More than 1600 academic staff from more than 140 UK higher education providers have now been trained as external examiners as part of the Degree Standards project.
29 UK institutions have adopted the Professional Development Course (PDC) to train their own staff to become external examiners. So far, 1612 members of academic staff have taken part in the training, and 37 developers have successfully completed the Develop the Developer programme enabling them to facilitate training for others at their home institution on an ongoing basis.
Strengthening the external examiners system is a key element in ensuring the reasonable comparability of academic standards and protecting the value of degrees over time. The project is creating a network of trained staff, who have a shared understanding of assessment standards both generically and in academic subjects.Dr Geoff Stoakes, Advance HE Special Advisor (Degree Standards)
The Degree Standards project is led by Advance HE and managed by the Office for Students on behalf of England and the devolved administrations in Northern Ireland and Wales. The project explores sector-owned processes across the three nations and is focused on professional development for external examiners. Over five years the project aims to:
- design, pilot and deliver different approaches to the professional development of external examiners
- propose evidence-based and cost-effective longer-term approaches to the professional development of external examiners operating across the higher education system in England, Northern Ireland and Wales
- explore approaches to the calibration of standards, presenting recommendations for future work in this area.
If you are interested in joining the project, which is currently free, please contact:
External.Examining@advance-he.ac.uk
More ways to maintain the value of degree standards will be explored at ‘Protecting the value of HE qualifications in the UK’ on 22 May 2019.
Read more about the conference and book your place here