Guidance for Assessors
Situations can arise which cause an assessor to have a conflict of interest that bars them from acting on accreditation or reaccreditation panels for a given institute (i.e. university or other higher education provider). Such a conflict arises from a disqualifying action, examples of which include:
- study at, employment by or being an external examiner for the institute concerned[1];
- having a close family relationship with a member of staff or a student at that institute;
- being required to assess or line manage one or more colleagues who are students on the course(s) under consideration for accreditation or reaccreditation;
- being in a position to influence significantly the future of one or more students on the course(s) in question or knowing that this situation will occur in the future;
- being significantly involved in recent or current substantive collaborative research activities with a member of staff closely involved in the delivery, management or assessment of the course(s) in question;
All conflicts of interest remain in place for three years after the disqualifying action has ceased. In addition, for the first of the above listed actions, the conflict of interest remains until all students who studied with, or were taught or examined by the assessor have completed their studies at the institute concerned.
All assessors are required to declare to the Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences any possible conflict of interest before agreeing to become part of any given accreditation or reaccreditation panel.
Download a printable version of Conflicts of Interest
return to assessor documentation page
[1] One off lectures/workshops are not deemed conflicts of interest