A reflection on external examining in universities

It looks like 21 years of external examining in higher education in 15 Universities, not to mention validating about 45 programmes, interim reviews and departmental and faculty evaluations is quite an achievement! A friend of mine once asked if the standard was higher at Russell Group Universities. It’s an interesting word ‘standard’ as I’ve considered the extent to which the word applies by reflecting on what the word applies to. Does it mean cleverer students; cleverer tutors; tougher marking; or maybe none of these? For me, the word ‘standard’ refers to the seriousness of the efforts that are being made to enable students to fulfil their potential. In view of this understanding of the word ‘standard’, I do not think that standards are necessarily higher in the Russell Group Universities. Of course, this is my view and this is based on how I am interpreting my experiences.

As I think about these experiences, an emerging theme of all these years is a sense of isolation. In the beginning, I think that the academic staff were allowed to ‘play out’ more, at times with a child-like sense of innocence. As External Examiners, we tried to swap and pinch ideas from the academic staff we were working with and vice versa. We found out that it is a very good to operate under the official radar as this becomes a means of professional learning. It’s isolation that can make staff believe that if things are going wrong it is somehow their fault. I found that my role could become akin to reassuring the staff, that they were not alone and as ‘Young Mr. Grace of Grace Brothers’ notes: “you’re all doing very well.”

I gained a great insight into higher education in this role. As well as academic and administrative processes I have been able to reflect on the marketization of higher education. Is it possible for any student to arrive as a tidy package aged 18 years and stay in that state for three years? Professional learning in education is messy and untidy (Urban 2009). Add into the equation overseas students, and then the higher education environment becomes potentially messier still. I’ve experienced quality systems that may appear to be a contradiction in terms, with the consequence that more time is spent on administration and less time is spent on doing what really matters. I have been at examination boards that have enabled the most profound insights into education: what is good and less good. The great team spirit; the wonderful student work; the human challenges and the toil. Heaven and its opposing dwelling place have occasionally appeared as metaphors at hand.

My best experience of examination boards occurred when they appeared to be more akin to academic seminars and I was able to send a short paper to the staff, in advance, in order to stimulate discussion of what we were learning from the work of the students. I wanted a seminar rather than a meeting so that we could learn and grow from the processes. I broke no rules and all that required attention received attention.

I realise that this 21 years has been fascinating. A good question to ask a collection of students if you get the chance is, do they learn from each other? Faces really light up when you ask that question. And I have learned so much from reading the work of students. They are professional critical sense-makers. It is not simply a case of them being taught a theory and learning to label accordingly something in their professional lives. If you have, say, over 20 years of professional experience you don’t simply learn a theory, you engage with it, challenge it and even formulate your own theories to be tested. When you see students doing this, academic staff and External Examiners can learn so much. And we can live in hope that we might one day open the ears of policy-makers to these professional voices.

Reference
Urban, M., 2009. Strategies for change: rethinking professional development to meet the challenges of diversity in the early years profession. Paper presented at the IPDA conference, 27-28 November, Birmingham, UK.

Author
Cliff Jones, cliffvj@btopenworld.com

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