Higher education institutions can adopt and deliver the professional development course for external examiners by means of a ‘Develop the Developer’ programme. The programme involves two developers (new facilitators) at an institution, completing the professional development course for external examiners and then taking part in the following stages:
- online activities and reading to prepare for their role;
- a regional workshop for delivering the course on a long-term basis;
- assisted course – new facilitators deliver the course to academic staff at their home institution, working with an Advance HE mentor;
- observed course – new facilitators deliver the course again at their home institution with support from an Advance HE mentor.
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The benefits to institutions
As a result of committed participants attending the course, the institution will have:
- two qualified facilitators who can keep delivering the training to their institution’s staff;
- the foundation of a community of practice to enhance assessment, with the potential to build further internal and external networks;
- the chance for collective reflections on institutional practices of assessment and marking, which have the potential to change institutional practices.
Learning Outcomes
Engagement in the developer training will enable you to demonstrate:
- Sound knowledge and understanding of the relevant policy, research and issues in external examining and academic standards;
- Familiarity with and sufficient commitment to PDC materials and activities to communicate key messages convincingly;
- Practical command of the process to enable effective facilitation, e.g course preparation and organisation, accurate presentations, clear task instructions, time management, working with partner facilitator, fostering active engagement of all participants, judicious use of examples from personal experience;
- Skillful management of the plenary discussions and confident responses to participants’ questions to maintain a focus on, communicate and/or reinforce key messages;
- Ability to maintain a focus on external examining;
- Commitment to critical reflection on personal facilitation, identification of appropriate development needs and collaborative development of the PDC.
Current adopters
52 UK higher education providers have adopted the Professional Development Course to train their own staff to become external examiners. They are:
Hartpury College
King's College London
Anglia Ruskin University
Liverpool John Moores University
Manchester Metropolitan University
Newcastle College
Sheffield Hallam University
Sunderland College
Trinity Laban
University of Gloucestershire
University of Hertfordshire
University of Leicester
University of Salford
University of Brighton
University of Chester
Edge Hill University
University of Bradford
University of Birmingham
University of South Wales
University of the Arts London
Cardiff Metropolitan University
Queen's University Belfast
University of Bolton
Coventry University
Open University
Wrexham Glyndwr University
University of Reading
City, University of London
University of Portsmouth
University of West London
University of the Creative Arts
University of Lincoln
Newman University
University of Nottingham
London School of Economics and Political Science
Oxford Brookes
University of Bristol
University of Liverpool
Cardiff University
University of Sussex
Lancaster University
Plymouth Marjon University
University of West England
Nottingham Trent University
Royal Northern College of Music
University of Chichester
Leeds Beckett University
University of Northampton
University of Roehampton
Newcastle University
BIMM Institute
University of Winchester
Read our case studies
Read about how the professional development course for external examiners was implemented in these institutional case studies:
Case study: Supporting organisational development – Hartpury College
Case study: Supporting aspiring external examiners – Queen's University of Belfast
Institutional Case Study: Improving the dialogue on standards – University of West London
Case study - The Open University
Case study - Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance
Case study - University of Hertfordshire