Read our latest news bulletin
See in Microsoft Sway
1. Upcoming Deadlines and Key Dates
7th February: Deadline: TEIs to submit New Student Programme Registration data (late entrants)
10th February: Deadline: TEIs to submit Common Awards Management Board (CAMB) Student Representative Nominations
10th February: Webinar “Neurodiverse learning in adult theological education”
14th February: Student Representative Information is published on Durham’s Common Awards website and the election opens
24th February (approx.) - TEIs to receive Banner IDs for late entrants
25th February - Deadline for TEIs to nominate students for the ‘South’ student event
1st March – Invoices issued to all TEIs (payment terms: 30 days)
7th March: Deadline: TEIs to submit APL Credits and supporting documentation for late entrants
7th March: Deadline: TEIs to submit Module Registration Data for quality assurance checks for late entrants
10th March: Deadline: TEIs to submit photographs and data for campus card production (late entrants
14th March: Deadline: CAMB Student Representative Election closes
21st March: Deadline: TEIs to submit Common Awards Management Board (CAMB) Student Representative Election Results to Common Awards Team
21st March: Deadline: 2025 Seedcorn Grant applications
25th March: Common Awards announce results of CAMB Student Representative Elections
31st March: Deadline for TEIs to submit student email addresses for the Common Awards Student Survey)
2. Durham University Zoom licence
We have been informed that Durham University will not be renewing its site licence for Zoom when it expires in March 2025, which means any online meetings held between Common Awards and TEI staff will be held on Microsoft Teams from February 2025.
The University communication noted that, ‘As part of our ongoing efforts to streamline our tools and improve efficiency, we have adopted Microsoft Teams as our primary communication and collaboration platform across the University. As a result, we will not be renewing the site licence for Zoom when it expires in March 2025. The University’s Zoom licence is already a significant annual cost and Zoom have recently announced that this will increase by approximately 70% in 2025. We are confident that Microsoft Teams provides the tools and features that we need to continue working seamlessly and conducting virtual calls.’
We have been assured that external participants can join Durham University Teams calls without needing to have a Durham or Microsoft account, but please bear with us during the transition, and let us know if you experience any issues.
For those who wish to transition to Teams within their own institutions, this link may be helpful to familiarise yourself with its features: Microsoft Teams help & learning.
3. New policy for marking assessments which include quantitative marks
The Common Awards Management Board recently approved a new policy for the marking of summative assessments that don’t use a standard Common Awards assessment criteria grid. This includes any assessments which use quantitative marking – e.g., where the mark given is simply a count of the number of correct answers in a test – which can include for example biblical languages tests or multiple choice tests. Such marking does not directly refer to the qualitative descriptors in Common Awards assessment criteria grids.
This policy has been developed following a request from the Common Awards External Moderator to ensure a consistency in approach to these kinds of assessment.
The new policy requires any TEI which marks any piece of summative assessment other than by using one of the standard Common Awards assessment criteria grids to offer a statement of how the TEI believes this would yield an appropriate overall mark – that is, how the TEI ensures that the mark ultimately given for the work will be comparable to the qualitative descriptors found in the assessment criteria grids. This statement should be shared with the Common Awards Team and would be available to the TEI’s external examiner, ensuring transparency concerning the approach being taken. Equally importantly, the need for a statement will ensure that the relevant tutors have carefully thought through the issues.
The new policy also requires that when conversion is going to be applied to marks – i.e., when the quantitative marks from a test are converted into different marks that sit in the relevant qualitative bands – students should be informed about this in advance. It is important that there is transparency with students over the assessment processes that are being applied to their work.
The full details of the policy can be found here, and should be read in conjunction with the policy on converting test scores into marks.
If the policy applies to any new or existing assessments that your TEI will be offering from 2025-26, we would be grateful if you could provide the relevant statements to us, ideally with your May curriculum development requests (due by 23rd May 2025).
If you have any questions at all about this policy, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the team.
4. New MA and modules in Church Law
The University’s Quality and Standards Committee, and the Common Awards Management Board have approved a new MA in Church Law to be included in the Common Awards Framework. The Continuing Implementation Group have also approved a number of new modules in Church Law.
