Professional development course for external examiners in sport and exercise science

BASES and Advance HE (formerly HEA) would like to extend an invitation to existing or aspiring external examiners to take part in a professional development course for external examiners in sport and exercise science. The course has been developed by Advanced HE and will take place on 28 June and 5 July in Manchester.

The course is being offered free of charge as part of the funded Degree Standards project, led by Advance HE and managed by the Office for Students. The purpose of the project is to explore sector-owned processes focusing on professional development for external examiners and the calibration of academic standards.

A current priority for the project is to review how the relatively new and highly successful generic Professional Development Course for External Examiners can be effectively adapted for particular subjects or disciplines, and more directly link the calibration of standards within a subject or discipline. The overall aim of calibration is to enable external examiners across different higher education providers to make consistent grading decisions that are: 

• commensurate with the respective levels of academic achievement they represent
• are comparable across courses and institutional boundaries at any one point and over time
• are consistent with disciplinary and societal expectations of higher education graduates.

A regional consortium of higher education providers in the North West has been set-up as part of the project and it is piloting this course. Courses focusing on two discipline areas – Geography and Law - have already been successfully piloted. The aim now is to trial a course in Sport and Exercise Science and we would like to invite you or members of your staff to take part.

The Integrated Professional Development Course will take place as follows:

• Part 1 – online activities and reading (around 3 hours to complete) from 14 June 2019
• Part 2 – face-to-face professional development workshop on 28 June 2019
• Part 3 – calibration workshop on 5 July 2019

Parts 2 and 3 will take place in central Manchester at a venue to be confirmed.

Dr Ian Sadler, Subject Head in the School of Sport, Leisure and Nutrition, at Liverpool John Moores University has worked with colleagues at Advance HE to design and deliver the course. This initiative is supported by the British Association for Sport and Exercise Science, who have collaborated with Advance HE on the development of the course.

To register for the course, please use this link https://my.heacademy.ac.uk/events/book-event/?eventid=69e331fe-2d6b-e911-882e-00505689cc9e no later than 31 May 2019.

For more details of the Degree Standards project and the integrated course, please go to: https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/degree-standards