EXTERNAL EXAMINERUSER GUIDE

(Taught Provision)

QUALITY AND ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENTBUSINESS SYSTEMS TEAM

INTRODUCTIONThe External Examiner nomination portal is an online system which will enable you to submit your initial application information electronically. The system will also provide an electronic means to submit claims for expenses and to check your payslips. Your appointment information will be held securely and will be accessible for you to simply make updates to your personal details.

The nomination portal was launched in April 2018 alongside a new External Examiner Report Portal. The report portal is an online system which will enable you to input your annual report and to view the response that your Department has made to your feedback. This guidance details the appointment process, and the process for submitting expenses claims. Further guidance on the External Examiner Report Portal is available as a separate document.

THE PORTALThe nomination portal was launched in April 2018 alongside a new External Examiner Report Portal. The report portal is a separate online system which will enable you to input your annual report and to view the response that your Department has made to your feedback. This guidance details the appointment process, and the process for submitting expenses claims. Further guidance on the External Examiner Report Portal is available as a separate document.

CONTACT & HELP

If you have any questions or require further assistance, you can contact the Quality and Academic Development Team (QUAD) on the details below:

external.examiners@essex.ac.uk 01206 87 4861

FAQs2

► Registering as a user:Your email address will default as your username.Your password must be a minimum length of 8 characters and contain both upper and lower case and at least 1 number.

► Completing the information:All mandatory fields must be complete before you can submit your information.Attachments will be listed on the summary screen.Please set your primary address as your mailing address.  This will be the address that any postal communication will be sent to.

► Why can’t I submit my information?Please check that all mandatory fields are completed. These are usually denoted by a red asterisk and you will not be able to submit details or proceed to the next page until they are completed. If you have any further problems, please contact the Quality and Academic Development Team at external.examiners@essex.ac.uk.

► How can I get a copy of the information I have submitted?Navigate to My information on the left hand menu.  Select the nomination you have submitted your information for.  Select the send email button to receive a PDF copy to your email address.

► Can I complete part of my information and return later?Yes, if you start entering some of your information as long as you press save and home or save and next the information you have completed with be retained.  You can then log back in at a later date to complete the rest.   To continue go to My information > In progress nominations > Update.  You must complete and submit your information by the date indicated.

► How do I reset my password?Choose the forgotten password option.  Enter your details and you will be emailed a reset password link.

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Who will be using the External Examiner online portals?External ExaminersExternal Examiners are part of University quality assurance processes. They provide an impartial view of the course and independent advice to ensure courses meet the academic standards and quality expected across the sector.

The online nomination and report portals will allow External Examiners to: submit their initial application information electronically; easily edit and update their details; check their schedules of awards/modules; submit their yearly reports and expenses claims; and check their University of Essex payslips. Departmental Managers/Departmental Admin StaffThe Departmental Managers and their delegated administrative teams take responsibility for the initial nominations of External Examiner and managing their duties when in post. Using the online nomination portal, External Examiner nominations can now be fulfilled entirely electronically, with the ability to check which stage a nomination process has reached. Departmental Staff can use the portal to manage and update their External Examiners’ award/module allocations and request changes to their contracts.

Using the online report portal, Departmental staff can receive and store External Examiner reports, and draft Departmental responses, entirely electronically.

Heads of DepartmentHeads of Department will be able to use the nomination portal to approve or decline External Examiner nominations generated by their Departmental admin team. Nominations will be received electronically and the portal will offer a simple way of storing and accessing the information needed to decide upon the suitability of an appointment.

The report portal offers a straightforward way for Heads of Department to monitor External Examiner reports and Departmental responses.

Deputy Deans (Education)Deputy Deans (Education) will electronically receive External Examiner nominations that have been authorised by a Head of Department. The portal will store the details of the nomination and the nominee, alongside additional comments or supplementary information supplied by the nominating Department.

The report portal allows Deputy Deans (Education) to access, and comment upon, the External Examiner reports and Departmental responses for all Departments in their faculty.

Pro-Vice Chancellor (Education)The Pro-Vice Chancellor (Education) takes overall responsibility for the External Examiner process. If a nomination is progressed to them, the Pro-Vice Chancellor (Education) can access the portals to check the details of a nomination and approve/reject as appropriate. The Pro-Vice Chancellor (Education) will also have access to all External Examiner reports and Departmental responses stored in the report portal.

Quality and Academic DevelopmentThe Quality and Academic Development team will continue to oversee the External Examiners for undergraduate and postgraduate (taught) provision. More information about the team can be found on the website.

