External Subject Specialists

3.7.1   The appointment of an external subject specialist is a requirement for all reviews. 

3.7.2   The host Department/programme team should contact the external they wish to nominate in the first instance, on an informal basis.  Once the individual in question has given their agreement in principle to act as the external the host Department/programme team should formally nominate them using the standard nomination form.  External subject specialists should have experience of at least one of the following:

• Higher Education in the subject area and at the appropriate level;
• professional, statutory and/or regulatory bodies, where programmes involve such accreditation or recognition;
• practice in the relevant profession or area of specialism e.g. Foundation degrees, collaborative provision, flexible and distributed learning (including e-learning).

3.7.3   The Panel Chair should approve the nomination for the external subject specialist, in consultation with the Panel Secretary.  Once this has taken place, formal contact may be made with the external by the Panel Secretary.

3.7.4   The external subject specialist must be completely independent of the Department/programme(s) under review i.e. they must not be either current or recent (i.e. within the previous three years) external examiners at the College or staff of the College and should not have previously contributed to the design or delivery of the programme(s) under review or cognate programmes within the College and should not be from any Schools/Departments at another institution which run these programmes jointly with the College.  S/he must also not have acted as external subject specialist for the College within the previous five years.  The Assistant Dean/Head of Department confirms this through the process of signing the nomination form. 

3.7.5   External subject specialists acting at Birkbeck will receive a fee of £300 plus travel expenses for attendance on the day of the review itself with an additional £50 being paid for attendance at the meeting with students (see 6.2.2 and 6.3.1).  The £300 fee should include attendance by the external at the planning meeting (see 6.1.3), if possible, but this should not automatically be a requirement of their role.  External subject specialists will hold full membership of the Panel equivalent to that of each internal Panel member. 

3.7.6   Once the Panel has been formally constituted all contact with the external subject specialist must be carried out through the Panel Secretary in order to prevent any suggestion of lobbying by the Department/programme team. 

3.8   If a programme is under (re-)consideration for accreditation by a professional, statutory or regulatory body that body's Education or Accreditation Committee may wish to nominate an external subject specialist to the Panel.  The Panel will then be regarded as being jointly constituted.

3.9   Observers may be invited, with the prior agreement of the Department and Panel Chair, to attend review meetings for staff development purposes or for professional body reasons.  Observers may be invited to participate in the event.

3.10   The Panel Secretary should brief all members of the Panel and the Department/programme team about the review process and their roles during the event.  This should include circulation of these guidance notes.  The Panel Secretary should also provide further supporting documentation for the Panel when the review documentation is sent to them (see 5.3.1).

3.11   The Panel Secretary should be impartial and responsible both to the Panel and to the TQEC.