Summary
Describes the appointment, role, allocation, tasks and responsibilities of external experts in the assessment within Fontys ICT.

Fontys ICT is committed to keeping the quality and timeliness of education at a high level. One of the ways to achieve this is to involve the business community and (or) the government in the examination of the final examination papers that are made during the graduation thesis. In this way, independent persons from the business community and (or) government are involved in the testing.

An appointment decision is made after an interview with a candidate by a Project Leader Programme Implementation (PLOU) graduation and a second person with knowledge of the graduation process (e.g. a Programme Manager (CE), fellow PLOU or experienced assessor garduation). The following grounds and considerations are taken into account when deciding to award a candidate the role of external expert:

• Multi-year experience in professional practice;
• are familiar with higher professional education (e.g. through experience supervising trainee/graduates);
• has at least HBO work and thinking level;;
• be able to advise in arriving at a balanced judgment..

After a positive decision, an indefinite appointment will follow, which will be ratified by the Managing Director Fontys ICT through an appointment letter.

The tasks of the external expert are:

• Participate as an advisor in the graduation assessment process from the moment portfolio is available and advise on assessment;
• Evaluation of the process and quality of assessment.

Choice of graduation works and preparation

Prior to an assessment period, the external expert is given the opportunity to register for the offered graduation works of his/her choice. In doing so, the external expert is expected to take into account his/her own knowledge and expertise when choosing to participate as an advisory jury member for graduation internships. Also, the external expert may indicate availability.

One to two weeks prior to the graduation sessions, the external expert will receive the portfolios assigned to him/her electronically. The external expert is expected to go through the portfolios so that he/she can form a picture of the quality of the graduation work and ask the graduate relevant questions about it.

Attendance at graduation session

The external expert is expected to be present at the graduation session. Like the other jury members, the external expert asks relevant questions after the presentation which are answered by the graduate. The external expert then participates in the jury deliberation in an advisory role, the graduation session is further described in the Fontys ICT wiki page on the graduation session.

Evaluation

For each session, Fontys ICT will determine whether the evaluation will be organized in writing or in a physical meeting. In the case of a physical meeting, a meeting with external experts is organized during lunch breaks on the days in which the graduation sessions take place. For each day, the external experts are invited who have sessions on that day (if an external expert has assessments on multiple days, it is preferable to join on the day of his last session). During the meeting, adjustments to the process are explained and the external experts evaluate and discuss the quality aspects of the examinations with a delegation of those responsible for the graduation process (graduation coordinators, CE's). The minutes of the meeting are shared with those present and a summary of all minutes of these meetings of a graduation period are shared with the graduation coordinators, the assessment committee, the examination board and quality assurance. Where necessary, the graduation coordinators and/or CE's make adjustments to the graduation process.

If the evaluation is written, the external experts are sent the evaluation questions asking them to answer them. The PLOUs and CE's take stock of the responses and adjust the graduation process or implementation as needed.