of the Faculty Board of Examiners and the Chair of the Board of Examiners at programme level and may recommend that continuation of the External Examiner s appointment is not confirmed for the next academic year. 6. Chair s Annual Report on the Examination Process 6.1 All Chairs of Boards of Examiners are required to submit a report on the examination process annually to the Faculty Board of Examiners. This should address positive as well as negative issues and should be copied to the Registry and Academic Services and, where applicable, the UCL Board of Examiners. 6.2 All Chairs have to submit an Annual Report to the Chair of their Faculty Board of Examiners, copied to the Registry and Academic Services. This should take the form of a typed commentary drawing attention to the following points: The dates and numbers of members of the Board present at each meeting throughout the year, including confirmation that the approved Chair or Deputy Chair conducted the meeting, together with mention of any other persons present and their relationship to the Board Comments on the examination process during the year 7

8 A response to each External Examiner s comments, both positive as well as negative, a response to the comments of the Faculty Representative present at the meeting and details of any departmental/ divisional responses implemented and/or planned Comments on any cases of examination irregularity and plagiarism Comments and any critical reflection on administrative matters and procedures It is the responsibility of Faculty Chairs to ensure that Departmental/ Divisional Boards within their remit provide feedback to their External Examiners. The UCL Board of Examiners has provided written guidance on the sort of information required to assist with monitoring. This information is set out at the end of this Appendix. Reports on undergraduate programmes should be submitted by the end of September in the session following the session examined. Reports on graduate programmes should be submitted by the end of the second week in January. Chairs should observe the deadlines even where External Examiners reports are outstanding. 7. Faculty Chair s Annual Report on the Examination Process 7.1 The Chair of each Faculty Board of Examiners is required to make an annual report to the UCL Board of Examiners. The reports should detail actions taken in response to issues raised by External Examiners in their reports as well as the conduct of the examination process in the Faculty. It is recommended that the reports are completed in spread sheet format. A report on undergraduate programmes should be submitted to the Examiners Policy Manager in time for the meeting of UCLBE in the middle of the first term and a report on postgraduate programmes for the meeting of UCLBE in the middle of the second term. 7.2 The Chair of Faculty Board of Examiners reports will take the form of a commentary drawing attention to the following points: Issues of particular relevance from the report of Chair of the Board of Examiners at programme level. The Chair of the Faculty Board of Examiners will also confirm that the report has been received and contains the information required, as detailed in the above guidelines for the report of the Chair of the Board (at programme level). The response of the Department/ Division and/or Faculty to the comments received from External Examiners in their reports Any relevant remarks on the response of the Chair of the Board of Examiners at programme level to each External Examiner s comments and any response to the comments of the Faculty Representative present at the meeting of the Board of Examiners 8

9 Minutes of the Faculty Board of Examiners may be referred to as appropriate, but should not be attached to the report, as these are supplied separately to the UCL Board of Examiners. FACULTY MONITORING OF EXTERNAL EXAMINERS To be completed by the Department/ Division and included in or with reports sent to the Faculty. Has a response been sent to the external examiners on issues raised on the Report Forms? Possible answers: Yes/No If No, why not? Have external examiners been provided with the Chair s Report? Possible answers: Yes/No If No, why not? Have the minutes of the last Board meeting been sent to the external examiners? Possible answers: Yes/No If No, why not? Have any Report Forms not yet been received? Please indicate which are outstanding. Have comments made by the Faculty in the previous session been conveyed back to the relevant external examiners? Possible answers: Yes/No/No comments to relay If No, why not? 9

10 Have comments made by the UCL Board of Examiners in the previous session been conveyed back to the relevant external examiners? Possible answers: Yes/No/No comments to relay If No, why not? 10