To Members of the External Examiners Sub-Committee

UNIVERSITY OF EAST LONDON ACADEMIC BOARD, QUALITY AND STANDARDS COMMITTEE EXTERNAL EXAMINERS’ SUB-COMMITTEE

Confirmed minutes of the meeting held on the 15th February 2011, at the Docklands Campus

Present: Ruth Carter (Chair) Alison Coates Martin Marriott Neville Punchard Hedley Roberts

Servicing Officer: Caroline Quirk

1. APOLOGIES

1.1 RECEIVED: apologies from Anne Griffiths, Helen Murphy, Maxine Newlands and Chris Pawson

1.2 NOTED: that the meeting was quorate to proceed.

2. MINUTES OF MEETING HELD ON 10 NOVEMBER 2010

2.1 RECEIVED and CONFIRMED: the minutes of the meeting of the External Examiners Sub-Committee held on the 10th November 2010, as an accurate record.

3. MATTERS ARISING

3 .1 NOTED: that all of the action points had been addressed.

3.1.1 NOTED: that the actions ( 5.6 & 6.7) regarding seeking clarification on the Attendance Policy and the institution’s approach to electronic submission of assessment and feedback, are incorporated in projects of the Student Experience Board.

3.1.2 NOTED: that concern was expressed that, at present, each School is providing feedback to students in different forms and experiencing different problems; again, actions have been incorporated in projects of the Student Experience Board.

______1 External Examiners’ Sub-Committee /Minutes 10.11.2010 3.1.3 NOTED: that there was some confusion over whether feedback should be submitted to the student 4 weeks after the formal date for handing in the assessment or 4 working weeks.

3.1.4 AGREED: that clarification would be sought. ACTION: CQ

POST MEETING NOTE: the Assessment Policy (5.2.1), states:  Feedback on summative assessment should be given within four working weeks of the submission date of the work.

3.1.5 RECEIVED: a verbal report on the information gathered on the profile of our external examiners, since commencing the exercise in March 2010. Based on the information to date; of the 62 nominations that we have received during this period, only 17 nominees had completed the section of the form regarding ethnicity.

3.1.6 AGREED: that although the information gathered currently does not tell us a great deal, it is important that we continue to monitor this information and present to the committee at the second meeting in each academic session. Action: CQ

4. ANNUAL INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW OF EDEXCEL LICENSED CENTRE – 2009/10

4.1 RECEIVED and CONSIDERED: the draft Annual Institutional Review of Edexcel Licensed Centre 2009/10 report.

4.2 NOTED: that this is the final report for Edexcel as the HNC Business programme run in collaboration with the European College of Business and Manangement was formally withdrawn in 2009/10. There was no recruitment in September 2009 and all existing students have completed the programme.

4.3 AGREED: that the report is satisfactory and should be submitted to the Chief Examiner for Edexcel. Action: CQ

5. EXTERNAL EXAMINER INDUCTION

5.1 RECEIVED: graphs detailing the attendance of external examiners at induction events during 2009/10 and 2008/9.

5.1.1 NOTED: that in 2009/10 64 nominations were approved, of which 32 of these nominations were for inexperienced external examiners. 27 of the inexperienced external examiners attended an induction event during 2009/10 and we are hopeful that the remaining 5 examiners will attend an event in 2010/11.

5.1.2 NOTED: that the number of inexperienced examiners attending an induction event has increased from 61% in 2008/9 to 84% in 2009/10.

______2 External Examiners’ Sub-Committee /Minutes 10.11.2010 5.1.3 AGREED: that we should continue to monitor attendance at the induction events and report to the committee at the second meeting scheduled for each academic session. Action: CQ

5.2 AGREED: to an amendment to the External Examiners contract to include specific reference to the induction event. Action: CQ

6. EXTERNAL EXAMINERS OVERVIEW REPORT ACTION PLAN

6.1 RECEIVED: the Action Plan from the Overview Report for 2009/10, now agreed by Academic Board.

6.2 NOTED: that where similar issues have been raised previously, the actions have been updated.

7. INSTITUTIONAL AUDIT – RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ACTION

7.1 RECEIVED: the recommendations for action following the institutional audit last year. (revised document attached)

7.2 NOTED: that all actions were put in place over the summer of 2010.

7.2.1 NOTED: that QAE have amended the nomination form to include a section for the date of SQSC meeting at which SQSC approval of the nomination took place.

