The perspectives of a higher education provider and member of malaysian qualifications agency panel of assessors on the external examining system

• Main Authors: Abdul Malek, A.T., Ahmad Zahiruddin, Y., Norasikin, Y., Zabib, B., Norazlynn, A.R.
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English; English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: L Education (General); LB Theory and practice of education; LB2300 Higher Education
• Online Access: http://eprints.unisza.edu.my/1328/1/FH03-FESP-19-23722.pdf; http://eprints.unisza.edu.my/1328/2/FH03-FESP-19-23723.pdf; http://eprints.unisza.edu.my/1328/
• Institution: Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin

External examiners were required for bachelor-level academic programmes and beyond according to the Malaysian Qualifications Framework. Matters pertaining to external examining can be found in Guidelines to Good Practices Monitoring, Reviewing and Continually Improving Institutional Quality that was published by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA). There were inherent issues and challenges associated with the system’s implementation such as meeting quality expectation and developing indicators of external examining, variability in practices, anxieties about the potential for 'cosy' relationships between examiners and departments, and clarity and authority in examiners’ role in assuring standard. An exploratory research was conducted to understand the issues. Five groups of respondents were interviewed. They were higher education providers’ officers responsible for Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI), members of private higher education institution representative bodies, members of professional bodies, and government officers responsible for quality in higher education. Preliminary results suggested that there were evidences of general principles, expectation, and indicators of sound practice of external examining in Malaysia’s HEPs.