Uniform rules designed to end "wide variations" in the roles, responsibilities and powers of universities' external examiners are to be imposed by 2001 amid
concerns that some universities are using externals for window dressing.
The Quality Assurance Agency is consulting senior university managers on a code of practice that sets 17 "precepts" governing the role of external examiners. The rules will spell out exactly what is expected of an external examiner, give guidance on their appointment and induction and say how much weight an institution should give to their views.
The rules, to be published next year after QAA board approval in November, follow revelations in The THES that have sparked debate about how seriously external examiners are taken.
In one case, an external examiners' meeting at Stirling University was allowed to go ahead in the absence of the externals. In another, Gordon Pearson, an external for Staffordshire University, resigned when his concerns about student plagiarism were overruled by the university's exam board. Dr Pearson said peer review would fail unless the sector established the role of examiners on a consistent basis.
The QAA warns in the foreword to the code: "There is wide variation between institutions in the detail of their practices for external examining. This code seeks to ensure that ... a UK-wide basis exists for the security of the standards of the awards of individual institutions."
The code states that externals should report on the standards of student performance and on the comparability of the standards in other UK higher education institutions; should determine whether the university's standards "are appropriate for its awards", and should indicate how far assessment, examination and awarding have been fairly conducted.
Universities should establish clearly the exact roles, powers and responsibilities assigned to externals, setting down their ability to overrule internal examiners, to demand re-marking and to make final decisions in cases of cheating. The code calls for clarification of the weight of an external's signature on documents, to end "wide variation in practice in this respect".
The code calls for strictly defined policies governing the nomination and appointment of externals to safeguard against conflicts of interest and rules that universities should make provision for the proper training and induction of externals.
Although the QAA says its code is "not intended to be prescriptive or exhaustive", institutions' adherence to the rules will form part of the QAA's quality assurance reviews.
"With effect from 2001, QAA will assume that institutions will be in a position to demonstrate how they are meeting the expectations contained in the precepts of this code."