1. The normal maximum period of appointment is four consecutive years, or, in exceptional circumstances, an appointment may be extended by one or two more years on a case by case basis with the approval of the USSC/GSSC.
2. The appointment is subject to confirmation for each year of the period. External examiners should not normally have had a close involvement with the School during the five years preceding the planned date of appointment. This includes acting as an examiner for the LSE University of London International Programmes (UoLIP) programmes, holding a contract of employment for them or acting as an external examiner for them. If an external examiner has previously taught or studied at the School, in addition to the requirement that five years has elapsed, all students must have completed the programme with which the examiner was involved.
3. External examiners should be experienced teachers in the same discipline and at the same level as the subject being assessed. They should also have good standing in the academic community.
4. External examiners should have knowledge and understanding of current principles and practices in maintaining academic standards, quality assurance and enhancement, and methods of assessment.
5. External examiners should usually have five or more years' experience of university teaching.
6. No more than one external examiner should be concurrently appointed from the same department of the same institution.
7. An external examiner should not be succeeded in the same discipline by another external examiner from the same institution, unless there are exceptional circumstances and the appointment is approved by the ASC.
8. An external examiner should not normally concurrently hold more than two external examiner appointments regardless of the institution.
9. An external examiner should not normally have a close professional, contractual or personal relationship with a student or any member of staff involved with the programme of study or course for which they would have responsibility. The ASC may permit such appointments in exceptional circumstances, e.g. where for disciplinary reasons the pool of eligible externals is small.
10. Other than in exceptional circumstances specifically approved by the appointing body, there should be no reciprocal arrangement whereby a School department or subject group and a department or subject group at another university or higher education institution exchange staff as external examiners.
11. External examiners should not normally be asked to act for more than one Board, Sub-board or Sub-committee of Examiners of the School at any one time unless a specific paper is shared across more than one programme.

In accepting appointment, the external examiner is also asked to confirm that he/she is eligible for appointment in accordance with these conditions.

If you need clarification on any of the conditions for eligibility as set out above, please contact the Student Records Team at ssc.externalexaminers@lse.ac.uk. 

To make a nomination for an External Examiner please complete the form.

Once appointments have been confirmed by the School, external examiners will receive a confirmation email, with details of their responsibilities. These appointment confirmations are sent by the Student Records Team. 

External examiners should liaise with the appropriate academic department(s) for more detailed information about their role. 

The School's main periods for finalising results are as follows:

• June/July - undergraduate and 9/10-month postgraduate programmes.
• October/November - 12-month postgraduate programmes. 

A small number of courses also run examinations in January each year, after which provisional marks are released. There are no exam boards associated with these exams, as all results are ratified during the main exam board seasons (above). 

External examiners must submit a report form as soon as possible after the examination board(s) for the relevant programmes and courses. These should be submitted to ssc.externalexaminers@lse.ac.uk. Once submitted, the forms will be circulated to appropriate members of staff within the School.