The programme and modules will be available for TEIs to deliver from September 2025. If you would like to introduce the new programme from 2025-26, please include this in your January curriculum development request if possible (it would be no problem to submit this request a little after the deadline).
If you would like to include some new modules rather than the entire programme, you can do this through the May curriculum development request.
The programme specification for the MA is available here: Prog_Spec_MA-Church-Law.pdf (V62607)
You can find links to the new module outlines below:
TMM48420 The Law of Church Governance TMM48420.pdf
TMM48520 The Law of Doctrine and Liturgy TMM48520.pdf
TMM48620 The Law of Church-State Relations TMM48620.pdf
TMM48760 Dissertation in Church Law TMM48760.pdf
5. The Annual Conference for Theological Educators 2025
The 2025 Annual Conference for Theological Educators will be taking place on 16-18 July, at College Court, Leicester. The theme of the conference will be: ‘Theological education and ministry among children / young people’
We will be in touch with further information and how to book your place in due course.
6. Student Conferences 2025
Building on and learning from the student conferences of 2024, the Durham University Common Awards team plans to host two identical Saturday/24-hour student conferences in 2025 on the topic of ‘How to use Artificial Intelligence well’
We will be holding one in the north and one in the south:
Sarum College, Salisbury: 14th/15th March 2025
Wilson Carlisle Centre (Church Army), Sheffield: 5th/6th September 2025
Canon Dr Gary Wilton has written to TEIs with further details of how to nominate students for these events.
Each TEI is invited to nominate two of their students to attend the most convenient venue/date. If you do not expect to take up one or both or your places, please would you let us know asap so that we can offer the unused places to other TEIs. Should we be oversubscribed we will accept the nominations on a first come first served basis.
The purpose of the conference is to enable students to benefit from an inter-TEI learning experience on a contemporary and fast-developing topic. TEIs may nominate candidates studying for any Common Awards programme, and we hope that you will nominate the students who you believe will benefit most from the opportunity.
For those TEIs sending students to the Salisbury event, please send your nominations in by 25th February.
Common Awards will meet all conference costs including accommodation and meals. Funding will also be available to help with travel costs where needed. Where a nominee needs help with travel costs please would you consult us about the reimbursement process in advance.
Further details will be added here soon.
7. Common Awards Webinars
a. Neurodiverse learning in adult theological education
Monday 10th February 2025 2pm-4pm
Canon Dr Gary Wilton - Teaching Fellow in Theology & Ministry within the Durham University Common Awards Team invites students and staff to join him when he hosts Dr Elli Wort and Dr Leon van Ommen to discuss neurodiverse learning in adult theological education. The conversation will range from the conceptual to the very practical.
Dr Elli Wort is Head of Initial Training and Research Associate for Church Army. She is co-author of Fuzzy Church - Gospel and Culture in the North of England ( Sacristy, 2021). Dr Leon van Ommen is Co-Director of the Centre for Autism & Theology, University of Aberdeen. He is author of Autism and Worship - A Liturgical Theology ( Baylor University Press, 2023)
The webinar is open to teaching and administrative staff at any TEI offering Common Awards programmes. It will be recorded, and the recording made available to TEI staff after the event.
Please use this link to join the webinar, which will be held on Microsoft Teams
b. Disability and Theology
Monday, April 28th at 2pm
A webinar with Dr Naomi Lawson Jacobs, Rev Dr Hannah Lewis. More details and link to follow.
The webinar is open to teaching and administrative staff at any TEI offering Common Awards programmes. It will be recorded, and the recording made available to TEI staff after the event
c. Making ‘Reasonable Adjustments’ for Disabled Students
Wednesday 4th June, 2.00pm – 3.30pm
A webinar with Dr Stephen Campbell, Leeds Trinity University
This webinar will provide a chance for TEI staff to learn more about ‘reasonable adjustments’, exploring how our teaching, assessment, and student support can be adapted to provide a better experience for disabled students.
