Your appointment

All about your appointment at the University, including information on the fee structure for payments, expenses and other information to fulfil your role during your tenure.

About your appointment

Eligibility to work checks

It is a Home Office requirement that we confirm the eligibility to work in the UK of all nominated external examiners (regardless of nationality) before we are able to issue them with a letter of appointment. Checking passports is the usual means by which we establish eligibility, and we usually ask nominees to send or bring in their passports so that we can carry out a face to face check (either virtually or in person). However, other documents may be accepted, and the Home Office guidance on right to work checks (published April 2022) is a useful reference document.

Letter of appointment

Your letter of appointment sets out the terms of your contract with the University, and provides contact information for the Faculty staff with whom you will liaise in carrying out your duties as an external examiner. They should contact you soon after your appointment to provide you with full details about the programme/s you will be examining, but please let us know if you encounter any difficulty with communications.

Along with your appointment letter, you will also be sent two other forms which you are asked to complete and return to us as soon as possible:

an acceptance form, and
a new starter checklist

We ask you to return the acceptance form to indicate your acceptance of the appointment offered. On receipt of your completed acceptance form, we will send you a Brookes staff number and password, which will enable you to access any online programme information which is only available to Brookes staff and students. Once you have received your staff number and password you will be instructed to visit the University’s HR portal: ‘CoreHR’. Here you will need to enter your bank details so that we can pay your external examining fee. It is very important that you update CoreHR with any changes to your bank details and/or residential address. You will receive a prompt to do this, if needed, shortly before you are due to attend examination committees and submit your annual report.

Period of office

External examiners are appointed for a maximum period of four years, although this may in practice be slightly longer to allow for the production of annual reports to cover four successive cohorts of students (taking into account the dates of examination committee meetings).

An extension, of a maximum of one year, to an examiner’s period of office will only be granted in exceptional circumstances, for example, if a programme is due to terminate within the next year or so, and the existing examiner has agreed to see out the final cohort of students, for continuity.

Resignation/termination of office

If you should wish to resign your post, for any reason, before the end of your term of office, we would be very grateful if you would notify the External Examiners Administrator in writing (by email to externals@brookes.ac.uk ) as soon as possible, so we can ask the programme team to secure a new examiner prior to the next assessment period. Other than in exceptional circumstances, we would ask you to give notice before the start of the semester in which your annual report for that year is due.

Because of the importance of the external examiner system in enabling the University to assure the academic standards of its awards, Oxford Brookes reserves the right to terminate your contract if you are unable to fulfil the minimum duties of your role (as set out in 'The External Examiner's Role' section ).

Personal information

We collect a certain amount of personal information in order to process nominations and fees/expenses payments. The University processes all personal data in accordance with the Data Protection Act, and will not use this information for any other than the stated purposes. Download the University’s privacy notice for affiliate staff.

Fees

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. As noted in the introduction, we are continuing to operate our external examiner system remotely, and you will only be asked to travel to campus/partner organisations if it is essential that a particular assessment is sampled in person (e.g. performances, exhibitions, practical examinations, practice placements).

Calculation of 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 "Report" section) - 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. As noted in section "Your Appointment", please ensure that you keep your bank and personal address details up to date in CoreHR, to ensure your fee is sent to the correct bank account.

The fees structure is as follows:

Basic fee £500
For external examiners on taught programmes, including those delivered through collaborative arrangements (except the ACCA partnership)
Covers: Duties set out in "The External Examiner's Role" section; attendance at one examination committee per year (virtually or in person).

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 £50
e.g. to cover acting as lead for a team of external examiners, provision of more than one report per year, etc.
Additional visits related to ‘home’ programmes £50
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.
Visits to international collaborative partner campuses £100
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.
Visits to UK collaborative partner campuses.£50
Providing assurance on compliance with PSRB requirements (in annual report) if specifically appointed to do so.£50

Fee for other activities (on request):

Advice to Undergraduate Confirmation Forum Sub-Committee £100
For advice provided in respect of MEC decisions on exceptional cases requiring variation from the UMP regulations
Curriculum consultation £100
For advice provided in respect of re-validation or major changes to the programme/s examined (paid by the Department/School).

Tax and VAT

Tax

External Examiner Fees are paid in accordance with HM Revenue & Customs’ ‘Particular Occupations’ legislation.

Under this legislation, External Examiners for postgraduate programmes are treated as self-employed workers, and all fees and expenses are paid gross, i.e. with no deduction of income tax/National Insurance Contributions. Examiners for these programmes are therefore advised to declare these fees on their Self-Assessment return. However, you may elect to have income tax deducted before payment of your fee, and if you would like to do this, please inform the APQO on acceptance of your appointment so that we can ensure this is set up correctly on our Payroll system.

Under these HMRC rules, External Examiners on undergraduate programmes are treated as employees for tax purposes, and self-employed for National Insurance purposes; therefore fees are subject to the deduction of basic rate income tax.

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. In the context that external examiners are primarily operating remotely except in exceptional circumstances, please check with your Programme Lead that they have gained authorisation from the Head of APQO for any in-person activities before you incur any personal expenses.

Expenses payments are governed by the University’s Expenses Policy, within the Financial Regulations, (you will need your Brookes staff number and password to log into this area) Both postgraduate and undergraduate external examiners’ expenses are paid gross, i.e. with no deduction of income tax/National Insurance contributions.

Expenses claims will only be reimbursed on production of receipts giving details of the expenses incurred. With the exception of car mileage claims, specific receipts for all goods or services being claimed for must be supplied (VAT receipts where this applies). All expenses claims are subject to the University's normal audit procedures, in accordance with its Financial Regulations.

All claims must be submitted via the University’s Online Expenses Management System. A video showing how to use the system is provided on this page. Once appointed, you will be sent an invitation to join the systems, through an email from Access Workspace. You will be registered for the service using the email address you supplied us with for correspondence purposes.

If you have any queries about using the expenses system, please email us at externals@brookes.ac.uk

Travel

Some key points to consider

Accommodation

The cost of overnight hotel accommodation and breakfast at a reasonable quality hotel - up to the equivalent of 3-star standard - will be reimbursed on production of VAT receipts.
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, other than in exceptional circumstances (please contact us if this is the case).
The University is unable to reimburse any telephone, newspaper or gratuity costs incurred during overnight stays.

Subsistence

Expenditure on meals will be reimbursed on production of VAT receipts.
The University is unable to reimburse the cost of alcoholic drinks, or gratuities.
If you wish to claim for a meal but are unable to provide a receipt, reimbursement is subject to the following limits:
Breakfast £5
Lunch £10
Evening meal £10

Postage

If you incur postage charges, e.g. for returning exam scripts, these will be reimbursed on production of receipts.

Requests to exceed maximum rates

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, you are asked to email externals@brookes.ac.uk explaining the reasons for the additional expenditure.

Key Contacts - Academic Policy & Quality Office

Contact details

The APQO is responsible for the overall administration of the University’s external examiner system. We process nominations and issue letters of appointment, receive annual reports, and process fees and expenses payments. Your key contacts here are:

External Examiners Administrator
(for general enquiries about your appointment)
Samina Bashir
sbashir@brookes.ac.uk

ASA Executive Officer
(for enquiries about payment of fees and expenses)
Simon Waine
swaine@brookes.ac.uk

Head of Academic Policy & Regulation
(for enquiries about institutional issues)
Chloe Teague
cteague@brookes.ac.uk

You can also contact these members of the APQO through the externals@brookes.ac.uk email address. Please notify us as soon as possible if any of your personal details change, for example, changes of contact information or payment details, etc.