1. UWE Bristol External Examiner Annual Reporting
Rebecca Smith, Curriculum Enhancement Manager

2. Overview What is annual reporting?
Why do we carry out annual reporting?
Who is your audience?
The Report
UWE2020 Strategy - Theme
Submission
What happens with your report?
The ‘Faculty Response’
Reporting to the Vice-Chancellor
The Logistics

3. Points of Engagement with UWE
Scrutiny of draft assessments
Moderation Reports/Process
Scrutiny Days/Pre-Examination Boards
Examination Boards: Field/Award Boards
General correspondence with module leaders and programme managers
Professional practice placement observations
The External Examiner Annual Report

4. What is annual reporting?
QAA Quality Code: Chapter B7: External Examining
Indicator 12: External examiners submit a report annually, at a time determined by the institution, to the head of the institution or to one or more named individuals that he/she designates
We require all of our External Examiners to submit a written report annually summarising their confidence in the standards of our curricula and recognition of good practice and areas for enhancement (Indicator 2 of the QAA Quality Code provides more information regarding what Awarding institutions should expect their external examiners to provide informative comment and recommendations upon)
As you all know, we have to comply with the standards set out in the QAA Quality Code.
Indicator 2 - Awarding institutions expect their external examiners to provide informative comment and recommendations upon whether or not:
an institution is maintaining the threshold academic standards set for its awards in accordance with the frameworks for higher education qualifications and applicable subject benchmark statements
the assessment process measures student achievement rigorously and fairly against the intended outcomes of the programme(s) and is conducted in line with the institution's policies and regulations
the academic standards and the achievements of students are comparable with those in other UK higher education institutions of which the external examiners have experience.

5. Why do we carry out annual reporting?
Critical aspect in the Monitoring and Evaluation of our programmes to assure the quality and standards of our students’ degrees from an external standpoint.
Ensures that the principles set out in the University Assessment Cycle Policy are being adhered to.
It will inform an overarching report at University, Faculty and Department level on the academic health of the University to Academic Board.
Bullet point 1 - i.e. provides externality and independence.

6. Who is your audience?
Take a minute to discuss with colleagues on your table who you believe the external examiner reports audience is?

7. Who is your audience? Module leaders Programme leaders
Field leaders (or academic colleague responsible with managing the External Examiners allocated within a field of study) / Heads of Department
Faculty Academic Standards and Quality Committee
Learning Teaching and Student Experience Committee
Collaborative Provision Committee
Collaborative Partners
Learning and Teaching Enhancement Team
Students – Student Rep Staff Forums
Freedom of Information Requests
Collaborative Partners – Reports are sent to the partner and they are asked to contribute to the response back to the EE – they are also encouraged to share the report with their students
SRSFs – EE’s annual reports are provided to students through these student rep forums and are opened up for discussion

8. The Structure of the Report
Each report aligns specifically to your role and there are minor differences within the questions:
Field External Examiner
Chief External Examiner
Non-Modular External Examiner
Post Graduate Certificate in Education
Graduate Diploma in Law
Bristol’s International College

9. The Structure of the Report Cont.
Academic and Professional Standards (Questions );
Assessment Strategy (Questions )
Process and Procedure (Questions )
Collaborative Provision (Question 4.1)
Quality Enhancement (Questions )
Closing Comments (Questions )
External Examiner Resources (Questions )
Broadly align to the expectations of the QAA Quality Code
The structure of the report may differ slightly for Non Modular EE’s and Chief EE’s

10. Confidence Judgements
Judgement Statements: Likert Scale – 1-4
Complete Confidence (1)
Broad Confidence (2)
Limited Confidence (3)
No Confidence (4)
Two judgements per question:
UWE Delivered Provision
Collaborative Provision
Supporting Commentary (Reviewing - 2 Boxes this year)
Please be specific e.g. identify partner/module
LTET are planning to review the annual report to ensure confidence judgements and comments for collab provision are more easily aligned to specific partners, so there may be slight differences to this

11. LTET are planning to review the annual report to ensure confidence judgements and comments for collab provision are more easily aligned to specific partners, so there may be slight differences to this

12. Example Report

13. New slide added by Helen to reflect the new report template (with CP scores). NOTE: I cant get score box to show for CP so I have had to put text boxes in instead.
Good example of a report as expands on why they have completed confidence in the knowledge and skills, providing some examples of this. There is also a recommendation to stretch the group in terms of critical evaluation and literature and research to help develop the weaker cohort of students.

14. Please note this slide as there is a question on the next slide.

15. Was the previous slide a good example of a report
Yes No
Poor example of a completed report – haven’t gone into any further information as to why they only have (2) broad confidence in the moderation process, and not full confidence. They also haven’t expanded on what the difference between the UWE provision and the collaborative provision is (3 limited confidence), and have grouped all of the partners into one comments box so that it is difficult to know which partner the limited confidence relates to. Please provide a rationale, examples and if possible recommendations.

16. General Pointers
Be concise and specific - please see the good and poor examples of responses to the report on the External Examiner Resources website
Detail the module/programme, and if applicable the collaborative partner to which your comment relates so we can review & action.
If you have any areas of concern, please expand on this i.e. substantiate your comment with the example
When you highlight areas of good practice please expand on why it is good? i.e. substantiate your comment with the example
As above for areas for enhancement

17. UWE2020 Strategy - Theme UWE 2020 Strategy Launched in 2013
We will provide an annual theme and background information that is informed by our strategy
Ask to identify areas of good practice and areas for enhancement in achieving the identified theme.
The question for the last two years has been asking, in light of the 2020 strategy with a focus on ‘ready and able graduates’ whether provision has suitable preparing graduates for employment

18. Submission Why meet the deadline?
Critical aspect of our internal Monitoring and Evaluation process
The sooner we can engage the sooner we can share the identified good practice or action any areas of enhancement
Chief External Examiner access
Field EE reports need to be shared with Chief EEs to enable them to engage and write their report.

19. What is a realistic timeframe to expect a report to be written?
2 Weeks
4 Weeks
2 months
3 months
3 months +
We ask for reports to be submitted 2 weeks after the relevant Field Board for reasons stated in previous slide

21. The ‘Faculty Response’
Closes the feedback loop
A response from the Field Leader
Acknowledge recognition for highlighted areas of good practice (to share with colleagues across Department/University as appropriate)
Acknowledge any recommended areas for enhancement and actions that will be taken
Rationale if we disagree with any aspects of your report

22. Reporting to the Vice-Chancellor
External Examiners may, in exceptional circumstances, report separately and confidentially to the Vice-Chancellor on any matters of serious concern.
Detailed in your report how you may do this.
Expected that these concerns would have been raised through your initial engagement i.e. moderation process and Examination Boards.

23. Annual Thematic Report to the University
The Learning and Teaching Enhancement Team will produce an annual thematic report based on the outcomes from all External Examiners reports for the University to consider.
Broad themes emerging from the 2014/15 annual reporting cycle:
Assessment Feedback – more consistency
Collaborative Provision – more staff development required in sharing good examples of work, support for referencing and academic literacy skills
Process of Moderation – more consistency and clearly demonstrate the whole process
The University considers this report at the Learning Teaching and Student Experience Committee
The 2014/15 report is due to be discussed at the Committee next week.

24. The Logistics
Receive an from the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Team with your personalised report pro forma approx. 4 weeks before June Boards.
Submission Date advised
Submit to us by
Fee Payment

25. Thank you for listening!
Any questions?