You will be paid a fee on receipt of your annual report, and reasonable expenses incurred in the course of carrying out your duties as an external examiner for Brookes will be reimbursed.
Fees
The Academic Policy & Quality Office will arrange for payment of your fees on receipt of your annual report (for details about submission of reports, see section 8) - you do not need to make a separate claim for your fee. Fees are processed in the pay run for the month following submission of the report, and the funds deposited in bank accounts on the last day of the month. The APQO will make arrangements to pay your fee using the bank account details you provided at the time you accepted your appointment as external examiner (or at the time of the most recent update request). Please notify us as soon as possible if these details change.
Calculation of fees
Fees are currently calculated on the basis of the size (in terms of student numbers) of the programme examined, using a multiplier of £10 per full-time equivalent, rounded up to a minimum of £250, or down to a maximum of £800, as appropriate. An additional flat fee of £50 is added to this payment to cover attendance at the relevant examination committee meeting/s.
From the 2018-19 reporting cycle, the fees structure will be as follows:
| Basic fees |
|
For external examiners on taught programmes,
including those delivered through collaborative arrangements (except the ACCA partnership)
Covers:
Duties set out in section 5 below;
attendance at one examination committee per year (virtually or in person) |
£500 |
Uplifts
(a single additional payment in the year in which the activities were undertaken) may be added to the annual fee, as follows: |
|
Extended workload
e.g. to cover acting as lead for a team of external examiners,
provision of more than one report per year, etc. |
£50 |
Additional visits related to ‘home’ programmes
e.g. to visit students in school/clinical placement settings,
to observe clinical examinations,
attend art/architecture exhibitions,
attendance at moderation meetings or additional examination committee meetings, etc. |
£50 |
Visits to international collaborative partner campuses
NB travel/accommodation expenses for EEs visiting overseas partners are covered in
the business plan for the partnership and will be covered by the Department/School
managing the collaborative arrangements |
£100 |
| Visits to UK collaborative partner campuses |
£50 |
Providing assurance on compliance with PSRB requirements (in annual report)
If specifically appointed to do so. |
£50 |
| Fees for other activities (on request) |
|
Advice to MEC Sub-Committee
For advice provided in respect of MEC decisions on exceptional cases requiring
variation from the UMP regulations. |
£100 |
Curriculum consultation
For advice provided in respect of re-validation or major changes to the programme/s examined
(paid by the Department/School). |
£100 |
Tax
Tax will not automatically be deducted from fee payments, unless specifically requested, and it is therefore the individual’s responsibility to meet their tax liabilities. If you would like income tax to be deducted before payment of your fee, please inform the APQO on acceptance of your appointment so that we can ensure this is set up correctly on our Payroll system.
VAT
The University will not pay VAT in excess of the total annual fee. If fees are to be paid to a company or organisation you should inform the APQO on acceptance of your appointment so that the relevant details are available to our Finance service when the account is initiated.
Expenses
The University will reimburse expenses incurred in the course of carrying out your duties as external examiner for Brookes, in accordance with the rates specified in the allowances section below. Expenses payments are governed by the University’s Financial Regulations (Expenses Policy), which can be found at https://intranet.brookes.ac.uk/fls-intranet/finance/policies-and-procedures/expenses-policy/
Expenses claims will only be reimbursed on production of receipts giving details of the expenses incurred. In most cases, credit card slips do not contain this information and are therefore not acceptable. With the exception of car mileage claims, specific receipts for all goods or services being claimed for must be supplied.
All claims must be submitted to the Academic Policy & Quality Office, on the External Examiner Expenses Claim Form (which you can download at /asa/apqo/external-examining/external-examiners/ ) by post or email, as appropriate:
By post:
Simon Waine
Office Administrator (ref. EE payments)
Academic Policy & Quality Office
BCK 1.10 Buckley Building
Oxford Brookes University
Headington Road
Oxford
OX3 0BT
By email:
externals@brookes.ac.uk
All expenses claims are subject to the University's normal audit procedures, in accordance with its Financial Regulations. You are required to provide some personal data on expenses claim forms in order that the University can process your claim – Oxford Brookes processes all personal data in accordance with the 2018 Data Protection Act.
Please note that the University is about to launch a new Online Expenses Management System (due for implementation in mid-September 2018) and all employees, including external examiners, will be required to submit expenses claims through this system – further instructions on how to use the system will be provided shortly.
Expenses allowances
1 Travel
Where possible, external examiners are asked to use public transport, in line with the University’s commitment to sustainable travel – see https://www.brookes.ac.uk/sustainability/transport/ For directions to our campuses, please see https://www.brookes.ac.uk/about-brookes/contacts-maps-and-campuses/ We are unable to provide a travel booking service for external examiners, but, if you book bus/rail tickets well in advance of visiting the University, in order to benefit from cost savings/special offers, we are able to reimburse you before you make the journey if you send us the receipts.
1.1 Rail fares will be reimbursed, at standard class rate, on production of proof of purchase. First class or ‘open’ fares will not normally be reimbursed by the University.
1.2 Bus/coach fares will be reimbursed on production of proof of purchase. Oxford is well served with buses, including the Brookes Bus and the Park & Ride services, and London/airport coaches run from directly outside the Headington campuses.
1.3 Car mileage will be reimbursed at the rate of 40p per mile (up to 10,000 miles per tax year). Motorcycle mileage is reimbursed at the rate of 24p per mile. Car parking fees paid during the course of external examiner duties will be reimbursed subject to the production of proof of expenditure. For details of Park & Ride facilities in the Oxford area see: http://parkandride.oxfordbus.co.uk/ Unless agreed in advance, the University will not reimburse external examiners for the cost of a hire vehicle.
1.4 Taxis may be used where public transport is not available, or there are specific circumstances requiring taxi travel - receipts should be obtained for all journeys.
1.5 Flights - domestic air journeys should only be made where it can be shown that this mode of travel will result in either direct or indirect cost savings (e.g. hotel charges), where there is no other practicable method of travel, or where other special circumstances apply (e.g. industrial action affecting other forms of transport). This must be approved in advance of the expenses being incurred. International air travel costs will not normally be reimbursed, except where external examiners are being asked to fly out to visit partner organisations overseas –travel arrangements for these trips will be organised by the Department/School which manages the collaborative partnership.
2 Accommodation
2.1 The cost of overnight hotel accommodation and breakfast at a reasonable quality hotel (up to the equivalent of a 3-star UK standard) will be reimbursed on production of receipts, normally up to a maximum of £100 per night. Your Programme Lead or Programme Administrator may be able to advise on suitable local accommodation but, regrettably, we do not have the capacity to provide a booking service for external examiners. Please note that the University is unable to reimburse any telephone, newspaper or gratuity costs incurred during overnight stays.
3 Subsistence
3.1 Expenditure on meals will be reimbursed on production of VAT receipts. Please note that the University is unable to reimburse external examiners for the cost of alcoholic drinks.
3.2 Where an external examiner wishes to claim for a meal but is unable to provide a receipt, reimbursement is subject to the following limits:
4 Postage
4.1 Where an external examiner has incurred postage charges, e.g. for returning scripts, these will be reimbursed on production of receipts.
5 Requests to exceed maximum rates
5.1 The University recognises that there may be exceptional circumstances when the maximum rates may have to be exceeded. This must be authorised by the Head of the Academic Policy & Quality Office in advance of the expenses being incurred, if possible. In order for reimbursement to be considered, externals are asked to email externals@brookes.ac.uk explaining the reasons for the additional expenditure.