Examiner appointments and payments

A Chair of Examiners must be appointed to all exam boards by 1st October of each academic year.

All appointments of Chairs of Examiners require approval from Senior Nominating Officers (SNOs).

Appointments also require approval from the Proctors if the nominated individuals do not meet at least one of the following two criteria:

1. Have full faculty membership
2. Have previously been appointed as either Chair of Examiners or Internal Examiner

Appointments that require approval from the Proctors must be submitted with a Chair supporting information form.

Chairs of Examiners may be reappointed to serve additional terms of office with approval from SNOs.

For joint school examinations where the Chair of Examiners is appointed on a rotating basis between the departments which jointly manage the exam board, the departments must agree on a process for ensuring that the Chair of Examiners for any particular academic year is appointed by the correct department.

Regulations relating to the appointment of Chair of Examiners is available from Part 5 of the Regulations for the Conduct of University Examinations.

A minimum of one Internal Examiner must be appointed to all exam boards by 1 November of each academic year. The total number of Internal Examiners that must be appointed is governed by the standing order.

All appointments of Internal Examiners require approval from Senior Nominating Officers (SNOs).

Appointments will only require approval from the Proctors if the individuals being appointed do not meet at least one of the following two criteria:

1. Have full faculty membership
2. Have previously been appointed as either Chair of Examiners or Internal Examiner

All appointments that require approval from the Proctors must be submitted with an Internal supporting information form.

Internal Examiners can be reappointed to serve one additional term of office with approval from SNOs.

For regulations relating to the appointment of Chair of Examiners, please see Part 3 of the Regulations for the Conduct of University Examinations.

External Examiners must be appointed by 1 November of each academic year.

With the exception of First Public Examinations (prelims), a minimum of one External Examiner must be appointed to all Exam Boards to act as an arbiter of standards. The total number of External Examiners that must be appointed to an exam board is governed by its standing order.

Note: See External Assessors section below for appointing External Examiner as provider of subject/academic expertise. External Examiners must not act as both arbiter of standards and as provider of subject/academic expertise without advance permission from the Proctors.

All appointments of External Examiners require approval from Senior Nominating Officers (SNOs) and from the Proctors, and must be submitted with a CV and External Examiner supporting information form.

External Examiners can only be appointed for one term of office, of either three or four years. After serving one term of office, they cannot be reappointed for at least five years.  

Extension on External Examiners term of office

The Proctors may grant permission for an External Examiner’s term of office to be extended beyond that stated in the standing order by one additional year. Such permissions will only be granted where there is sufficient justification of exceptional circumstances and must be sought well in advance of the start of the academic year.

To appoint External Examiner for a one year extension, you simply nominate the external examiner via the EAP Portal as normal. The appointment must however be submitted with a document outlining the exceptional circumstances along with sufficient justifications as to why an extension would be appropriate (as ‘Other Files’) in addition to CV and External Examiner supporting information form.

The system will automatically recognise this reappointment as a one year extension and will not roll over the appointment to subsequent academic year. It will also disallow the same External Examiner from being reappointed again for at least five years.

For regulations relating to the appointment of External Examiners, please see Part 6 of the Regulations for the Conduct of University Examinations and the Examinations and assessments framework (EAF).

Exam Boards may, at their discretion, choose to appoint Assessors to assist them with their duties, for example with setting exam questions and marking scripts.

Unlike Examiners (Chairs, Internals and Externals), Assessors are not, strictly speaking, official members of the exam board. They should not therefore take part in the decisions made by the exam board regarding final results/classifications/awards at exam board meetings.

External Assessors

External subject assessors (External Assessor in EAP) 

External Assessors are optional External Examiners appointed by Exam Boards to assist them solely as a provider of subject/academic expertise. 

Note: External Assessors must not carry out the role of arbiter of standards. See External Examiner section above for appointing External Examiner as arbiter of standards. 

All appointments of External Assessors require approval from the Senior Nominating Officers and from the Proctors, and must be submitted with a CV and External Assessor and Practitioner supporting information form. 

The term of office for External Assessors is always four years. External Assessors can be reappointed to the role. Each reappointment will require a new nomination being submitted via the EAP Portal, with up-to-date CV and External Assessor and Practitioner supporting information form, for approval by the Senior Nominating Officer and the Proctors. 

For regulations relating to the appointment of External Assessors, please see Part 6 of the Regulations for the Conduct of University Examinations. 

External practitioner assessors (External Practitioner in EAP)  

External Practitioners are optional External Examiners appointed by Exam Boards to provide expertise otherwise unavailable in the University by practitioners in specialist fields.  They may undertake tasks as required of them by the board, including involvement in the setting and marking of papers. They are not required to submit any formal report. 

Note: External Practitioners must not carry out the role of arbiter of standards. See External Examiner section above for appointing External Examiner as arbiter of standards. 

All appointments of External Practitioners require approval from the Senior Nominating Officers and from the Proctors, and must be submitted with a CV and External Assessor and Practitioner supporting information form. 

The term of office for External Practitioners is always four years. External Practitioners can be reappointed to the role. Each reappointment will require a new nomination being submitted via the EAP Portal, with up-to-date CV and External Assessor and Practitioner supporting information form, for approval by the Senior Nominating Officer and the Proctors. 

