The Dearing Report, ‘Higher Education in the Learning Society', published in 1997, suggested that the role of external examiners should be enlarged. Since the publication of that report, The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education has reduced the impact of their external quality assurance at subject level by introducing a lighter touch, largely through Academic Audit. This will result in a much less systematic external review of programmes across higher education as a whole.
The quality assurance agenda is being refocused towards the valuable work that is already being carried out by external examiners. This change in policy coincides with the shift towards the standards that universities and their students achieve.
In the context of the above, CEBE has been actively engaged in development work and has already made available a guide for external examiners working amongst the built environment disciplines (see /cebe/publications/workingpapers). This is a practical guide to assist both those who are already carrying out this role and others who wish to become involved. It does not seek to duplicate the valuable work that is already being done in universities and colleges and their own external examiner training programmes.
For a variety of different reasons, institutions are finding it increasingly difficult to appoint external examiners to their programmes. This is due in part to the increased number of programmes at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels that are now on offer, the amount of time that is available to academics to carry out the various tasks and the remuneration that universities offer for this valuable service. CEBE has recently introduced a database for external examiners, where current and potential examiners are able to register their interest and brief credentials. The database is password protected and can be searched by Heads of Departments. (see http://www.cebe.heacademy.ac.uk/projects/externals/index.php)
QAA has published a series of codes of practice on the assessment for academic standards and quality in higher education. Section 4 of this series covers External Examining (QAA, 2000) that has subsequently been revised (QAA, 2004). This can be found at:
http://www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/codeofpractice/section4
Professional bodies have also contributed towards enhancing practices through, for example, Some good practice suggestions for Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) Members acting as external examiners on town planning programmes (RTPI, 1999) and Guidance notes on the role and responsibilities of external examiners in the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) accredited programmes (Ashworth, 1998).
