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Silver, Harold; Stennett, Anne and Williams, Ruth (1995). The external examiner system: possible futures. QSC/HEQC.
Abstract
The Higher Education Quality Council (HEQC) commissioned the Quality Support Centre (QSC) of the Open University to undertake a project on the present effectiveness and future of the British external examiner system. The project team consisted of Professor Harold Silver, Professor Anne Stennett, and Ruth Williams. The work of the project was overseen by a Steering Group chaired by Professor Gareth Roberts, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield. The project commenced in February 1994 and was completed in March 1995.
The external examiner system has been seen as a key mechanism in British higher education for ensuring that standards are maintained and comparable across higher education. The two main traditional roles of the external examiner have been:
(i) to ensure that degrees awarded in similar subjects are comparable in standard across higher education institutions, and
(ii) to ensure that students are dealt with fairly in the system of assessment and classification.
However, recent changes in higher education have resulted in growing concerns about the way in which external examining now operates in a larger and more complex system of higher education. These changes have included:
• substantial increases in student numbers;
• a widespread introduction of modular programmes, semesters and other structural changes;
• new patterns of assessing students;
• new institutional and national quality assessment and assurance procedures.
The increasing diversity of higher education and of institutional missions has also raised questions about the possibility of comparing standards and the contribution of the external examiner. The adoption of semesters and increased workloads have put
further pressure on external examiners at times when they are expected to cope with increased workloads in their home institutions. All these changes are seen as having an adverse impact on the effectiveness of the external examiner system and many institutions have been reconsidering the roles of external examiners.
The traditional purposes and roles of external examining have been greatly extended in some institutions and, given the increases in scale and complexity, the expectations have become more difficult to fulfil. As a result, it has become less clear whether or how external examiners assist in assuring coherent or consistent national standards. Indeed, there have been some recently expressed doubts whether the external examiner system as it now operates can continue to meet higher education quality assurance expectations or objectives.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
