Regulations for the Conduct of University Examinations: Part 6 External Examiners and Assessors

6.1. Each supervisory body or nominating committee acting on its behalf must nominate as an external examiner for each University Examination (except the First Public Examination) for which it is responsible a person to act as an external arbiter of standards and may nominate a person as an external assessor to provide academic expertise not otherwise obtainable from within the University.

6.2. Supervisory bodies or nominating committees must submit nominations for external examiners and assessors to the Proctors by 1 November in the academic year in which the external examiners and assesors will serve. The Proctors are responsible for the approval of external examiners.

6.3. The term of office for an external examiner shall be designated in standing orders, and shall be either three or four years. Exceptionally, this may be extended by one year. No external examiner may serve for more than five years.

6.4. The term of office for an external assessor shall be designated in standing orders, and shall be either three or four years. Individuals may be reappointed.

6.5. An external examiner who fails to submit the annual report required by the University may continue in office only with the permission of the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education) or the Proctors.

6.6. A person holding a post in the University or any college or other Oxford institution associated with the University in the examination of candidates may not be approved or designated as an external examiner or assessor.

6.7. Unless they are appointed to examine separate subjects or in separate parts of a University Examination divided into formal parts, no two persons who are, or have been during the preceding two years, on the teaching staff of the same university or other institution shall normally be nominated to serve at the same time as external examiners in the same University Examination.

6.8. External examiners and assessors shall be entitled to a retaining fee up to but not exceeding an amount determined from time to time by the Planning and Resource Allocation Committee of Council.

6.9. The provisions of regulations 4.6, 4.7, and 4.8 in Part 4 of these regulations which concern leave of absence, death, resignation, and removal in the case of examiners shall apply, with any necessary modifications, to external examiners and assessors.