“By creating we think, by living we learn” Patrick Geddes
(Approved by Senate on 28 March 2007)
1. The conduct of examinations in the University is governed by decisions taken from time to time by Senate. This statement sets out the role, powers and responsibilities the University assigns to its external examiners for undergraduate and taught postgraduate programmes and it is intended both for their information and also for Deans. The primary role of the external examiner is to provide an external and unbiased perspective on the fairness and appropriateness of the University's student assessment processes as a key element of the University's procedures for the quality assurance of its academic programmes. In their performance of this critical role, external examiners form an integral part of the University's procedures to assure the security of the academic standards of its programmes and awards. Other specific roles that external examiners may be asked to perform are reported in paragraphs 40 to 42.
2. The University aims to adhere to the precepts of Sections 4 (External Examining) and 6 (Assessment of Students) of the QAAHE's Code of Practice for the Assurance of Academic Quality and Standards in Higher Education which is available at: http://www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/codeOfPractice/default.asp.
3. The University's programmes take account of the relevant national subject benchmarking information and the Scottish Credit & Qualifications Framework (SCQF) and it is in the context of these documents that external examiners are invited to make their evaluations.
4. The Senate has drawn particular attention to the importance of ensuring that only persons of sufficient seniority and experience to be able to command authority should be chosen as external examiners.
5. The University has adopted an "Assessment Policy for Taught Provision" which is available from http://www.dundee.ac.uk/academic/assesspolicy.htm.
6. Responsibility for the general management of the appointment of external examiners and the handling of external examiners' reports lies with the Examinations Office section of the University's Registry.
7. External examiners are appointed by the University Court on the recommendation of the appropriate School endorsed by the relevant Dean.
8. Before making such a recommendation the Dean normally ascertains, by informal enquiry of the proposed appointee, that he/she is willing to serve as external examiner.
9. When a vacancy arises, a suitable external examiner is nominated by the appropriate Dean(s) normally after consultation with the School board or board of studies. That nomination is submitted via the relevant Dean on a proforma together with a brief c.v. and supporting information which confirms that the person nominated has the necessary seniority and experience and meets the other requirements set out in 10 to 14 below.
10. External examiners are normally appointed for a period of three years in the first instance with the possibility of an extension of one further year. No external examiner may be appointed for more than four years and no person who has held office for a continuous period of four years is eligible for reappointment until at least one year thereafter.
11. A former member of staff of the University will not be eligible for appointment as an external examiner before the expiry of three years from the date of demitting office or having ceased to hold an appointment in another University or equivalent institution.
12. A person appointed external examiner may not normally hold simultaneously more than two other external examinerships for undergraduate or taught postgraduate courses during the period of appointment as an external examiner in the University.
13. An external examiner shall not normally be appointed from a department of another institution in which a member of staff of the Dundee School is serving as an external examiner.
14. Persons appointed as external examiners should not normally have any direct interests or ties to the University which might be sufficient to cast doubts upon their independence.
15. Any request for the early termination of an external examiner's contract will only be considered in exceptional circumstances by the Academic Secretary in consultation with the relevant Dean.
16. External examiners are full members of the relevant Board(s) of Examiners
Information required on Appointment
17. The Examinations Office section of the Registry issues the letter of appointment for new external examiners reporting the conditions of their employment together with copies of this guidance and the University's assessment policy for taught provision (paragraph 5 above refers).
18. On appointment, schools are expected to send external examiners full information on the courses which are to be examined including: programme and module specifications; course aims and objectives; syllabuses; copies of examination papers from previous years (if appropriate); details of methods of assessment including the way in which the results of individual papers or other unit of assessment are aggregated, averaged or profiled to produce an overall result; details of any exemption schemes; proposed dates for meetings of the Board(s) of Examiners; and a statement of the school's examination procedures. Such information should be updated as necessary during the period of appointment. Schools may wish to provide external examiners with copies of the relevant QAAHE ELIR and SHEFC/QAAHE quality assessment reports, if available, and any internal programme and module review documents which may be deemed helpful. Schools may also wish to provide the opportunity for new external examiners to have a face-to-face briefing with the Convener of the Board of Examiners/Programme or Module Leader.
