External Examiners and External Verifiers: Taught Programmes

In order to facilitate the management of external examining activity in line with the requirements of the Academic Framework Regulations, the Office for Students, and the QAA UK Quality Code for Higher Education, Liverpool John Moores University holds personal data on all engaged external examiners and external verifiers, including:

• Personal and contact details: your title, full name, work address, telephone number and email details for correspondence purposes; your home address, email details, bank account and sort code details in order to process your fee and expenses claim forms; your home address, date of birth, national insurance details, and a passport-sized photograph, in order to give you access to the University’s IT systems and generate a staff account/Staff ID Card

• Your residency and/or citizenship status, in order to confirm your right to work in the UK. This will be passport information, or other proof of eligibility to work in the UK.

  For External Examiners who were nominated prior to 1st March 2023: We will have requested a scan of the main page of your passport (or other proof of eligibility documents), and – on successful appointment – you were required to either present the original documents to a member of University Staff on your first visit to us, or to carry out verification via an electronic check. If you were not scheduled to visit the University and we were not able to carry out an electronic check, you may have been required to send in original document(s) via secure post. If this was the case, these document(s) will only have been held by the University until verification of the original document(s) had been completed, following which, they will have been returned to you via secure recorded delivery. In all of these circumstances, a record of the verification of your right to work in the UK will have been stored by us electronically and securely.

  For External Examiners nominated after 1^st March 2023: If your nomination is approved, this will be subject to a successful check of your proof of eligibility to work in the UK. If you have a current UK Passport, we will carry out this check electronically and store a record of the check electronically and securely. If you do not have a current UK Passport, you are required to present the original documents to a member of University Staff, prior to the commencement of your engagement. This can be either:

• Via in person visit

OR

• If you are not scheduled to visit the University prior to the commencement of your engagement, you may be required to send in original document(s) via secure post. These document(s) will only be held by the University until verification of the original document(s) has been completed, following which, they will be returned to you via secure recorded delivery.

In each of the above circumstances, a record of the verification of your right to work in the UK will be stored by us electronically and securely.

• Your Curriculum Vitae, with details of your current place of work, plus your employment history, main areas of teaching/research, and your education/employment history. This is in order to confirm your suitability for appointment, and to enable the University to facilitate the University’s compliance with Institutional and National requirements
• If you participate in online External Examiner/External Verifier Briefing Sessions, your name, and your LJMU username, will be added to a designated online platform in order to facilitate this.

• Annually, you will be invited to provide, voluntarily and anonymously, the following Equality and Diversity Data:

  • Disability
  • Ethnic Background
  • Nationality
  • Sex
  • Gender Identity
  • Religion
  • Marriage and Civil Partnership
  • Sexual Orientation
  • Carer Responsibility

We will collect personal information from the following sources:

• From you directly; during the nomination process, via your CV and your scanned documents providing proof of eligibility to work in the UK; on appointment, via the details you submit to enable us to give you access to the University’s IT systems and generate a staff IT account; on your first visit to the university, when you present your original documents to verify your eligibility to work in the UK; when you claim fees/expenses; from receipt of a scanned copy of the photograph page of your current passport which you will email to the nominating LJMU Programme Leader; and through completion of the University’s annual Equality and Diversity Survey, which is completed anonymously and voluntarily.
• From you indirectly via an LJMU external examiner nomination form/external verifier nomination form, which will be completed by the nominating LJMU Programme Leader/Link Tutor, using your Curriculum Vitae as the information source

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

• To consider your nomination to act as an external examiner/external verifier.

• To comply with legal and regulatory obligations, requirements and guidance in respect of your right to work in the UK.

• To facilitate your fulfilment of your role and your ongoing engagement with the University, in order to comply with Institutional and National requirements (for example, the Academic Framework Regulations or the QAA UK Quality Code for Higher Education).

