More than 17 per cent of external examiners are paid less than the Pounds 3.60 hourly minimum wage, according to a survey by the Association of 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ Teachers.

Lowest payments go to PhD examiners, who earn an average rate of Pounds 98 for about three working days, compared with Pounds 167 for masters degree work and Pounds 341 for bachelors degrees.

Examiners are involved in defining the structure and content of a syllabus as well as marking scripts and preparing reports discussing the content of a course and the institution's assessment process.

They often have to attend institutions to take part in vivas and exam board meetings.

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But only 12 per cent of those surveyed received the level of pay recommended by the AUT in 1997 of Pounds 155-Pounds 180 per day for examining bachelors degrees. Not one received the recommended rate of Pounds 210 per day for examining a masters degree or Pounds 415 for three days' work examining a PhD and attending a viva.

The survey, Cheating the Examiners, was the first carried out by the association using e-mail and was based on 251 replies from academics at the universities of Nottingham and Sheffield and 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ College, London.

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It found the worst payers were members of the Russell Group, which paid an average of Pounds 154 for three days, compared with Pounds 8 paid by the new universities.

Science examiners also received lower rates of pay, although they spent fewer hours on average than their colleagues in humanities, social sciences and engineering.

The daily rate for scientists was about Pounds 58, compared with Pounds 68 for social scientists.

David Triesman, general secretary of the Association of 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ Teachers, said: "You can get more for responding to the words 'Big Mac and French fries' than to the words of a learned science PhD. Universities are supposed to value external examiners for their impact on national standards, yet they are treated with shameful disdain."

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