External examiner fees? (not for PhDs)

[OldLagNewName]

I'm contemplating taking on an external examiner role for a post-grad qualification. I've done PhD external examining before, but not for a whole qualification. Obviously it would be a good thing for my CV but it's not an essential for my particular situation, so I'm trying to work out whether the fee they are offering (£500 p.a.) would counterbalance the need for nights away from the kids and/or general disruption of working somewhere away from home a few more days a year (I presume they pay expenses on top of that, but don't know that for sure). And part of that is - is this the going rate? I don't have any further info at this stage about how much work it would be, but my impression is that there's very little relationship between the amount of work and the fee anyway for all these kinds of academic extras.

So, any external examiners out there, especially for post-grad quals (Masters level), how much do you earn and how does it relate to the amount of work it is?

£500 sounds about right.

It's not really much work with a well-functioning, organised place: looking through some paperwork & student work, writing a short report. Like most admin-type stuff, once you get the hang of it, it's pretty straightforward. The main thing is the travel- if the institution is a long way from you, this can make it a bit more timeconsuming, though the journey can be useful to do the work!! It can be a bit more, however, if you have somewhere really dysfunctional. One of my friends is EE for a place that's just falling apart, and has been asked to go down more frequently than usual. I don't know if she's been offered more money for the extra trips, or any more detail sadly!

Normally expenses are paid on top of the fee, and the extra cash can come in handy!

As a Master's course leader I would say it's quite a considerable amount of work: reading sample coursework for all the modules, including lengthy dissertations, checking the marks schemes and then attending 1-2 exam boards a year. It can be very interesting in learning from the inside how a course is organised, and it is an honour to be asked, but I wouldn't commit to it lightly. I do agree that it also depends on how well the course (as well as the university) is organised. If you don't get the material clearly organised it would be a nightmare.

Thanks (sorry for the delay acknowleging - I was on my hols). That's useful. Hmm, I'll see if I can find out more about the department/uni.