External Examiner Reports

External Examiner A:

The range of undergraduate International History modules taught at the LSE is extremely impressive and is ever expanding to match staff research interests. The undergraduate dissertations I have moderated are also largely excellent in terms of the range of topics examined and the level of primary research conducted. It was also great to see so many different forms of assessment being utilised across the modules and there is less emphasis on traditional exams than in the past. In addition, I would like to praise the high quality of work generally being produced by History students at the LSE, particularly at Level 6. All this clearly indicates that the teaching in the Department of International History is of a high quality and is appropriate to the modules and assessments.

External Examiner B:

Overall, I was really impressed with the work on display, for which both students and their teachers deserve praise. Some of the presentations were particularly professional and the best dissertations displayed graduate-level ability to identify compelling topics and deploy them convincingly using some great primary source research. It was exciting to see students be so ambitious with the projects they chose and that they were encouraged to choose a really wide range of topics. Some modules have also used some innovative forms of assessment and it was good to see students engaging with them as well as they have.

There were isolated patches in student performance where students either failed to submit assessments or submitted work that suggested disengagement with the module and/or university expectations in general. This might speak to broader trends in post-COVID student experience, or indeed student experience irrespective of the pandemic disruption. It might be worth considering steps to address in the Staff-Student Liaison Committee.

External Examiner A

I was impressed with the quality of the research papers and dissertations, with several students delivering excellent outputs, meticulously researched with impressive historiographical range. The diverse range of geographical coverage of the modules is commendable with a truly global focus that can perfectly accommodate the multicultural cohort of LSE Master students. I am still amazed with how exhaustive feedback provided by the faculty on most assessments, not only justifying the mark but offering tons of advice on possible improvement. It is one of the best types of feedback practises I have come across as external examiner.

External Examiner B

The great strength of the programmes offered at postgraduate level in the International History department is the range of the curriculum. Students continue to be offered a wide selection of modules taught by leading experts in the field. The content of the courses is intellectually stimulating and offers a wide range of opportunities for students either to deepen their knowledge of topics with which they are familiar or to expand their interests in to new areas of study.

I have raised with the department the issues of consistency across the different credit-weighted elements of the programmes. In particular I noted some differences with regard to the specific questions set and also raised some minor inconsistencies in marking and feedback. Overall though I judged that the general standard of marking and consistency was appropriate.

The method of assessment remains fairly traditional within the department in the sense that the focus is on assessed essays and examinations. Broadly speaking I would endorse this approach. Essay writing is integral to the practice of historians and examinations are a particularly useful test of what students have learned and in some ways are becoming a more useful resource given the (national) rise in academic misconduct and plagiarism cases. In addition very diverse portfolios of assessment often raise questions of equity ie. the comparability of a 20 minute presentation with a 3,000 word essay

As with all such programmes the standard of student work varied but the best of it was excellent and I read some dissertations that certainly could be published after further revision and guidance.

On the whole and after my first year as an external examiner I was impressed by the commitment of staff and students in the department.