5.4 External examiners' reports
All External Examiners are required to complete an annual report commenting on the appropriateness of the standards of the assessments that they have examined. The annual report form addresses the relevant sections of the UK Quality Code, Chapter B7: External Examining.
Registry officially requests that the External Examiners submit an annual report directly to the Deans at external@st-andrews.ac.uk no later than 30 June (for undergraduate) or 31 October (for taught postgraduate) programmes.
External Examiners who reach the end of their period of office, will be asked to provide an overview of their term of office.
External Examiners are asked to comment on the assessment processes and comparability of standards with other similar Universities of which the External Examiner has experience. An opportunity will also be given to highlight any examples of promising practice or areas of concern.
5.4.1 Action in response to External Examiner reports
Once the Annual Reports have been submitted, Registry copies them to the relevant Head of School.
Heads of Schools have responsibility for ensuing that mechanisms exist to handle reports and that appropriate action is taken on the comments received. Heads of Schools must respond to the reports no later than 31 August (for undergraduate) or 30 November (for taught postgraduate) programmes. The Head of School must indicate any action taken as a result of the report and/or reasons for not accepting particular recommendations or actions.
A summary of External Examiners’ comments and the appropriate action taken by Heads of Schools are considered by the Academic Monitoring Group during the annual academic monitoring process. Any reports which make particularly serious or important comments or which raise issues of wider significance for the University are immediately considered by the Deans and Vice-Principal (Proctor) and action taken.
External Examiner reports are also considered as part of the periodic internal review process for learning and teaching.
Before the start of each academic year, all External Examiners receive an annual letter from the Vice-Principal (Proctor) summarising any changes in policies that might affect them, and University-wide issues raised in their reports and resulting actions taken by the University at a Faculty and institutional level.
5.4.2 Non completion of report
Registry will send reminders to those External Examiners who have not submitted by the given deadline. If the report is still not received within a reasonable timescale then the matter will be referred to the relevant Head of School. No fee payment will be released until the report has been received.