Examiners prepared to resign

Almost a quarter of external examiners at Worcester University are threatening to resign over the university's plans to counteract the exams and marking boycott, writes Phil Baty.

Worcester wrote to all 140 of its external examiners last week, outlining its contingency plans to allow students to progress or graduate despite the refusal of lecturers' union Natfhe to mark exams and other assessments.

The letter outlines plans to appoint alternative markers and invigilators for exams and to "vary normal procedures which relate to double marking and other internal moderation".

Tony Ward, of Newman College of Higher Education in Birmingham and external examiner for psychology, replied to the entire group of examiners making it clear that he refused to "condone strike breaking" and had concerns about the quality control implications of the plans.

He said he would resign if the university proceeded with the plans. He told The Times Higher that 32 examiners had followed suit, representing almost 25 per cent of the group.

He said: "The threat by more than a fifth of the external examiners to resign if the university continues with its plans to use alternative markers and hold the threat of docking pay over colleagues' heads should alert vice-chancellors everywhere to the fact that academics are not going to collaborate in steamrollering these measures through."

A spokesperson for the university said: "We would not wish to comment on the position of individual external examiners. The university's academic board has approved a number of measures to mitigate the impact on our students of the industrial action being taken, which ensure that proper academic standards are maintained. These measures include the appointment of suitably qualified alternative markers."