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1. Upcoming Dates and Deadlines
5th June – Deadline for TEI Forum Chairperson nominations. Nominations are welcome from members and non-members who are core staff at Common Awards TEIs.
12th June - Registration to attend the Theological Educators' Conference closes.
12th June – TEI Forum: Election of Chairperson opens
30th June – TEI Forum: Election of Chairperson closes
15th - 17th July - The Annual Conference for Theological Educators
TEIs are reminded to submit concession requests and change of registration forms (in advance / before changes are made) on an ongoing basis.
Similarly, TEIs are required to submit all student module marks 48hrs after they have been considered at their TEI Board of Examiners.
The 2026/27 calendar can be found here.
2. Durham University Board of Examiners (Overarching)
In preparation for upcoming TEI Boards of Examiners meetings, please see below for the list of documentation/data reports required by the University following each Board:
Confirmed module marks for continuing students (Moodle report V5 January marks ALL Boards) should be returned in January 2027, following all TEI Boards.
If you need any support in relation to using Moodle for Exam Board reports, please contact the Moodle Helpdesk at helpdesk@support.commonawards.org
3. Conversion of Marks
TEIs are reminded to follow the policy for marking summative assessments where a standard Common Awards assessment criteria grid is not used. 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.
The 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 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 2026-27, we would be grateful if you could provide the relevant statements to us as soon as possible. Thank you.
4. The Annual Conference of Theological Educators 2026
The 2026 Annual Conference for Theological Educators will be taking place on July 15th – 17th, at Durham University.
The theme of the conference is ‘AI and the Future of Theological Education’
This three-day two-night conference is FREE to all Common Awards staff.
Speakers will include:
There will also be a session on Neurodiversity and Theological Education with Allison Fenton and Ed Olsworth-Peter.
Conference format
The conference will be held onsite only, and the sessions themselves will not be recorded.
This conference is for staff. Please see the Events for Students page for any events which are currently open to Common Awards Students.
Conference Timetable 2026
The full conference timetable will be emailed to TEIs for distribution amongst staff.
The conference will start with registration from 12 noon on the 15th, and end with lunch at 1pm on the 17th.
How to register
Please use this link to book your place on the conference: Theological Educators’ Conference 2026: Registration Form – Fill in form The booking form may close early if we receive the maximum number of bookings; in this event we will open a reserve list. The booking form is for everyone who wishes to attend in any capacity.
Before registering to attend the conference, please read our Privacy Notice (you will need to confirm that you have read this when completing the registration form).
Booking options
Conference cost
5. Common Awards Student Survey
The 2026 Common Awards Student Survey has been running throughout April/May and closed on Friday 29th May 2026.
The survey, completed by students registered on Common Awards programmes in 2025/26, will be analysed by the Durham team, with TEI-specific results shared with each TEI over the summer.
6. Entry Requirements
Following agreement by the Common Awards Management Board, the entry requirements published on websites and in programme specifications have been reviewed and updated to ensure consistency.
7. Curriculum Update
Since the last bulletin, one new module has been approved by CIG for addition to the Common Awards suite of modules:
TMM1851 Pioneering Mission Practice
Level 4
20 credits
The T5 Core mapping document has been amended to reflect this. This can be found here Templates and Forms - Durham University.
Postgraduate Module Combinations
Following the consultation earlier this year, TEIs are reminded that students registered on the Postgraduate Certificate or Postgraduate Diploma in Theology, Ministry and Mission should not normally study a combination of modules that, collectively, fully satisfies the requirements of an approved equivalent specialist postgraduate award (such as a Postgraduate Certificate in Church Law, for example).
Programme regulations must therefore ensure that, where modules are shared with specialist pathways, limits are placed on the number and/or combination of such modules that may be taken within the Theology, Ministry and Mission programme.
We are in the process of updating relevant Programme Specifications to reflect this requirement.
8. Staff who have a Durham IT account
Your TEI key contact should have already been in touch and provided the process guide for extending your account. If you have not received this, please contact them directly.
Over the coming months, Durham IT accounts will begin to expire. Accounts are now set to expire 12 months after their most recent extension in 2025 or from the date a new account was created. This replaces the previous approach where all accounts expired on 31 August, regardless of creation or renewal date. Please note this is a system-controlled change and is outside our direct control.
To ensure uninterrupted access, please:
As accounts have been extended at different times, reminders and required actions will occur throughout the year.
If you would like to confirm your account expiry date, you can contact the IT Helpdesk:
T: +44 (0)191 334 1515Hours: Monday to Friday, 08:00–18:00
9. Creating a bank of sample dissertations
TEIs are reminded of the below proposal from the Common Awards Management Board relating to the creation of a bank of sample dissertations.
Creating a bank of sample dissertations
Following a suggestion from an external examiner, the Common Awards Management Board in January 2025 agreed to pursue the creation of a bank of sample dissertations complete with marks and feedback, to be available to Common Awards students and staff, so that students can see what a good dissertation looks like, and markers (especially those new to dissertation marking) can calibrate their marking.
We are asking TEIs to help us put this resource together.
What are we looking for?
We therefore want to create bank of dissertations that:
How can TEIs help?
As TEIs pursue 2026 round of dissertation marking and exam boards, we are asking staff to identify dissertations that, in their judgment, fit the criteria above.
It is up to TEIs how to manage this process. It could be an item on the Exam Board agenda, but it is likely to be more practical to handle it separately.
The crucial point is that, for each dissertation identified, the TEI will need to secure explicit permission from the student and both markers before sending the dissertation on to us.
We are not expecting any one TEI to provide samples for every mark band or every broad subject area. Our hope is that if each TEI provides a small number of candidate dissertations – perhaps no more than one or two – the Common Awards team will be able to choose from amongst them a selection that covers the main bases.
It is important to stress that we don’t simply want to receive first class / distinction-level dissertations. To be helpful to markers seeking to calibrate their marks, we need sample dissertations of a range of different qualities.
What will happen to the dissertations submitted?
The Common Awards team will arrange for each of these marked dissertations to be moderated, by a combination of ULOs and volunteer staff at TEIs different from the ones that submitted the dissertations in question, to ensure that
Once we have our sample checked, we will publish them – with all student, marker and TEI details anonymised – on the Common Awards Hub.
10. Non-standard Admissions
TEI admissions policies outline the requirements (academic or otherwise) that candidates must meet in order to be admitted to a Common Awards programme at that TEI. If a TEI wishes to admit a student who does not meet these requirements, the admissions application must also be processed as a concession request and considered by the Common Awards Management Board.
The concession form and any supporting documentation must be submitted to Durham as early as possible before the student can be formally admitted and attend teaching.
Evidence submitted by the TEI in support of the concession should normally include:
If the concessions request is approved, TEIs should register the student via the Programme Registration process as normal.
Action required:
- please submit concessions in advance of the new academic year for any non-standard admissions.
- Please could TEIs ensure that all concessions contain the student's Moodle record (before any requested changes have been made in Moodle).
11. Further Information
The full 2025/2026 academic calendar is available here.
With thanks,
Common Awards Team