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GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Terminology in iTrent University of Essex TerminologyRequisition Nomination

Performance reviewer Person completing/ approving change request

Start Date Start date of nomination

Applicant External Examiner

Application closing date Date External Examiner details are needed by

Recruiting Manager Person starting nomination

Requisition Administrator Head of Department

Lifecycle Nomination approval route

Workflow Group Faculty name

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Table of Contents

1. Portal registration.................................................................................................72. Generation of University of Essex computer account.......................................83. Updating your details in HR Organiser.............................................................104. Viewing your payslips........................................................................................145. Claiming expenses..............................................................................................156. Access to IT systems..........................................................................................227. End of appointment............................................................................................22Useful links..............................................................................................................23

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1. Portal registration

If you are an existing External Examiner, you will not need to complete the full new user registration, you will simply be able to log in with your username and password and begin using the system immediately. The details you provided before will populated in the new system. Please log into the new Portal using the details provided in your e-mail from the QUAD Team and check that your details are correct and up to date.

The first section will guide you through how to make changes to your details. If you have checked your details and they are all correct, you can move ahead to other sections in this guide to find out how to view payslips and submit a claim for expenses.

A New User?If you are a new user and have recently been nominated as an External Examiner, you will need to complete the new user registration process. Guidance on how to do this can be found in the External Examiner New User Registration document.

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2. Generation of University of Essex computer account

Your appointing Department may require for you to have access to additional University of Essex IT services and will contact you with information regarding the specifics of these requirements.

To access University of Essex IT systems you will need to register for University of Essex log-in by following the below steps.

A member of the Quality and Academic Development team will e-mail you your Personal Identifier, or PRID. This will be your own unique University reference number - it takes the form of 5 letters - always in capitals - followed by 5 numbers, e.g. SMITH12345.

Follow the link below and click on the second option: Register external email address and passphrase. Enter your external e-mail address and create a passphrase. Input all other details, including the PRID previously sent to you and click Register.

https://www1.essex.ac.uk/it/getaccount/

Having done so, your registered e-mail address will receive an email containing a web link. Please click on this link in order to activate your external e-mail address.

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Having activated your external e-mail address, please then revisit this site and click Obtain your University login and password via previously registered email address and passphrase: 

https://www1.essex.ac.uk/it/getaccount/ 

Log-in using your external email address and passphrase – the site will then inform you of your Essex log-in and your initial password.

Having obtained your log-in and password, please ensure that you visit the following link to our online sign-up page in order to sign up to our rules and regulations – until you have done so, your account will be inactive.

https://www.essex.ac.uk/it/signup/

Once you have signed up to the rules and regulations for use of Essex IT systems, your account will be activated and you will be able to change your password to something more memorable by accessing the below link:

https://www1.essex.ac.uk/password/login.aspx

Access to FASER and Moodle will be automatically triggered by the generation of your Essex log-in. Please see sections 6 and 7 of this guidance for information on these systems. Any other requirements for IT access will need to be granted individually by your appointing department.

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3. Updating your details in HR Organiser

Your details will be held in the University of Essex’s Human Resources management system: HR Organiser which can be accessed at any time via the below link:

https://hrorganiser.essex.ac.uk/tlive_ess/ess/#/login

You will need your log in details each time you wish to access the system.

The below images illustrates the HR Organiser home page. To make changes to your personal details click on the Personal tab on the top of the screen.

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If you need to make changes to your Payroll details, you can download a Payroll form to do so here.

Once you have filled out your updated details and wish to submit the form, click the paperclip icon in the Personal details section of HR Organiser to upload the completed document.

This will bring up the below screen. Enter a Document name for the file and ensure that you have selected ‘EE-Bank Details’ from the Document Type drop-down menu. Upload your file and click Save.

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If you need to make changes to your contact details, go to the Personal tab and click on Contact details. This will bring up the below screen. Update your details as appropriate and click Save. Please note that if your details are changing due to moving institutions, you will need to notify the QUAD Team at external.examiners@essex.ac.uk as this change may require review and approval. If you have any queries, you can contact the QUAD Team at any time.

To update your address, go to the Contact information bar and click Add.

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This will provide the Address details page illustrated below. Add or update your details and click Save.

You can return to make further changes to your details at any point.

TO NOTE:If you move institution, please notify the Department and the QUAD Team as soon as possible.

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4. Viewing your payslips

The new Portal enables to you view everything in one area, HR Organiser, including your payslips to date. To access and view your payslips, click on the Pay & Benefits tab. You will then see a list of your previous payslips month by month.

To view a payslip, select the relevant payslip by Pay date and click the date to download as a PDF. You can just view as a PDF, print or save for your records.

If your appointment as an External Examiner is coming to an end, or you need to resign from the position early, we recommend that you download and save copies of your payslips for your own records.

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5. Claiming expensesClaims for expenses should be submitted through Agresso, the University of Essex’s financial management system. The browser-based Agresso web unit, Unit4 Web, can be accessed via the following link:

https://agrlive.essex.ac.uk/BusinessWorld/Login/Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fbusinessworld

NOTE: If you are accessing Agresso Unit4Web from outside the University of Essex campus or from a non-networked PC, you will need to establish setup an OpenVPN connection. Instructions on how to establish setup this connection for different operating systems can be found on the below IT services webpage. See Step 3: Set up OpenVPN on your home computer for guidance on how to set up this connection up on a Windows operating systemWindows, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Android and Chromebook systems.; instructions for alternative operating systems can be found on the left-hand sidebar.

https://www.essex.ac.uk/staff/it-services/virtual-private-network

Once you have set upestablished an OpenVPN connection, go to the Agresso Unit4Web home page. Log in with your University of Essex username and password (ensure that Windows password authentication is selected in the top box and that the Domain is set as CAMPUS).

