External Examiner Role

1. Overview

Taken from Quality Assuring Higher Education in Apprenticeships, Current Approaches (QAA, 2018)

External examining is an integral and essential part of quality assurance in higher education.

It provides one of the principal means by which academic standards are maintained across the sector. External examiners are appointed to provide degree-awarding bodies with impartial and independent advice, and informative comment on the degree-awarding body's standards and on student achievement in relation to them.

When appointing external examiners for apprenticeships, higher education providers are expected to ensure that all examiners are suitably qualified to undertake the role, which might mean, for example, having an appropriate level of practice-based expertise. The required balance of subject and practice expertise might be achieved through the appointment of two external examiners, one a subject expert and the other with practice expertise.

End Point Assessment (EPA) plans for integrated Degree Apprenticeships will necessarily include reference to external examiners, as the EPA is conducted as an integrated aspect of the qualification and, as such, must be under the auspices of the higher education independent external examiner system. Where the EPA is conducted by a separate independent End Point Assessment Organisation (EPAO), higher education provider-appointed external examiners for the higher education award will not play a direct role in the EPA process.

2. Roles and Responsibilities

All higher education apprenticeship programmes are subject to the external examining process, and therefore the standard Sheffield Hallam University External Examiner Roles and Responsibilities are applicable to Course and Module External Examiners who are responsible for apprenticeship provision.

3. Course and Module External Examiners

For Course and Module External Examiners whose remit includes both apprenticeship and non-apprenticeship provision, it is the responsibility of the Department to ensure that examiners are fully briefed regarding the specific requirements of Higher and Degree Apprenticeships. This should include:

· specifying whether the apprenticeship involves integrated or separate end-point assessment (EPA);

· the relationship between apprenticeship knowledge skills and behaviours (KSBs) and course/module learning outcomes;

· the way in which EPA is conducted and any implications for their role;

· how the learning opportunities provided by the higher education course are delivered in the context of on-the-job and off-the-job learning.

External examiners looking at integrated apprenticeships will be involved in the oversight of the end-point assessment (EPA). External examiners who look at non-integrated apprenticeships will not be directly involved in the EPA.

4. Departmental Apprenticeship External Examiners

In addition to Course and Module External Examiners, any Department delivering apprenticeship provision is required to engage a Departmental Apprenticeship External Examiner to provide oversight of apprenticeship provision specifically. Departmental Apprenticeship External Examiners will be required to:

· visit up to 3 employers each year;

· visit subcontracting partners (where applicable) twice during their 4 year tenure;

· review sample evidence from three way review meetings;

· attend the relevant Apprenticeship Assessment Board;

· submit an annual report.