Agony aunt

I am an external examiner this year for the first time. How can I gear myself up to the task?

* Windy Dyrden, Professor of counselling, Goldsmiths College, London

The best way is to expunge any need for approval. It is important to express your views of the students' work honestly and with compassion. The same goes for the way the course is run.

Second, keep firm boundaries. Do not be used as the second marker, and ask to see more work if you are given a very small proportion. Asking to select a sample of student work on the day shows that you are not gullible - but do not do this unless you consider it really necessary.

Third, enjoy the experience. You normally get a good lunch and are likely to be treated pretty well by most institutions. The work and your role are important.

Finally, if you get good at the job (or are too soft), be prepared to be flooded with requests to serve as "external" elsewhere. As it is not well paid and many turn down the experience, you will have to be assertive.

* Gordon Pearson, Department of management, Keele University

Be clear about your motives in agreeing to take on this role. Was it money, kudos or altruism? If money was your motive, you made a mistake. Kudos, in terms of CV value, is equally limited.

If your motivation was not money or kudos, a streak of academic idealism must be what has led you to try to help make the British university system work.

The role of external examiner is to try to ensure consistency so that, for example, a first degree from Oxbridge is of equivalent standard to one from, say, Barnsley Tech. This is no easy task.

Your aim is to maintain and, where necessary, raise standards of teaching, learning and assessment.

You will be granted unimpeachable independence to become anything from "a soft touch" to "a pain in the arse". You should aim for somewhere near the middle.

Adopt an open, supportive and cooperative role with your host organisation. You may be seen as a threat, but there is no need to adopt a threatening posture. To do the job properly, you need to understand the host institution's position and the nature and aims of the courses and modules.

* Colin Reid, Professor of law, University of Dundee

If the internal examiners are organised, your role should be clear and everything should arrive in good time. The job will give you new perspectives on teaching.

But if information is poor, mountains of scripts and coursework arrive just before the deadline, papers and mark sheets are jumbled and conversion and aggregation scales are unclear, it is a nightmare. All that you can do is complain. The institution needs its externals more than you need extra work.

Make the effort to attend the exam board. You get a chance to ensure that your views are given the weight your status merits and to see how the assessment process operates. Complete your examiner's report promptly and with care, not least because you get paid only after you produce it.

Praise good practice, and phrase criticism constructively. Do not be afraid to make clear, strong criticisms where these are deserved.

Finally, note how much time you spend working as external examiner - but on no account try to calculate the hourly rate.