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Once you have logged in to Unit4, navigate to the Your employment tab on the left hand side toolbar. To submit an expense claim, first select Expenses in the Start pages menu.

Second, select General Expenses.

In the next screen, you will be required to enter the reason for the claim in the Purpose text box. In all cases, please note the purpose as ‘External Examiner Expenses’, the Date as the date your initial expenditure was made, and enter the Cost Code as ‘RE00300’.

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You will now need to enter the details of the expenses you are claiming for. To do this click the Add expense button at the bottom of the screen.

This will expand fields requesting further information. Fill in the details of the claim line, select an expense category, an expense date (date of receipt), a description, and the expense amount (this includes any tax paid).

TO NOTE: If the VAT on the claim line is not known or shown on the receipt, please keep the Tax Code as PZ. If the receipt for the expense clearly states that Standard Rate VAT was applied, please use Tax Code PT

If you need to add multiple expenses, simply click the Add expense button again to add in extra rows.

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Once all claim lines are input, you will need to upload copies of your receipts as part of the claim submission. If not already in electronic format, receipts should be clearly scanned or photographed and then uploaded. You can view receipts uploaded by clicking the Show receipts which can be found in the top right hand corner of the page.

To upload your receipt, go to Upload Receipt and choose the receipt file to upload from your device. Double click on the receipt to be able to match the receipt to the claim.

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Tick the check box to choose which line to match the receipt to and click Match to receipt. Use the arrows either side of the screen to find the right receipt. Once all receipts are matched, close the receipts box by clicking the X in the top right corner.

If you need to add any additional information and detail to the claim, click Add information at the bottom of the screen.

You are able to type any useful, additional information in this box as a commentary to your claim. Once complete click OK.

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This information will appear in the claim summary on the right hand side of the screen and will stay with the claim throughout its lifespan.

If the claim is incomplete or not ready for submission, click Save as draft to save it. You can log back in at a later date to update information, such as uploading a receipt, and submit. When the claim is ready for submission, click Send for approval to submit the claim.

Once you have submitted your expense claim, the following message box will appear. This is confirmation that the expense claim has been submitted successfully. The transaction number can be found in this box for future reference.

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More detailed guidance on using the Agresso Unit4Web is available online.

Guidance on the University’s policies on External Examiner expenses is available on the Academic Standards and Quality website.

Once your expenses claim has been submitted and has been sent for review and approval, you will receive an automated email confirming successful submission.

If your request for expenses is approved, you will receive a confirmation e-mail that details the scheduled date of payment for your expenses.

If your request for expenses is rejected, you will receive an initial notification e-mail informing you of this. A member of the QUAD Team will then e-mail you directly to discuss why the submission has been rejected and the according issues with the submission with suggested solutions.

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6. Access to IT systems

Your department may wish for you to have access to specific IT systems for sharing assessments and teaching content electronically. Your departmental contact will advise you on the systems that they wish for you to access and appropriate guidance on these will be made available.

7. End of appointment

The month before the end of your appointment, the QUAD Team will send you an email informing you that your term of appointment will be shortly coming to an end.

We recommend that you log into HR Organiser and download your payslips for your records (see Viewing your Payslips for guidance on this process) as these will not be retained in the system past the end date of your contract.

If you need to make changes to your contract, please discuss this further directly with the Department who will advise accordingly and submit a contract change request to QUAD if required. Changes to contracts require approval and this process is managed through the portal, updating all parties throughout.

If you need to end your appointment as an External Examiner earlier than your scheduled contract end date, please contact the QUAD Team at external.examiners@essex.ac.uk to discuss this process in further details.

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Useful links

► Academic Standards and Quality

Information on the role of External Examiners.

www.essex.ac.uk/quality/external_examiners/default.asp

Nomination and Appointment

https://www1.essex.ac.uk/quality/external_examiners/nomination_procedure.asp

Fees and Expenses

https://www1.essex.ac.uk/quality/external_examiners/fees&expenses.asp

► Payroll

Blank Payroll Forms

https://www.essex.ac.uk/-/media/documents/directories/human-resources/payroll/new-starter-uoe.pdf

► Claiming Expenses

Unit4Web Agresso Web Unit

https://agrlive.essex.ac.uk/BusinessWorld/Login/Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fbusinessworld

Agresso User Guides

https://sp.essex.ac.uk/sections/finance/BST/SitePages/Expenses.aspx

Document review informationDocument Owner Quality and Academic DevelopmentDocument Author Chelsey Smith, Luke Nash, Sarah SmithDocument last reviewed by Chelsey SmithDate last reviewed by 10/04/2018Review frequency Annually

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