Approval of examination papers
19. All examination papers must be approved by the external examiner(s).
20. Draft examination papers should be sent to the external examiners in sufficient time for them to be able to propose changes and for discussion of the proposed changes to take place where necessary; before draft papers are sent to external examiners they should be checked for typographical errors and should be produced in the University's standard format. Where appropriate, draft papers should be accompanied by model answers or solutions and a marking scheme for each paper.
21. External examiners may be invited to submit questions for inclusion in examination papers.
Written examinations and coursework contributing for final assessment
22. All examination scripts and other coursework that contributes to final assessment should be made available to external examiners.
23. Appropriate scripts and other coursework should be sent to external examiners in advance of the meeting of the Board of Examiners. Schools should agree in advance with external examiners what constitutes 'appropriate scripts and other coursework' in accordance with the guiding principle that externals should receive sufficient evidence to enable them to determine that internal marking has been appropriate and consistent. The normal expectation would require external examiners to be sent a spectrum of scripts drawn from the top, middle and bottom of the mark range including all scripts of borderline candidates (either pass/fail in examinations). In addition, for Honours, all scripts of candidates assessed internally as first class or as fail should also be either be sent to external examiners or made available to them during their visit to the University.
Oral, practical and clinical examinations
24. External examiners may be required to conduct oral examinations and, in cases where only a proportion of candidates are chosen for oral examinations, should agree in advance with the school(s) the principles governing the selection of candidates.
25. External examiners should, where possible, have the same degree of involvement in both the content and the marking of practical examinations as they have for written papers.
26. Wherever practicable external examiners should take an active part in clinical examinations.
27. External examiners may meet students on programmes they examine with the agreement of the school concerned.
28. The University's revised policy on Honours Classification, which Senate approved at its meeting on 1 June 2005, is attached at Appendix 1.
Procedures for Reporting Undergraduate Module Results and Degree Award Classifications
29. The Registry has issued the following guidelines regarding procedures for reporting undergraduate module results and degree award classifications.
Module Results (All modules, including Honours)
Award of Classification (Honours only)
Additional Information
Students graduating with an Ordinary Degree, Diploma or Certificate of Higher Education should continue to be reported to the Examinations Office section of the Registry.
The Registry will notify all students of their examination results and degree classifications. Final academic transcripts will be produced for all graduates (except for the College of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing).
Meetings of Board of Examiners and the final assessment
30. External examiners should be invited to all meetings of the Board(s) of Examiners for the courses which they examine. External examiners should normally attend the main meeting of the Board of Examiners for each programme usually held in May/June. Note: following the introduction of semesterisation and modularisation in session 2003/04, the following clarification with regard to Examination Boards was agreed:
Examination Boards must be held at the end of the second semester and following the resit examinations and may be held at the end of the first semester. If an Examination Board is not held at the end of the first semester, any notification of assessment results to students must include the warning that "This result is provisional and may be changed following moderation by the Board of Examiners in the second semester, after which final results will be notified to students". Such provisional results must however include the normal process of internal moderation. If an Examination Board is held at the end of the first semester, it must include participation by the External Examiner in the moderation process.
31. In the case of meetings of Boards of Examiners for subjects at sub-honours level, final assessment may not take place unless an external examiner is present or concurs in writing with the assessment proposed by the internal examiners.
32. In the case of Honours candidates, no meeting of the Board of Examiners may be held and no final assessment may take place without the presence of an external examiner.
33. For the degrees of MBChB and BDS, where contributing subjects have been assessed by a Board comprising internal and external examiners, the final assessment may be made at a meeting of the Board of Examiners in the absence of an external examiner. Wherever possible, however, it is highly desirable that at least one external should be present.
