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1. Upcoming Deadlines and Key Dates
6th February: Deadline: TEIs to submit New Student Programme Registration data (late entrants)
9th February: Deadline: TEIs to submit Common Awards Management Board (CAMB) Student Representative Nominations
13th February: Student Representative Information is published on Durham’s Common Awards website and the election opens
23rd February (approx.) - TEIs to receive Banner IDs for late entrants
2nd March – Invoices issued to all TEIs (payment terms: 30 days)
6th March: Deadline: TEIs to submit APL Credits and supporting documentation for late entrants
6th March: Deadline: TEIs to submit Module Registration Data for quality assurance checks for late entrants
13th March: Deadline: CAMB Student Representative Election closes
20th March: Deadline: TEIs to submit Common Awards Management Board (CAMB) Student Representative Election Results to Common Awards Team
24th March: Common Awards announce results of CAMB Student Representative Elections
30th March: Deadline: TEIs to submit photographs and data for campus card production (late entrants
30th March: Deadline for TEIs to submit student email addresses for the Common Awards Student Survey)
2. The Annual Conference for Theological Educators 2026
The 2026 Annual Conference for Theological Educators will be taking place on 15-17 July 2026, at Durham. We will be in touch with further information and how to book your place in due course.
3. Student Conferences 2026
How to Engage Well with Global Perspectives
We are very excited to let you know that the Durham University Common Awards team will be hosting a 24-hour student conference on the topic of ‘How to Engage Well with Global Perspectives’.
The conference will be held at the Queen's Foundation, Birmingham, on Friday 20th and Saturday 21st March.
Each TEI is invited to nominate up to two of their students to attend the conference. We hope to be able to accommodate all nominated students, but if we get more nominations than expected we will allocate places on a first come first served basis. We will notify all TEIs as soon as all available spaces have been taken.
The purpose of the conference is to enable students to benefit from an inter-TEI learning experience on a contemporary and important 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.
Participants are invited to arrive from 4pm onwards on the Friday evening as their commitments allow. Some may wish to delay their arrival until the Saturday morning. This is absolutely fine, since the formal conference programme will start at 9:00am on the Saturday morning. The conference will end by 3:30pm.
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 consult us about the reimbursement process in advance.
Please would you send details of your nominated students, including their contact details and planned final award, to the Common Awards Team common.awards@durham.ac.uk by 27th February 2026.
We will then send them the conference pack including the final programme and directions etc. If in the meantime if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.
4. Common Awards Webinar
Tuesday 3rd March, 3pm – 4.30pm: Feedback on the Common Awards Policy on AI and Academic Misconduct
A chance to discuss how the new policy and guidance have worked this year, and whether changes are needed for the future.
Tuesday 28th April, 2.30pm – 4.00pm: ‘She’s Kind, He’s Smart’: Gendered Language in Teaching Evaluations, References and Reports', with the Revd Dr Gabrielle Thomas
When students are filling in Module Evaluation Questionnaires or providing other feedback on their teaching, or staff are writing reports on or references for students, it proves all easy to slip into gendered stereotypes. This webinar will help staff and students identify and avoid them.
Wednesday 6th May, 2pm – 3.30pm: Class in Theological Education, with Dr Sharon Jagger, Dr Alex Fry and Rebecca Tyndall
A chance to explore a report on the experience of working-class students in theological education.
5. Diversifying the Curriculum: Video series: Why Global Conversations Matter
The fifth and final video in the Why Global Conversations Matter series is now available on the Common Awards YouTube channel. In this video, students at Luther King Centre, St Mellitus and YTEP offer their insights on the topic. The Diversifying the Common Awards Curriculum project team would like to thank all who participated in the filming for this series. Please do watch and share these videos within your TEIs. The link to the final video is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtv6Xfpcg18
Please visit the following webpage to learn more about the Why Global Conversations Matter series and to access the first four videos.: Diversifying the Curriculum Videos - Durham University
7. Diversifying the Curriculum: Book Club: Results in!
Thank you to those who voted for a book for our next book club meeting. The book at the top of the poll is:
Tat-siong, Benny Liew and Shelly Matthews (eds). Race and Biblical Studies: Antiracism Pedagogy for the Classroom. Atlanta: SBL Press, 2022.
We’ll be meeting on Teams from 1:30-2:30pm on Wednesday 25th March to discuss the book. The meeting link is here - Online Book Club Meeting: Race and Biblical Studies: Antiracism Pedagogy for the Classroom | Meeting-Join | Microsoft Teams
We hope many of you will be able to join us – you can email us on olabisi.o.obamakin@durham.ac.uk and nina.kurlberg@durham.ac.uk if you would like to be added to the calendar invite.
7. CAMB Student Elections 2025/26 (for 2026/27)
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 9th February 2026.
8. Durham University Board of Examiners (Overarching)
The Overarching Board of Examiners have been provisionally set as September 3rd (Summer) and December 1st (Winter), 2026.
We therefore ask that TEIs hold their own Board of Examiners no later than 5th August 2026 (Summer) and 2nd November 2026 (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.
Exam Board Training/Information Sessions
We plan to hold some Exam Board training/information sessions in advance of the 2025/26 Boards, in collaboration with Dr Ken Farrimond of the Ministry Development Team. There will be two sessions, primarily aimed at TEI staff involved in the preparation for Exam Boards at Common Awards TEIs. The provisional dates/times are as follows, and further information will be circulated in due course:
9. New Student Registration Data (Late Entrants)
TEIs are to submit New Student Programme Registration data for late entrants by the 6th 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 2019/20.
10. 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.
Please continue to use the Withdrawal Form but note that if a student has an approved concession for extensions across academic years for modules and these are to be removed then a further concession is required (not a withdrawal form).
11. 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 2026. 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.
12. Further Information
The full 2025/2026 academic calendar is available here.
With thanks,
Common Awards Team