Dr Campbell is the author of Supporting Disabled Students in Higher Education: The Reasonable Adjustments Handbook (Routledge, 2023), an excellent guide to creative and practical responses to the needs of students with a wide range of disabilities. The webinar will provide an opportunity to hear about his work, and then to discuss with him how it might apply in the TEI context.
For more information about these webinars please see our Events page.
Previous webinars
After a long delay as we updated the ways in which we handle videos, we are now delighted to be able to publish the recording of two Common Awards webinars from last year:
God on the Move: Gypsy Roma Traveller (GRT) Theology and Ministry – a conversation between Dr Steven Horne and Dr Selina Stone
https://youtu.be/iSv1iMC2eSk
Knowledge is Power: Justice and Theologising in 'The Global South' – María Ale Andrade V. and Canon Dr Carlton Turner in conversation with Dr Selina Stone
https://youtu.be/77KKJH8qnkM
8. Seedcorn Grant: 2025 Call for Applications
Our 2025 Seedcorn Grant ‘call for applications’ is now open. Please can you share this information with your staff. The deadline for submissions is 21 March 2025.
We are interested in proposals in any relevant area of research, but for this round we will give priority to projects in two areas:
Full details of these themes, and of the application process, are available in the attached documents, which can also be downloaded from our Seedcorn Grants page.
9. CAMB Student Elections 2024/25 (for 2025/26)
The Common Awards Management Board (CAMB) is a committee with responsibility for and oversight of the quality and standards of the overarching Common Awards partnerships and programmes. The membership of the Board includes students from TEIs who represent the whole of the Common Awards student body. Student representatives are able to contribute to Common Awards decision-making, policy development and the ongoing monitoring and development of Common Awards on a national level.
TEIs have been sent a communication for students on how they can nominate themselves for a CAMB representative position. Please ensure all communications are circulated to students. The deadline for student nominations is 10th February 2025.
10. Durham University Board of Examiners (Overarching)
The Overarching Board of Examiners have been provisionally set as September 2nd (Summer) and December 2nd (Winter), 2025.
We therefore ask that TEIs hold their own Board of Examiners no later than 6th August 2025 (Summer) and 3rd November 2025 (Winter). This allows the Common Awards Team enough time to process the data received from TEIs, and resolve any queries, before the Overarching Board of Examiners. Please note that the date for the Winter Board is one week earlier than usual, as per agreement at the January meeting of the Common Awards Management Board. Please do let us know if these dates present any problems for your TEI.
11. New Student Registration Data (Late Entrants)
TEIs are to submit New Student Programme Registration data for late entrants by the 7th February.
Detailed guidance on this process is available on the Common Awards website here.
Please note that if a student is returning to study to top-up a previous award (eg Diploma to BA), a concession will be required if their last modules were studied on or before the academic year 2018/19.
12. Withdrawals/APN
TEIs are reminded that students cannot be withdrawn without communication with the student. If a student is not engaging then the APN process must be followed, details can be found here.
There are many reasons why a student withdraws and modules are needed to be removed, the process of submitting a withdrawal is being reviewed and will be shared soon.
13. TEI Invoices
Thank you to all TEIs who reviewed the census data and informed us of any remaining errors in the records. Our Finance Team will be sending invoices to TEIs around 1st March 2025. The invoices will be based on a snapshot of student records data from 1st December; all changes communicated to us before 1st December will be reflected in the invoices. Final numbers will be confirmed with TEIs prior to the issuing of invoices.
As per the Standard Validation Contract, the TEIs were previously informed of the increase to the validation and per capita student fees in line with inflation. Please contact us if you have any further questions on this.
14. Staffing update
Rhianne Jones will sadly be leaving the Common Awards team on 31 March 2025, having secured a new position within the Academic Quality Service. Recruitment for her replacement is underway. Rhianne will continue to job share the Senior Quality Manager role with Emma Harrington until 31 March.
Rebecca Stephenson will be joining the Common Awards team as Assistant Quality Manager from 3 March 2024 – 28 February 2025, covering Emma Harrington’s role as Emma continues to provide cover for the Senior Quality Manager role
15. Further Information
The full 2024/2025 academic calendar is available here.
With thanks,
The Common Awards Team