34. The external examiner(s) shall normally have the final right of decision in the assessment of a candidate subject to the Senate's right to review that decision in cases or irreconcilable dispute between internal and external examiners and subject to the normal provisos in relation to the University's obligations in rectifying administrative or procedural error.
35. In relation to the conduct of Boards of Examiners, the following minimum procedures are mandatory;
(i) a formal minute of the meeting must be kept;
(ii) that minute should include:
Absence of External Examiner due to Unforeseen Circumstances
36. If an external examiner is unavailable due to illness or any other unforeseen circumstance, the relevant Dean following consultation with the Academic Secretary, has the authority to appoint a replacement.
Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty
37. The University has a policy and regulations on Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty which are available from the relevant Dean, the Academic Secretary or from http://www.dundee.ac.uk/academic/plagiarism.htm. External examiners may be consulted in cases of suspected academic dishonesty but the nature and extent of any such consultation shall be determined on a case by case basis by the Academic Secretary.
38. External examiners are required to report to the Principal annually on a pro-forma provided by the University. The pro-forma follows the recommendations of relevant sections of the the QAAHE Code of Practice and includes questions on the following issues:
39. Reports are passed to the Academic Secretary for comment who returns them to the Vice-Principal (Educational Development) with a note drawing attention to specific points of concern raised by external examiners. The Vice-Principal responds to the external examiner noting points of concern and sends copies of the report and his response to the relevant College Vice Principal for transmission to the School. Deans are expected to make reports available to the relevant teaching staff.
40. Schools are expected to discuss issues where remedial action is required or recommended, and expected to report to the College's relevant body for monitoring academic standards and to communicate outcomes to the external examiners on the action taken within six months of receiving the report.
41. Payment of the external examiner's fees is authorised on receipt of the report.
42. External examiners' reports and related correspondence are used extensively as part of the University's annual programme monitoring process and periodic programme reviews as well as in the external processes of quality enhancement.
43. External examiners may also submit confidential reports to the Academic Secretary if they so wish.
Consultation with external examiners on other matters
44. External examiners may be consulted on any existing exemption schemes and on any proposal to introduce an exemption scheme.
45. External Examiners may be consulted on any penalty points scheme for the late submission of coursework.
46. External examiners may be consulted by Schools or Boards of Studies on proposals for the introduction of new programmes or modules within their area of expertise and on substantial changes to the programmes which they examine.
47. External examiners may be consulted by Schools in connection with internal programme reviews usually carried out on a five-yearly cycle.
48. The Higher Education Academy is leading a programme of research and development work to support external examiners and information on these activities is available from http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/externalexaminers.htm.
Dr I K Francis, Academic Secretary
1 March 2007
HONOURS CLASSIFICATION
UNIVERSITY OF DUNDEE
LEARNING AND TEACHING COMMITTEE
HONOURS CLASSIFICATION
1. The Honours classification spectrum (see below) represents the minimum criteria to establish consistency for the award of a particular class of Honours degree across the University. It does not reduce the responsibility of Colleges and their boards of examiners to devise their own marking and assessment schemes and to justify on academic grounds and record clearly the exercise of proper academic judgement and discretion.
2. For every Honours programme the College will specify the modules and the examinations which contribute to the final Honours classification, and the basis of classification. This information must be made available to all students prior to their selecting honours options and commencing study of any Honours components.
3. Each School will specify the weighting given to each module and examination or other form of assessment which contributes to the final Honours classification and make that information available to its Honours candidates at the start of their Honours programme.
4. Each School will establish more detailed descriptors additional to the basic University descriptors for the award of grades and classes of degree and make that information available to students at the start of their Honours programme.
5. Final Honours classification should be based upon performance across the Honours programme as a whole. (Honours programme meaning that part of a degree programme which contributes to Honours classification.)