7.2.2 NOTED: that the committee will receive a list of all the appointments approved since the last meeting at each meeting.

7.2.3 NOTED: that the committee will receive a list of any external examiner replacements that are outstanding and the minutes of the meeting will reflect what action will be taken and subsequently confirm when issues have been resolved.

8. EXTERNAL EXAMINER APPLICATIONS APPROVED 1 OCTOBER 2010 – 31 JANUARY 2011

8.1 RECEIVED and NOTED: the list of applications that were approved during the current academic session to date. A revised listing was requested to show nominations that had been approved since the agenda papers were issued. Action: CQ (revised document attached)

______3 External Examiners’ Sub-Committee /Minutes 10.11.2010 9. OUTSTANDING REPORTS/RESPONSES 2009/10

9.1 RECEIVED and NOTED: the reports and responses that are outstanding from 2009/10.

9.2 NOTED: that there are 8 reports outstanding, which are actively been chased by QAE and the Schools. The External Examiners’ Administrator has commenced phoning examiners to chase for the outstanding reports and will also continue to chase via email.

9.3 NOTED: that Chris Lane had recently been extended for a year, but his report is still outstanding.

9.4 AGREED: that the committee will not approve any extensions for examiners where there is a report still outstanding. The Quality Manual should be updated to reflect this. Action: RC/AC

9.5 NOTED: that there are 34 responses outstanding from 2009/10. It was acknowledged that in most cases the School’s have sent a response to the examiner, but have omitted to send the letters through to QAE.

9.6 AGREED: that QAE would check the education responses outstanding for ICS (Mark Price & Kyriaki Messiou) to ascertain whether their modules now fall within UEL’s remit. Action: CQ

9.7 AGREED: that the QA Manager will remind SQSC officers at the forum next week of the need to ensure that responses are attached to the REPs before they are signed off. Action: AC

9.8 NOTED: that there are 3 external examiners that need to be replaced for the Tavistock. Although their assessment cycle is not in line with UEL’s it is imperative that they replace their examiners in a timely fashion to ensure that they are in place to approve assessment tasks throughout the year.

 Roberto Basile (PG Dip/MA Working with People with Eating Disorders) Chair has declined the nomination that was submitted recently.

 Veronica Gore (Professional Doctorate in Child Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy) Margaret Smallbone (other examiner for the programme), undertook all assessment work in December 2010, however the Tavistock do intend to replace the examiner.

 Hilary Ford (PG Dip/MA Child and Adolescent Primary Mental Health Care Work) The Tavistock were hoping to submit a nomination to their Quality Committee this month.

______4 External Examiners’ Sub-Committee /Minutes 10.11.2010 9.9 AGREED: that the Chair would raise the issue of replacing these examiners with the Louis Taussig at the Tavistock. Action: RC

10. AOB

10.1 NOTED: No other business.

11. DATE OF NEXT MEETING

11.1 NOTED: that the next meeting would be held in November 2011.

Draft 15.02.2011 Unconfirmed 18.02.2011 Confirmed 16.03.2011 File ref

______5 External Examiners’ Sub-Committee /Minutes 10.11.2010 UNIVERSITY OF EAST LONDON

External Examiners’Sub-Committee

Action Sheet Arising from the Meeting of 15 th February 2011

MINUTE ACTION ACTION BY No. 3.1.4 To seek clarification on when feedback should be given – 4 weeks or 4 CQ working weeks? 3.1.6 To continue to collate the information on the profile of our external examiners CQ and to report to the committee at the second scheduled meeting of each academic session. 4.3 To submit the Annual Institutional Review of Edexcel Licensed Centre – CQ 2009/10 report to the Chief Examiner for Edexcel. 5.1.3 To continue to monitor attendance of the induction events and report to the CQ committee at the second scheduled meeting of each academic session. 5.2 To amend all external examiner contract templates to reflect the agreed CQ amendment regarding induction. 8.1 To provide an up to date listing of all nominations that been approved up until CQ the date of the EESC meeting 9.4 To amend the Quality Manual to reflect that extensions will not be approved if RC/AC an external examiner report is outstanding. 9.6 To check ICS examiners modules (where responses are outstanding) to see if AC/CQ their modules are now UEL modules. QAE to write to the examiners. 9.7 To remind SQSC Officers of the need to ensure that responses are attached AC to REPs before they are signed off. 9.9 To chase the 3 outstanding replacements with the Tavistock RC

______6 External Examiners’ Sub-Committee /Minutes 10.11.2010