HOME / INFORMATION FOR EXTERNAL EXAMINERS
Information for External Examiners
- Role
- Before you begin
- External Examiner Responsibilities
- Examiner Report
- Payment
- Virtual Learning Environment (Blackboard)
- Help
Role of External Examiners
- External Examiners provide impartial and independent advice on degree awarding standards, on student achievement in relation to those standards and on benchmarking of Trinity's education programmes against those of comparable universities.
- The role of External Examiners as defined by the External Examiner Policy (Taught Programmes) is to evaluate if academic standards are being maintained, ensure examination regulations are followed, moderate on borderline cases and ensure that individual students are treated fairly.
- The minimum requirement at Trinity is for external examining of the degree awarding years of programmes. Additional requirements vary across schools and disciplines and may be subject to the requirements of external accreditation bodies.
- The scope and role within specific Schools of external examining differs across Trinity Schools.
The below information outlines the key steps to support your work as an external examiner
- Read the External Examiner Policy for taught programmes.
- Set up and test access to the Trinity systems that you will use.
- To access the necessary Trinity IT systems for your role, you will first need a Trinity computer account. The nominating Trinity School or Department must request a Trinity computer account on your behalf from the Trinity Human Resources department. If this hasn't occurred, please contact your nominating School or Department.Further details on setting up computer accounts for external examiners can be found here .
- All Trinity computer account holders are required to set up Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) on their accounts.Computer accounts which do not have MFA set up within 30 days of their account creation will automatically be disabled.Further details on MFA can be found here .
- Once you have a Trinity computer account, the nominating Trinity School or Department must enrol you on the relevant Blackboard modules. If this hasn't occurred, please contact the nominating Trinity School or Department.
- Once the above items are in place, you will be able to sign into the Trinity Blackboard VLE service using your Trinity computer account.Instructions for accessing Blackboard can be found here .
- Review academic standards and the fairness of assessment.
- Check that examination regulations are followed and moderate borderline cases.
- Participate in the Court of Examiners.
- Identify good practice and recommend improvements.
1.Before you begin
The School to which you are appointed as an External Examiner will be your main point of contact for all external examining arrangements. The School is responsible for providing an induction for newly appointed External Examiners, supplying relevant programme and assessment materials, facilitating access to the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), making previous External Examiner reports available for review and communicating the dates of the court of examiners.
Before commencing external examaning duties please:
2. External Examiner Responsibilites
Your role is to:
External Examiners for taught programmes are required to attend Court of Examiner meetings. However, the mode and frequency of attendance is agreed by the Director of Undergraduate Teaching and Learning (or their delegate) and the External Examiner. There is no requirement for physical attendance, however it is recommended that the External Examiner physically attend the Court of Examiner meetings once in their three year term and preferably in their first year.
Protecting student information: Use Trinity-approved arrangements for sharing assessment materials and follow the requirements for secure storage and disposal. Please refer to Trinity’s Data Protection Policy and the Terms and Conditions of Data Processing by External Examiners.
3.Submit your External Examiner Annual Report
External Examiners are required to submit an External Examiner Online Annual Report Form.
External Examiners are required to complete all sections of their annual report using the designated online reporting template. Reports should highlight good practice and outline any recommendations for improvement at programme, course, or module level, as discussed and agreed at the Courts of Examiners.
The completed report must be submitted as soon as possible following the conclusion of the External Examiner’s examination duties, and no later than two weeks after the publication of results.
The School will respond in writing to your recommendations and explain the actions it intends to take.
4. Claim Fees and Expenses
If you are ordinarily resident in the Republic of Ireland you must provide your Personal Public Service Number(PPSN) to process your payment.
If you are ordinarily resident outside the Republic of Ireland you are advised to apply for a PPSN to minimise the level of taxation levied on the proportion of days spent in Ireland to exectute the examining duties. Tax is not levied on time spent on preparation for, or completion of duties e.g. annual report, conducted outside of Ireland, i.e. in the examiner home country.Details on how to apply for the PPSN can be found here.
If the External Examiner does not apply for a PPS Number, they must provide a 'Date of Birth' and 'Home Address' to facilitate the processing of payment, however, they will be subject to a higher level of tax for days worked in Ireland.
The PPSN application process must be completed prior to submitting the External Examiner Requisition Payment Form.
The External Examiner must complete the External Examiner Requisition Payment Form and return the completed form along with vouched expenses to the Course Coordinator/Programme Director or Administrative staff in the School.
It is the responsibility of the School to forward the completed form to HR Payroll for further processing. Forms sent to HR directly by the External Examiner will not be accepted as completed forms must be sent via the School.
Need Help
Please refer to the table below for the appropriate person to help you with your query:
MY QUERY RELATES TO: |
PLEASE CONTACT: |
My nomination as an External Examiner |
Designated contact person in the School |
Submission of my CV |
Designated contact person in the School |
Return of payment requisition form |
Designated contact person in the School |
Arrangements for attendance at Courts of Examiner |
Designated contact person in the School |
Information necessary for the conduct |
Designated contact person in the School |
Payment of external examiner fee and expenses |
Designated contact person in the School |
| Return of external examiner Annual Report Form UG and PGT via the External Examiner Online Annual Report Form (office.com) | Email UG: ugexternreports@tcd.ie Email PGT: pgexternreports@tcd.ie |