• To facilitate the University’s compliance with Institutional and National requirements (for example, to comply with the requirements in the QAA UK Quality Code for Higher Education, such as checking for potential conflicts of interest, or maintaining appointment records throughout your tenure).

• To pay you the agreed fee and to reimburse reasonable expenses incurred as a result of your work with us.
• To support our continued commitment to equality and diversity, ensuring a fair, equitable and positive experience for all.
• The University may, from time to time, use the data to send out communications, updates and consultations as appropriate, which are relevant to and associated with your engagement with us as an External Examiner / External Verifier.

Your personal information will be used internally by authorised members of Liverpool John Moores University staff or departments, only where there is good reason. Such staff may include but are not limited to:

• Nominating programme team 
• Nominating Head of Department/Director of School (or nominee)
• Academic Registry 
• External Examiner Panel 
• The Pro Vice-Chancellor (Student Experience)
• Faculty administrative offices 
• Boards of Examiners 
• University Finance department 
• University IT Services 
• University People and Organisational Development department 

Your name, current post/place of work, and the programmes you oversee will be available to all members of LJMU staff via the University’s secure WebHub database. 

In line with national requirements, your name, position and institution/workplace will be made available to students in programme guides. In the event of a student making direct contact with you, you are advised to refer the query to the Programme Leader.

Your external examiner reports are stored on the University's secure WebHub database, and are accessible to senior management and Academic Registry. They are also stored in Academic Registry’s secure repository. They are shared with programme teams, Directors of School/Heads of Department, and other relevant University staff as required by our Quality Assurance processes. They are also shared with students via designated programme SharePoint sites and via Boards of Study.

Your data may be shared with law enforcement and taxation bodies and also the UK Visas and Immigration. Information may also be shared with Professional, Statutory and Regulatory Bodies (PSRBs) (or their representatives) in order to fulfil the requirements of PSRB accreditation and validation of LJMU programmes. 

Your data may also be shared with national regulatory bodies such as the Quality Assurance Agency or the Designated Quality Body in England. 

Your name, position and institution/workplace, CVs and/or external examiner reports, and the University’s responses to these reports, may also be shared with PSRBs, as appropriate, in order to fulfil any requirements of the PSRB’s accreditation/monitoring processes.

For examiners who are nominated for or appointed to oversee collaborative programmes outside the UK, their information may be shared with designated contacts at the collaborative partner. This will be done in accordance with the contract and the relevant safeguards which are already in place for collaborative provision. Further information can be obtained from The Collaborative Team within LJMU’s Academic Registry.

If you participate in External Examiner/External Verifier Briefing Sessions (delivered online) your name and LJMU Username will be visible to other participants for each session. Comments that you make within the Chat function will also be visible to other members of the designated Team, along with your name. This information will be deleted a maximum of one month following the Briefing Session. During the Briefing Session, you will also have the option of muting your microphone and turning off your camera.

Anonymous Equality and Diversity data will be stored securely and will be reported on internally, on an annual basis, for positive action purposes. Only data at aggregated levels will be reported and analysed.

Data relating to nomination, engagement and administrative management of active engagements

Your data is collected at the point of nomination by the nominating programme team/Academic Registry, and stored centrally and securely by Academic Registry (in secure files). During the nomination process, it is also stored on the External Examiner Panel website (in secure files designated to that committee). Following the approval of engagement, and during your period of engagement, your data is stored centrally and securely by Academic Registry (in secure files), and within the secure database, the LJMU WebHub. Any original documents which are submitted to us will be stored securely on University Premises until they are returned to you via secure recorded post.

Data relating to Fee and Expenses Claims

Data relating to your fees/expenses (Fee/expense claim forms, including your name, home address, and bank details) is stored securely by the University’s Finance department, both in paper format (held securely), and in electronic format (held securely on the University’s Oracle Finance system).

