In this Section:
External Examining
External Examining is one of the Academy's three Priority Areas for 2009/10.
The Engineering Subject Centre was an original member of the Higher Education Academy’s Working Group on External Examining. It was one of five Centres to establish a Register and has since commissioned a Teaching Guide in External Examining for academic staff. The Centre has also undertaken questionnaire-surveys with Heads of Department.
The Centre's work in external examining
The Centre’s work in external examining is twofold: to assist Heads of Department in finding new examiners, and in providing support to examiners during their term of appointment.
The Centre achieves this through:
- Controlled access to its register of external examiners
- The provision of resources in working with external examiners.
In order to inform this work, the Centre has used questionnaire-surveys sent to Heads of Department in their role as either the nominator or appointer of external examiners for degree programmes. The first survey (in 2005/6) established the current position of and practice in the external examining of engineering programmes at UK HEIs, and informed the Centre on the development of its Register. The second survey (in late 2009) is advising on forms of support, in particular for new and aspiring examiners, that can realistically be offered by the Centre. This is being undertaken with the STEM group of Subject Centres.
The Register
The Register gives the Head of Department at a UK HEI (who is also possibly an external examiner elsewhere in the UK) password-protected read-write access to a database of external examiners in engineering. The register provides names and the profile of already-practicing examiners, as well as the record of staff who are qualified and available to be examiners. Those registered as examiners are also given similar regulated access in order to update their own particulars.
It is possible to view all the available vacant positions for external examiners without registering; however, most benefit is to be gained by requesting your own user access. Please contact Simon Steiner for particulars on how to register.