External Examining Policy and Procedures
GCAST has built a moderation system, including internal quality assurance (refer to 7.2) and external quality assurance. The external examining system plays an important role in the moderation process. The University has now established a mechanism for external examiner review. The mechanism is more about ensuring that the programmes leading to RAUL UK awards and offered by GCAST are equivalent to the programmes offered at RAUL and other UK universities. And it is also to ensure that the process of assessment, examination and degree classification of programmes leading to RAUL UK awards is transparent, appropriate and fair. Formal reports on student achievement and performance in comparison with other UK universities are made through this mechanism, which helps to identify relevant issues and provide suggestions.
Appointment of External Examiners
1. At least one external examiner will be appointed for each major, with an employment period of 4 years.
2. External examiners are recommended by colleges and recruited from overseas universities. The responsibilities of them are to examine the rationality of exam papers about whether they can test the students' mastery of knowledge points, and whether tests can reflect the course objectives. And they provide suggestions and feedback on exam paper samples, the fairness of assessment, tests and degree classifications, and scrutinize moderation process to ensure those grades are fair, transparent, and equitable.
3. External Examiners should be associate professors or above with a master’s degree or above. And they should have a similar or relevant academic background to the validated programmes at GCAST. External Examiners should have the requisite skills and experience to provide expert comment on the standards of our programmes and achievements of our students (for example, they are research active, with an understanding of relevant pedagogy and subject benchmark requirements etc). External Examiners should have the requisite skills and experience to provide expert comments that do not have any conflicts of interest which might undermine (or appear to undermine) their independence of judgement (for example, they are not employed by a collaborative partner of the department or have any relationships with GCAST, its staff or students which may compromise their independence or present a conflict of interest.).
4. Following their appointment all external examiners will receive from GCAST a letter of appointment that constitutes the Institute's formal contractual relationship with the external examiner.
5. If any potential conflict of interest arises during the term of appointment, GCAST should be notified at the earliest possible stage so that a decision can be made on an external examiner's suitability to continue as an examiner. If an external examiner moves to a new post (other than an internal promotion) while they are acting as external examiner, they should notify the Institute of this. Where an external examiner is appointed to a post at the University, it is the responsibility of the department to notify GCAST of this as soon as possible once the appointment has been made and to nominate a replacement external examiner. Once this information has been received, GCAST will write to the current external examiner to inform him/her that their appointment as an external examiner has been ended. Departments must then provide nominations of a replacement to be considered in line with relevant procedures.
6. The University would prematurely terminate the appointment of an external reviewer when they do not perform the duties required. Reasons for early termination of appointment include (but are not limited to): failing to attend exam boards*; failing to submit external examiner reports in a timely manner; and providing incomplete or low-quality reports, not reporting a conflict of interest, or any behaviour regarded as unprofessional or not reflecting the values of GCAST. (*Should external examiners have extenuating circumstances that may make them miss the exam board, they can send their report to be read out by the Chair of the exam board. EEs apologies are usually approved by the President of the Institute.)
Induction of External Examiners
1. At the time of their appointment, all external examiners will be provided with documentation for an online briefing by GCAST. This will provide external examiners with information on:
a. The role and responsibilities of the external examiner.
b. The Institute's regulatory framework for its taught programmes, and the way that this links to the national quality assurance system.
c. The Institute's assessment policies, and the way that these link to the national quality assurance system.
d. The operation of the Institute's boards of examiners for taught programmes.
e. The way in which the University considers and responds to concerns raised by external examiners.
2. To achieve this, the Curriculum, Learning & Assessment Service will provide the following documents:
a. The Institute's Handbook for External Examiners.
b. The relevant core regulations of the Institute.
c. The relevant programme regulations.
d. A copy of the Annual Report Form.
e. The relevant expenses and fees claim forms
f. A copy of the previous year’s Institute overview of external examiner reports.
g. Induction – departmental.
3. The chair of the Degree Committee is responsible for ensuring that the external examiner is sent the following information, originating from the department, about the module/programme for which the external examiner is responsible:
a. The programme specification(s) (thereby incorporating the learning, teaching and assessment strategy for the programme).
b. The module outlines and/or handbooks for the modules offered in the programme (thereby incorporating the learning, teaching and assessment strategy for each module).
c. The relevant programme and student handbooks.
d. The syllabus to be examined.
e. An explanation of the status of the examination.
f. Assessment criteria, marking scheme(s) and methods of assessment involved including the role of the external examiner(s).
This information may be provided in hard or electronic copy.
Job Description of External Examiners
The External Examiner assists the University in maintaining academic standards by offering autonomous and considered advice on the academic standards of the courses to which they have been assigned. The External Examiner is expected to offer good practice advice, opportunities, and constructive written and oral feedback to enhance the quality of the provision.
External Examiners are expected to:
a. attends the University External Examiner induction processes scheduled at the start of their term, and inform themselves of the University’s regulations and policies, particularly as they relate to awards, and examination policy and procedures.
b. provides an oral report on their main findings and offer comments and advice on any aspect of the assessment process.
c. support and ensure fairness and consistency in the decision-making process.
d. submit an annual External Examiner written report to the Academic School/Department within the defined timetable, commenting on the validity, reliability and integrity of the assessment process and the standards of students’ attainment.
e. comment and give advice on programme and constituent course content, balance and structure.
f. review, evaluate and provide oversight of examinations and other forms of assessment and assessment practices.
g. comment on draft examination papers and scrutinize samples of completed examination scripts within defined time frames.
h. support University Faculty in the calibration of academic standards through the review and evaluation of the outcomes of the assessment processes.
i. advises on proposed major changes to the validated programme(s) for which they act as external examiner.
j. in support of the role, be familiar with the University’s Examination Policy & Procedures.
Workflow of the External Examiner System
1. One and a half months before the exam week of each semester, teachers will organize relevant work about examination papers, including providing "course setting plan", "examination papers", "reference answers and scoring standards", and conducting internal scrutiny. The director of the Teaching and Research Section and the deputy dean of teaching of each school shall review and sign the relevant materials respectively. Then they submit these materials to external examiners for scrutiny by email. The external examiner shall provide their scrutiny report within two weeks after receiving the material. The report includes, but is not limited to, the rationality of the paper, whether the paper content reflects the course objectives, whether the paper marks are set scientifically, and suggestions for improvement.
2. According to suggestions from external examiners, schools revise exam papers and organize exams. After exams, the teachers will mark the exam papers based on the standards set in the syllabus. Schools organize course coordinators and major coordinators to carry out internal moderation on the marking of exam papers by the teachers. Then 10% of the exam papers will be selected from each major as sample papers and be classified as papers with excellent scores, medium scores, pass scores and fail scores. And the scanned copies of the exam papers will be sent to external examiners by email. External examiners scrutinize the markings to ensure their fairness and justice and make comments on good points, innovative behavior, existing problems and other aspects on students’ learning, teachers’ teaching, examination, etc. Then they will write a summary report and summit it to the Academic Affairs Office. After that, scores are inputted into the online teaching affairs system by teachers and checked by students after review of the Academic Affairs Office.
3. External examiners attend exam boards organized by GCAST in June every year, and the final grades and grade classification of students are determined after discussions and review of students' course scores.
