External Examiner
In order to maintain high academic standards the Irish Baptist College actively engages external expertise. A key avenue for this is the use of an external examiner. An external examiner provides impartial and independent scrutiny and approval of our provision leading to academic qualifications. They also offer comments on the academic standards of courses and ensure that the awarding of marks is fair. Working in partnership with Spurgeon's College, London, the external examiner ensures that what the College offers is of the highest academic standards.
At present Dr Zachary Purvis is our external examiner. Dr Purvis has taught church history and theology at Edinburgh Theological Seminary since 2021. He received his DPhil from the University of Oxford and MA from Westminster Seminary California. He held prior posts at the University of Göttingen (Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, 2019-21); University of Wisconsin-Madison (Kingdon Fellow, 2018-19); and University of Edinburgh (Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, 2015-18), where he remains an Honorary Fellow. He has also been a US Fulbright Fellow in Switzerland, recipient of German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) awards, member of the Leibniz-Institute for European History, and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. His first book, Theology and the University in Nineteenth-Century Germany (Oxford University Press, 2016), earned the inaugural Best Book Prize from the Ecclesiastical History Society. His historical research interests lie in the cultural history of theology in Europe from the Renaissance to the twentieth century, the Protestant Reformation, and ecclesiastical historiography and history of scholarship generally, and are combined with systematic interests across the range of theological loci and practice.
Note: Under no circumstances are students permitted to independently contact the external examiner. If the student wishes to engage formally with the quality management process, there are appropriate mechanisms in place at the College, and Spurgeon's College.