Data relating to creating an LJMU Staff IT Account

If your appointment is confirmed, you will be asked to complete and return a designated form, in order for LJMU to create and activate your Staff IT Account and grant you IT access. Once completed, this will contain personal data including your title, your name, National Insurance Number, date of birth, contact details and home address. This data will be stored by LJMU’s Human Resources Department, in paper form (held securely) and on the University’s secure Staff Infobase HR system.

Equality and Diversity Data will be fully anonymous, and will be stored securely by Academic Registry (in secured files), and in a secure online third party platform (Jisc Online Survey).

The University takes the security of your data very seriously, and has internal policies and controls in place to try and ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed, and is not accessible except by its employees in the performance of their duties. For more information, please see the University’s Data Protection Policy.

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including the purpose of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. We will retain your personal information in line with our Retention of Records Schedule. Unless we explain otherwise to you, this will be according to the timeframes listed below. 

Data relating to nomination, appointment and administrative management of active tenures

• For individuals where a nomination is not approved, nomination data will be held for a period of one year (following the decision not to appoint you) by Academic Registry, and it will then be deleted securely. 
• For individuals where a nomination is approved, engagement/nomination data is held for the duration of the engagement (normally four years) by Academic Registry, and then for a further five years following the end of your period of engagement. It will then be deleted securely. 

Data relating to fee and expenses claims

This data is held by the University’s Finance Department, both in paper format (held securely), and in electronic format (held securely on the University’s Oracle Finance system. Paper and electronic documents will be retained for seven years following the date of submission. They will then be deleted securely. 

In order to enable us to deal with enquiries, Academic Registry also retains copies of fee/expenses claim forms with your home address, date of birth, and bank details all redacted. These are stored electronically in secure files, and are retained for one year following the date of submission. They will then be deleted securely.

Data relating to creating an LJMU Staff IT Account

This data will be stored securely by LJMU’s Human Resources Department in paper form (held securely) and on the University’s secure Staff Infobase HR system. Your information will be held for the duration of your period of engagement (normally four years), and for a further seven years following the end of your tenure. It will then be deleted securely.

Data relating to participation in External Examiner/External Verifier Briefing Sessions (delivered via MS Teams)

We will delete the online area for each External Examiner/External Verifier Briefing Session after a maximum of 1 month.

Equality and Diversity Data will be provided anonymously and will be stored until superseded by the data gathered the following year. Aggregated data will be kept for the year of reporting and for a further five years.

As a data subject, you have a number of rights. You can:

• access and obtain a copy of your data on request
• ask the University to correct incorrect or incomplete data
• ask the University to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary or legally required for the purposes of processing
• request transfer of your data to another party

If your data has been provided by consent, you have a right to withdraw that consent at any time.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact the Data Protection Officer.

We need to collect personal data from you to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations and to facilitate your engagement with the University in this role. (Please note that Equality and Diversity data is the only exception to this, as it is collected on a voluntary basis, only.)

If you do not provide the information to us, you will not being able to carry out your duties, and may ultimately result in the termination of your engagement.

Generally, we do not send your personal data outside the UK. However, in some specific cases, we may transfer the personal data we collect to countries outside the UK in order to perform our contract with you/or a contract with another organisation that requires your personal data i.e. a collaboration agreement with a university based outside of the UK. Where we do this, we will ensure that your personal information is protected by way of an ‘adequacy regulation’ with the UK or by putting alternative appropriate measures in place to ensure that your personal information is treated by those third parties in a way that is consistent with and which respects the UK laws on data protection. For example model contractual clauses, data sharing/data processing agreement and binding corporate rules (where applicable).

We will not make any decisions about you automatically using a computer, based on your personal data. All decisions affecting you will be taken by a human.

You have the right to complain to The Information Commissioner if you believe that our processing of your personal data does not meet our data protection obligations.  The Information Commissioner can be contacted:

By post: Information Commissioners Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK95AF.

By phone:  0303 123 1113.

By email: contact can be made by accessing www.ico.org.uk