Our undergraduate teaching is overseen by our three external examiners: academics from other UK universities who ensure that our teaching and assessment are at an appropriate level, rigorous, and fair. External examiners are consulted on changes in our teaching, review exam questions prior to the exam period, and visit the Department twice a year to approve our assessment and degree awards.
External examiners rotate every few years (in our case, every four years). Thus, universities get a good range of opinions from different people and different institutions. Currently the external examiner for Biochemistry is Prof Leo Brady from the University of Bristol; for Genetics, it is Dr Juliet Coates from the University of Birmingham; and for Microbiology it is Prof James Moir from the University of York. Similarly, several of our academics serve as external examiners at other universities around the country and beyond.
You can read their latest reports on our teaching and assessment here -