Internal Assessors (Assessors)

All appointments of Assessors require approval from the Chair of Examiners.

Appointments will only require approval from the Proctors if the individuals being appointed do not meet at least one of the following two criteria:

1. have full faculty membership
2. have previously been appointed as either Chair of Examiners or Internal Examiner

All appointments that require approval from the Proctors must be submitted with an Internal supporting information form.

Once Assessors have been appointed to an Exam Board, their appointments will remain in place in the EAP Portal and be rolled over to the subsequent year’s Exam Board until they are removed by the Exam Board Administrators.

For regulations relating to the appointment of Assessors, Please see Part 7 of the Regulations for the Conduct of University Examinations

Postgraduate Research (PGR) Student Assessors

Appointments of Postgraduate Research (PGR) Student Assessors are for one term only (e.g. Michaelmas Term). They may continue to act as assessors in subsequent terms (e.g. Hillary and Trinity Terms), but must be reappointed for each subsequent term.

Each appointment and reappointment of PGR Student Assessors requires approval from the Chair of Examiners and from the Proctors, and must be submitted with an up-to-date PGR Assessors supporting information form.

PGR students should only be appointed as assessors on Postgraduate exam boards under exceptional circumstances, which must be clearly outlined in the supporting information form.

Further policy and guidance on the appointment of PGR Student Assessors, including eligibility criteria, can be found in the Examinations and assessments framework (EAF).

Note: Any individual employed by the department in a part- or full- time academic post who also hold a PGR student status must be nominated in the role of 'Assessor - PGR' via the EAP Portal and accompanied with the PGR Assessors supporting information form, unless the individual has been issued with the leave to supplicate notice.

Note: This section is applicable for appointments of casual employees as Examiners or Assessors to Undergraduate Exam Boards only.

The EAP Portal provides information on the RtW status of each appointment. Please refer to the Exam Board Administrator User Manual for further information on RtW statuses.

Where an appointment has been indicated in the portal as missing valid RtW information, Exam Board Administrators (EBAs) must carry out a physical RtW check in advance of any examining work being carried out by the appointee. In exceptional cases, such as External Examiners who are remote to Oxford, RtW checks may be carried out upon first arrival in Oxford, which must be prior to attendance at final exam board meetings. Full guidance on the RTW process is available on the Staff Immigration website.

Departments are only required to carry out RtW checks on casual Examiners and Assessors who are appointed to Undergraduate Exam Boards.

All RtW information for Examiners and Assessors must be recorded in the University's central CoreHR system to be considered valid.

Examiners and Assessors must not carry out any examining work until their appointments have been confirmed in the EAP Portal. This means their appointments have received all of the necessary academic approvals, including from the Proctors if required, and there is valid RtW information against their appointments in CoreHR.

Recording missing RtW information for existing casual examiners and assessors with appointment records in CoreHR

After carrying out physical RtW checks, EBAs must liaise with either CoreHR users in their departments or HRIS Support Centre (depending on local arrangements) to ensure that the RtW information is accurately recorded against the existing appointment records in CoreHR. A physical copy of the RtW must also be retained.

The interface between CoreHR and EAP system will automatically transfer the RtW information and update then RtW status in the EAP Portal.
 
Recording RtW information for new casual Examiners or Assessors

Appointments of new Examiners or Assessors who do not already exist in EAP will require a new casual appointment record being created in CoreHR.

In these instances, the process for recording RtW is as follows:

1. EBA creates a temporary record and submits the nomination in the EAP Portal. Further guidance on how to create temporary record is available from the Exam Board Administrator User Manual.
2. Once the appointment has received all of the necessary academic approvals, including from the Proctors if required, the EBA will receive an automated notification. The notification contains links to HR data forms that will need to be completed with information relating to the Examiner or Assessor, including RtW and bank details information.
3. EBA carries out the physical RtW check, retaining a physical copy of the RtW and completes the correct HR data form. Which data forms to use will depend on whether the form will be forwarded to Core HR users in the department or to HRIS Support Centre.
4. EBA liaises with CoreHR users in the department or HRIS Support Centre to create a new casual appointment record in CoreHR based on the information in the HR data form.

Once the record is created in CoreHR with valid RtW information, the temporary record in EAP will automatically be replaced with the new record created in CoreHR, the RtW status will be updated and the appointment will be confirmed in the EAP Portal.

As with all new casual appointments, once the record has been created, CoreHR users in departments must also send the Equality and Diversity form to the new casual appointment holder to complete, and return to HRIS Data Services at monitoring@admin.ox.ac.uk. The form can be produced using the letter module in CoreHR or by downloading a non-core version of the form (Staff Starter Form) from the Equality and Diversity website.

Note: The Central Assessments and Examinations team will continue to liaise with the Accounts Payable team on creating records for new casual appointments to PG courses.

Letters of Engagement are sent to all examiners and assessors who are external workers (i.e. to those not on the University’s main payroll) once their appointments have been confirmed, via an automated notification from EAP system. 

