Source: Lingnan College
Written by: Lingnan College
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

Lingnan College at Sun Yat-sen University invited its first External Examiner, Professor David Dickinson, former Dean of Birmingham Business School in the UK to meet with Dean Xu Xinzhong, Associate Dean Lu Jun and teachers of Intermediate Macroeconomics and Intermediate Microeconomics on December 14, 2015. They had a thorough discussion on the course syllabi and teaching methods. It was the second time that Prof. Dickinson had visited Lingnan and communicated with the lecturers as an External Examiner.
Development of Lingnan External Examiner System

2012
Lingnan initiated undergraduate education reform

2014
Introduced External Examiner System, being the first among domestic universitiesto implement this system
Employed Prof. David Dickinson, former Dean of Birmingham Business School, as the External Examiner in Lingnan

December 16, 2014
Prof. Dickinson visited for the first time, joining students at lectures, and having face-to-face discussion with lecturers.

December 14, 2015
Prof. Dickinson had a second visit to Lingnan, meeting with teachers of undergraduate programs

Professor Dickinson and the lecturers shared their thoughts on the External Examiner’s role:

External Examiner Prof. David Dickinson: I’m a “critical” friend.
"The External Examiner system is unique and useful. Being an External Examiner requires me to be critical on the quality and method of education so as to guarantee academic standards and fairness on student evaluation. It is really a REVOLUTIONARY innovation for Lingnan to introduce the External Examiner system, which would play a crucial part on education quality improvements. As an External Examiner, I am your “critical” friend. In the past two years, I have had many close discussions with lecturers in Lingnan and learned that you had combined practice and theory by using lots of cases, which is worth keeping. Lecturers should have more interactions with students and inspire their learning initiative.”

Zhu Chuanqi, Lecturer of Intermediate Macroeconomics: External Examiner improves education quality.
"The current evaluation on education quality mainly relies on students’ evaluation and lecturers’ self-reflection, lacking third-party supervision. The External Examiner fills the gap exactly, urging me to make improvements on education quality. We have benefited substantially from Professor Dickinson’s assessment on teaching and examining as well as his personal experience as a teacher.”

Chen Siwei, Lecturer of Intermediate Microeconomics: External Examiner helps solve many teaching problems.
"The External Examiner is different from the assessments I have done before. It is a thorough evaluation on a large scale. In the process of writing the course analysis and answering questions raised by the External Examiner, I had a more clear understanding of my teaching goals and made improvements on the quality of courses. I benefited greatly from the communications with Prof. Dickinson. As a young teacher, I sometimes met with difficulties in teaching, and he patiently solved our problems with his rich experiences. Besides, he looked at the whole picture of economics education, and provided valuable advice in many aspects, such as course design, teaching method, and student evaluation.”

About External Examiner:

The External Examiner plays an important role in all degree level examinations in higher education in the United Kingdom. The External Examiner system originated in 1832 with the establishment of the University of Durham, the first in England since Cambridge was founded 600 years earlier. Durham used Oxford examiners to assure the public that its degrees were a similar standard to Oxford's. The establishment of more universities in England from the 1880s onward was accompanied by a requirement that internal and external examiners conduct examinations. It is also found in countries whose higher education systems were developed from the United Kingdom’s practice, or strongly influenced by it, including New Zealand and India. It is one of the oldest systems of quality control within higher education.

It is a requirement for all degree level examinations at British universities, and in countries operating a similar system, that at least one member of the examining board should be from a university other than the one awarding the degree. This applies both to undergraduate examinations, where there may be hundreds or even thousands of candidates, and to postgraduate examinations including those for the PhD where a special board is convened for each candidate.