“It is ‘a sham’, a system that is ‘too often abused’; it is ‘obsolete’ and serves only as ‘a fig leaf’: critics of the UK’s external examiner system have not minced their words. Last summer, when a series of allegations about declining standards in higher education hit the headlines, the spotlight turned on the singular role of the external examiner – a post that is ubiquitous in British universities but is found in few other countries …” (more)
[Rebecca Attwood, Times Higher Education, 25 June]