There are two versions of the letter, one for examiners serving on undergraduate Exam Boards and one for those serving on postgraduate Exam Boards. These letters are updated annually for each academic year and can be found in resources tab on this webpage.

The table below lists deadlines by which payment transactions must be fully authorised in the EAP portal in order to be reflected in each month’s payroll. Full authorisation refers to approval in EAP by both the Chair of Examiners and the department’s financial counter-signatory.

Fixed retainer fee

All Chairs of Examiners are eligible for one fixed retainer fee per exam board for which they are the Chair in any given academic year. This takes the form of a fixed fee for 1-30 candidates, for which the rate differs depending on the type of examination, as outlined in the published Schedule of Fees.

Additional retainer fee

Depending on the type of examination, Chairs of Examiners may also be eligible for additional retainer fee when the number of candidates assessed by the exam board exceeds 30, as follows:

• Postgraduate Diplomas and Certificates: no additional fee payable
• All other examinations: additional piece rate fee payable per additional candidate over 30.

The additional retainer fee is the sum of the piece rate fee for each additional candidate over 30 (e.g. if the exam board assessed  40 candidates, then the sum of the additional retainer fee will be = 10 x piece rate fee). This piece rate fee also differs depending on the type of examination, as outlined in the published Schedule of Fees.

How to submit payments

Payments of Chairs' retainer fees must be submitted to Finance for processing via the EAP portal in the same way as any other type of payments. Full guidance relating to the EAP portal, including how to gain access and user manuals, is available from the EAP support page.

Chairs of Examiners are entitled to receive payment for checking the composition of exam papers set for the examination. This fee is payable in respect of each paper set for the examination, as outlined in the published Schedule of Fees.

How to submit payments

Like all other type of payments, it must be submitted to Finance for processing via the EAP portal. Full guidance relating to the EAP portal, including how to gain access and user manuals, is available from the EAP support page.

Which payment task to select

Depending on the type of examination, one of the following payment tasks should be selected to submit payments of this fee in the EAP portal:

• Continuing Education Diplomas and Certificates: select payment task entitled 'Chair paper set – Cont. Ed.'
• All other Examinations: select payment task entitled 'Chair paper set’.

Note: This fee is not equivalent to the higher rate fee payable for actual setting of written exam papers. If a Chair of Examiners is directly involved in the setting of an exam paper (i.e. writing questions or preparing other material for inclusion in the exam paper) then the higher rate paper setting fee payable to examiners and assessors should be claimed, by selecting the payment task entitled ‘Paper Set’ in the EAP Portal.

External Examiners are entitled to receive one fixed retainer fee per academic year for carrying out the role of arbiter of standard, as outlined in the published Schedule of Fees. This is regardless of the number of exam boards to which they have been appointed as External Examiners. Departments must therefore take extra care to ensure that only one retainer fee is attributed to a given External Examiner in the EAP Portal for the given academic year.

Fixed retainer fee

The fixed retainer fee payable to External Examiners covers their duties as arbiter of standard, as outlined in the Examinations and Assessments Framework (EAF), and attendance at exam board meetings for up to three days.

The rate of retainer fee varies, as outlined in the published Schedule of Fees, depending on the type of examinations – a lower rate for some (e.g. Postgraduate Diplomas) and a higher rate for others (e.g. Final Honour Schools). If examiners serve as arbiter of standard for multiple exam boards with different type of examinations for which a higher and a lower rate are applicable, the retainer fee should be paid at the higher rate.

Additional Fee

In instances whereby External Examiners are required to attend exam board meetings beyond the three days covered by the fixed retainer fee, they will be entitled to receive additional daily fee, i.e. for the fourth, fifth and sixth day, as outlined in the published Schedule of Fees.

External Examiners are not normally expected to attend exam board meetings for more than six days. In instances whereby they are required to attend more than six days, departments must seek permission in advance from the Pro-Vice Chancellor (Education) via Education Policy Support (EPS).

Condition of fee payment

Both the fixed retainer fee and the additional fee are only payable to External Examiners once they have submitted the External Examiner’s report for the given academic year. Further guidance on the report, including the form, is available from the External Examiners webpage.

Please note that External Examiners can submit claim for any expenses that they have incurred, e.g. for attending exam board meetings, at any time. Please refer to the ‘Expenses claims for External Examiners’ for further information.

External examiners are entitled to claim for reimbursement of travel and subsistence expenses incurred during the course of attending exam board meetings.

Claiming for Expenses

In order to submit a claim, examiners must complete the expenses claim form, which can be found on the External Examiners webpage. The form must be completed in full and submitted to the department for processing.

Full guidance on how to ensure that expenses claim meets the requirements for processing is available from Finance webpages, including a Guidance to claim expenses quickly and effectively

Once the claim form has been processed by the department and approval obtained from the Department's Financial counter signatory, the claim form along with an email from the Financial counter signatory authorising the payment and confirming the cost code to which the claim should be charged to can be submitted to the University's Central Finance Team who will issue payments to the examiner. 

Note: Central Finance Team will not be able to process any expenses claims submitted without an email from the Department's Financial counter signatory authorising the claim and confirming the cost code.