Read our latest news bulletin
See in Microsoft Sway
1. Upcoming Deadlines
9th February - Deadline: TEIs to submit New Student Programme Registration data (late entrants)
16th February - Student Representative Information is published on Durham’s Common Awards website and the election opens)
26th February (approx.) - TEIs to receive Banner IDs for late entrants
28th February - Common Awards 'The Environment, Theology and Action' Webinar: Dr Martin Hodson
1st March – Invoices issued to all TEIs (payment terms: 30 days)
8th March: Deadline: TEIs to submit APL Credits and supporting documentation for late entrants
8th March: Deadline: TEIs to submit Module Registration Data for quality assurance checks for late entrants
8th March: Deadline: TEIs to submit photographs and data for campus card production (late entrants)
2. The Annual Conference for Theological Educators 2024
The 2024 Annual Conference for Theological Educators will be taking place on July 10th – 12th.
The conference will be taking place at Durham University, and the theme of the conference will be: 'Theological Education and Mental Health’
This three-day two-night conference is FREE* to all TEI Common Awards staff. In theological education and the ministry settings, issues of mental health are unavoidable. Each year, 1 in 4 people in the UK experience a mental health problem of some kind. This conference covers a variety of topics to support theological educators in their teaching and formational responsibilities, including:
*Travel expenses not included.
Speakers will include:
Rev’d Prof. John Swinton, Chair in Divinity and Religious Studies (Aberdeen), RMN (registered Mental Nurse), and ordained in the Church of Scotland.
Rev’d Prof. Chris Cook, former Director of the Centre for Spirituality, Theology & Health (retired in 2022), qualified doctor, former Professor of Psychology, and ordained in the Church of England.
Rev’d Dr Joanna Collicutt, fellow at Harris Manchester College of Oxford University, a chartered clinical psychologist, and ordained in the Church of England.
Dr Tasia Scrutton, Associate Professor in the School Philosophy, Religion, and History of Science at Leeds University and author of Christianity and Depression.
Rev’d Jarel Robinson, ordained in the Church of England, co-chair of One Body One Faith, formerly a Methodist minister, and author of Black, Gay, British, Christian, Queer.
Dr Eve Parker, lecturer in Modern Christian Theology at the University of Manchester and author of Trust in Theological Education.
Rev’d Luke Larner, ordained in the Church of England and editor of Confounding the Mighty: Stories of Church, Social Class and Solidarity.
With worship led by Rev Prof Maggi Dawn, Professor of Theology at Durham University, advisor to the Royal School of Church Music, and former Dean of Marquand Chapel at Yale Divinity School.
Booking information to follow. If you wish to receive a reminder when bookings are open you can register for our conference mailing list here: https://forms.office.com/e/EDgCAaaiHw
For more information, please visit the Common Awards website conference page.
3. Student Day Conference
This year academic year, two NEW day-conferences for Common Awards students are being hosted by Common Awards. We would be grateful if you could share this information with all Common Awards students.
Jesus, the Spirit, and the Hope of the World: A Day with N.T. Wright
26 April 2024 at St Paul’s Cathedral, London
This FREE* day conference will be a study-day at St Paul’s Cathedral with N.T. Wright, world-renowned New Testament scholar, best-selling author, and former Bishop of Durham. Over the course of multiple sessions, he will guide students and answer questions on a variety of related topics, including: views of salvation and the eschaton; God’s creation and the new creation; apocalyptic themes in the New Testament; and how these matters inform God’s calling on the Church, in light of the Gospel. Students will also have the opportunity to see the cathedral and to meet students from other TEIs.
The Speaker:
Rt Rev’t Prof N.T. Wright is Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, former Bishop of Durham in the Church of England (2003-2010), and was formerly Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St Andrews.
For more information, please visit the Common Awards website Events for Students page. Students may also sign up to our mailing list here to receive a reminder when bookings are open.
‘Mental Health in Ministry: The Theology and Psychology of Depression and Hearing Voices’
9 July 2024 at Durham Cathedral, Durham
Students will come away from this FREE* day-conference with a deeper understanding of how to wisely and faithfully engage with matters of mental health. This conference focuses on two areas that have a rich tradition of study both in psychology and in the long history of Christian practice: hearing voices and depression. Our speakers will address, in each case, contemporary clinical understandings of these two experiences, their various theological interpretations, and also speak to the benefits and short-comings of each. Students will also have the opportunity to see the cathedral, the grounds of Durham University, and to meet students from other TEIs.
4. Common Awards Webinars
The dates/times for upcoming webinars are:
Tickets are free and available to Common Awards staff and students. For more information about these webinars please see our Events page.
5. Seedcorn Grants: 2024 Call for Applications
Our 2024 Seedcorn Grant ‘call for applications’ is now open. Please can you share this information with your staff. The deadline is Friday 3rd May 2024.
We are interested in proposals in any relevant area of research, but for this round we will give priority to projects in two areas:
We continue to have an ongoing commitment to diversity, inclusion and belonging and welcome applications in this area too.
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.
6. CAMB Student Elections 2023/24 (for 2024/25)
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 will shortly be 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 for is 12th February 2024.
7. Partnership Renewal Process (Round 3)
15 of 17 TEI partnership renewal applications are being considered at the Round 3 meeting of the Partnership Renewal Panel, with a deadline of 4th March. If TEIs are in a position to do so, we would be very grateful to receive applications earlier than this to help the Common Awards team process the paperwork for the March Panel meeting. Thank you. Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions about this process.
8. Durham University Board of Examiners (Overarching)
The Overarching Board of Examiners have been provisionally set as September 3rd (Summer) and December 3rd (Winter), 2024.
We therefore ask that TEIs hold their own Board of Examiners no later than 7th August 2024 (Summer) and 30th October 2024 (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.
9. New Student Registration Data (Late Entrants)
TEIs are to submit New Student Programme Registration data for late entrants by the 9th February.
Detailed guidance on this process is available on the Common Awards website here.
10. 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 2023. 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.
11. Study Path Update
Further to the information provided at the Moodle Administration Update sessions, which took place in the summer, the University is currently working to install Study Path onto our student records system (Banner). Following this update to the system, students who progress from one programme to another will no longer have separate Banner IDs for each programme.
The Study Path implementation will bring about changes to the structure of our student records within Banner. Students will have only one Banner ID, which will have a record of the all the programmes of study/qualifications they take during their time with Durham University under separate Study Path numbers.
The update to Banner is planned to take place between 16-26th February, and the Common Awards Team will be unable to access the system during this time. Therefore, please be aware that there may be some delay to processes requiring access to Banner during this time.
The Common Awards Team will liaise with TEIs separately in relation to any students whose Banner ID will change as a result of this process. If any of the affected students wish to replace their campus card (if applicable), the Common Awards Team will be able to arrange this with the IT Service Desk at the University from 27th February. Further details will be discussed with TEIs individually.
12. Staffing update
Andy Rennie has been appointed to the role of Deputy Academic Registrar (Quality Assurance & Academic Services) in the Student & Academic Services Directorate at Durham University. Andy has been involved in Common Awards since its inception and has offered exceptional leadership on behalf of the University as the Head of the Academic Quality Service. The Common Awards team has been extremely grateful for his advice and guidance throughout the years, and we wish him well for his new role. Andy will start his new role on 1st March 2024.
13. Further Information
The full 2023/2024 academic calendar is available here.
With thanks,
The Common Awards Team
