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External Examiners work with St George’s primarily to ensure that the standard of the awards made by St George’s is consistent with that of institutions elsewhere in the United Kingdom and that the integrity of assessment is maintained to ensure consistent treatment of students and decision making. The University greatly values the contribution made by External Examiners to its quality assurance procedures. External Examiners are an integral part of the operation of our assessments.

St George’s Quality Manual on Assessment and External Examining (PDF) has been written with reference to the UK Quality Code Advice and Guidance, published by the QAA. See Section I regarding assessment and external examining.

Please see St George’s General Regulations (PDF).

How to become an External Examiner

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Nomination

External Examiners are nominated by a senior academic member of staff responsible for the programme.  A summary of the role of the external examiner is available here (PDF) and further information can be found in the St George’s Quality Manual. The External Examiner will be asked to provide a short CV and to confirm that s/he meets the criteria by completing the Appointment Details Form below. 

Nomination Form (Appendix I3) – to be completed by the Course Director / Chief Examiner

Appointment Details Form (Appendix I4) – to be completed by the nominee

Appointment

Once the nomination has been approved at Senate, the appointed External Examiner will receive a formal email either from the Examinations Office in Registry for Undergraduate Courses or from the Postgraduate Administration Office for Postgraduate Courses. The University is legally obliged to verify the Right to Work status of all External Examiners. 

Induction

Induction Day is a non-compulsory annual event and an opportunity to welcome new External Examiners to our Tooting campus.

It is scheduled to be held onsite at our Tooting campus on Monday 27 November 2023.

External Examiners are strongly encouraged to attend our Induction where they will have the opportunity to meet key academic and administrative members of staff and raise any enquiries they may have.

Once you've been appointed

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Canvas

Once the External Examiner details are set up with HR, a staff reference number will be made available from the relevant office (Registry or Postgraduate Administration). This enables the External Examiner to self-register for a St George’s IT account. On completion, the External Examiner is asked to pass on her/his new St George’s email address to the relevant programme team. The programme team will then be able to register the External Examiner to our Virtual Learning Environment, Canvas.

Expenses

Reasonable expenses such as standard train tickets, overnight accommodation and subsistence will be reimbursed upon submission of a completed External Examiner Expense Claim Form (Word) together with scanned copy of receipts attached to your email.

For your reference, the maximum reimbursement amount for meals is: breakfast £10, lunch £10 and dinner £20 including VAT and service with no alcohol. Overnight accommodation is reimbursed up to the value of a night at a local hotel.

Expense claims should be submitted as soon as possible to External Examiner Mailbox after they incurred and must be made within three months. Please retain the original receipts and tickets for audit purpose.

The Expenses Policy can be found here.

Please contact us on externalexaminers@sgul.ac.uk if you require further details.

Annual report

External Examiners are asked to submit an annual report at an agreed time and in an agreed format. The report is due from the External Examiner within four weeks of the final Board of Examiners of the year for that programme. The annual fee will be released on receipt of the report. Any outstanding reports will be followed up with the relevant External Examiners. 

The Annual Report Form can be found here (Word). 

Completed reports should be submitted to the relevant offices. For the Undergraduate Courses, please email them here and for the Postgraduate Courses here

The annual report may also be formally submitted to the Vice-Chancellor at The Vice-Chancellor, St George’s, University of London, Cranmer Terrace, London, SW17 0RE. 

External examiners' annual reports are available in full to students via Canvas, with the exception of any confidential report made directly to the Vice-Chancellor. These are available from the Quality and Partnerships Directorate

All External Examiners can expect to receive a response to their reports from the Chief Examiner or Course Director. Responses will be copied to the Examinations Office for the Undergraduate Courses and Postgraduate Administration Office for the Postgraduate Courses, who will log the response. 

For critical reports with a wide circulation, the response will be agreed with the Academic Lead for Quality and Partnerships prior to despatch.

Postgraduate Report Form – please email to Postgraduate Administration Office

Undergraduate Report Form – please email to External Examiners

Fees

External Examiner fees are released on receipt of the annual report at the end of the academic year following the Board of Examiner meeting. 

FeeProgrammes

£700

MBBS

£100 Basic Fee plus Script Marking (£100 – 600); Project Marking (£40 per project read & viva done up to a maximum of £200); Viva Examinations and Exam Board Attendance (£50 per half-day)

BSc Biomedical Science Year 3 & BSc Intercalated

£550

Other BSc and MSc Physiotherapy

£400

Dip/BSc Health Care Practice (= CPD) and BSc Cancer care; Physician Associate Studies (MPAS); PGT (PgCert, PgDip, MSc, MRes)

Useful documents

The following documents are available on the Examinations Page:

  • Exams Calendar (Excel) - Key dates including Board of Examiners and OSCEs
  • Schemes of Assessment
  • Programme Regulations
Useful links

Contact Details

Postgraduate Administration

External Examiners

Concerns

Any concerns or matters for escalation can be raised with the Academic Registrar

 

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