Honours classification spectrum
| Grade | Description |
|---|---|
| 1st | grades at A3 or above in at least 50% of total assessment |
| grades at B3 or above in at least 75% of total assessment | |
| grades at C3 or above in 100% of total assessment | |
| 2/1 | grades at B3 or above in at least 50% of total assessment |
| grades at C3 or above in at least 75% of total assessment | |
| grades at D3 or above in 100% of total assessment | |
| 2/2 | grades at C3 or above in at least 50% of total assessment |
| grades at D3 or above in at least 75% of total assessment | |
| 3 | grades at D3 or above in at least 75% of total assessment |
6. In addition, the overall average grade (calculated via the aggregation scale) for each class of Honours must be equal to or higher than one grade below the class boundary: that is B1 for a first, C1 for an upper second, D1 for a lower second and E for a third.
The classification criteria above shall be those normally applied. In exercising judgements at the margins, Boards of Examiners may take account of the following advice:
· markedly improved performance in final year may be taken into account where a contribution from an earlier year is an approved element of Honours classification;
· compensation between high and low classes should not necessarily be applied mechanically to candidates with very good first class modules nor to candidates with clear or bad fail modules;
· non-completion of an element of Honours assessment without good cause should result in a grade of N being used in the classification process.
7. Where level 3 (SCQF Level 9) modules or level 4 (SCQF Level 10) modules taken in the third year of study count towards Honours classification, any passing grade achieved at a re-sit or re-submission will be considered as a D3 for Honours aggregation purposes.
8. However, boards of examiners retain the final discretion in the award of an Honours class. This discretion includes compensation for, or condonement of failing grades where a board of examiners is satisfied that programme level intended outcomes have been achieved. (See sections 11-14 below regarding policy for compensation and condonement. If, exceptionally, discretion is exercised then good and clear reasons for so doing must be identified and recorded in detail in the Minutes of the Board of Examiners since such decisions may subsequently be challenged in judicial fora.
9. In cases where programmes are aligned with PSB requirements, compensation and condonement may not be appropriate depending upon the nature of the requirements of the PSB.
10. Re-sits are not allowed for final year modules that count towards Honours classification.
11. The University definitions and interpretations of the terms "compensation" and "condonement" are noted below. These have been informed by external references.
Compensation is defined here as the process by which a board of examiners may decide that a strong performance by a student in one part of the curriculum may be used as the basis for the award of credit in respect of a failed performance elsewhere.
Condonement is defined as the process by which a board of examiners, in consideration of the overall performance of a student, decides that without incurring a penalty, a part of the programme that has been failed need not be redeemed.
12. Boards of examiners, may exercise compensation or condonement based on discretion informed by professional judgment and specific information relating to each case. The following procedures must be applied in any case of compensation or condonement:
· each case must be considered on an individual basis;
· the external examiner(s) must agree with each proposal;
· individual decisions, and the basis of justification, must be recorded in the minutes of the board of examiners;
· the "original" grade (i.e. the mark allocated to the module prior to any discussion of compensation or condonement) will be reported to the Registry, with a suffix "flag" indicating compensation / condonement.
13. The student's transcript will show the "original" grade plus suffix "flag", and the award of credit for the relevant module, with a footnote explaining that credit was awarded by compensation/condonement within the University's Assessment policy;
14. In considering approaches to compensation and condonement, examination boards should also consider any accreditation requirements of relevant professional or statutory bodies (PSBs) regarding compensation or condonement. These may:
· restrict or prevent application of compensation or condonement;
· or require additional procedures, e.g. submission of additional, specific information to the board of examiners.
15. In relation to the conduct of Boards of Examiners the following minimum procedures are mandatory -
(i) a formal minute of the meeting must be kept;
(ii) that minute should include:
- a note of members present;
- a record of any declaration by those members of any personal interest, involvement or relationship with a student being assessed;
- the final decisions taken;
- the extent, in specific cases, to which medical evidence or extenuating circumstances were taken into account;
- any general comments made by external examiners; and
- in the case of Examination Boards for Joint Honours programmes, the final decision on Honours degree classifications must be agreed by all of the external examiners involved in that programme.
Dr I K Francis
Academic Secretary
1 March 2007
APPENDIX 2: Regulations Governing Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty
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