A higher education watchdog has found that Kingston University showed a “lack of regard” for the role of external examiners but concluded that there was no evidence of a widespread problem at the institution.

The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) published its final report into alleged malpractices at the University in March, but gave Kingston a clean bill of health.

The report brings to a close a long running saga started in 2004, when an external examiner in the University’s music school was allegedly strong-armed into altering her report on the department’s examinations.

Although the QAA, which reviewed the 2004 allegations, found that Kingston had "clear and robust procedures” for external examining, it also questioned certain aspects of the systems at the university and proposed a review of the assessment procedures within the faculty.

Of the QAA’s findings, university Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Scott said that the university has taken steps to strengthen its management of the external examiner system: “The university does take external examiners’ reports seriously and always responds to their comments. When this particular incident – relating to an amendment to an external examiner’s report for the then School of Music in 2004 – came to light, I took the decision to commission an independent, external investigation of the handling of external examiners reports at Kingston.”

He added that additional measures had now been implemented, including “stronger oversight from senior management and the central university quality and standards team, and the introduction of a new early alerts procedure at senior level for concerns raised by external examiners.”

The review came after the 2004 external examiner answered ‘no’ to the question of whether standards at Kingston were comparable with similar programmes in other institutions. An email was then sent from the director of the school’s MA course to department staff, asking “Can we ask her to amend it so it is less damning?...We must avoid externals with these attitudes in future – we cannot afford this type of bad publicity.”

This email was leaked to the press and the QAA subsequently received a communication from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), ringing the alarm and calling for an investigation.

The QAA is to start a new review of the university in September as part of a larger institutional audit of the universities and colleges in England and Northern Ireland. Part of the audit is to focus on the use made of external examiners, internal and external review.

A spokesperson for the QAA said: “The outcomes of the recommendations made to Kingston University following the Causes for Concern Preliminary Enquiry and the more general effectiveness of external examining arrangements will be subject to specific scrutiny by the audit team.”