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1. Upcoming Dates and Deadlines
14th June - Registration to attend the Theological Educators' Conference closes.
9th July - Student Event: in-person conference on Mental Health in Ministry, Durham Cathedral
10th - 12th July - The Annual Conference for Theological Educators
12th July - Deadline - CIS Account Holders to complete extension requests. TEI Key contacts will receive an email shortly this week with instructions on how colleagues extend CIS accounts for another year.
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 2024/25 calendar will be published this month.
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 V4 January marks ALL Boards) should be returned in January 2025, following all TEI Boards.
3. Conversion of Marks
Ahead of the Board of Examiners, we would like to remind TEIs of the principles surrounding the conversion of marks.
Some assignments, like language tests, might produce quantitative scores. Those scores are not the marks for that assignment. In principle, they will always need to go through some process of conversion – where conversion involves making qualitative judgments about what is meant by different levels of achievement in a quantitatively scored test, and then translating those qualitative judgments into numerical marks in the normal way.
Further information on Converting Test Scores into Marks is available on our website.
4. The Annual Conference of Theological Educators 2024
The 2024 Annual Conference for Theological Educators will be taking place on July 10th – 12th.
The booking form will close soon and there are still some places left, so if anyone has not booked their place yet please do so before 14th June: Event Booking Details (durham.ac.uk)
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 Common Awards staff (all core and associate staff who are or expect to be involved in teaching, assessing or administering Common Awards programmes in the designated Common Awards TEIs). 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.
Revd Dr Carlton Turner, Anglican Tutor in Contextual Theology and Mission Studies at the Queens Foundation, Birmingham and author of Introduction to Caribbean Contextual Theology.
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.
For more information, please visit the Common Awards website conference page
5. Common Awards Student Survey
The 2024 Common Awards Student Survey has been running throughout April/May and closed on Friday 31st May 2024.
The survey, completed by students registered on Common Awards programmes in 2023/24, will be analysed by the Durham team, with TEI-specific results shared with each TEI over the summer.
6. Retention of Assessed Work
The University’s Education Committee is currently considering the University’s approach to assessed work records retention following the recent receipt of additional OfS guidance in this area. In the meantime TEIs are reminded of the expectation that assessed students’ work, including for students who are no longer registered on a programme, should be retained for a period of five years after the end date of their programme.
7. Student Event - Mental Health in Ministry: The Theology and Psychology of Depression and Hearing Voices – 9 July 2024 at Durham Cathedral
*NEW SLOTS RELEASED FOR STUDENTS NOT REGISTERED ON COMMON AWARDS PROGRAMMES*
Any student associated with a Common Awards TEI may now register for a place at the above event, as we have been able to secure more space for the conference. We would be grateful if TEIs could pass this onto all students registered at their TEI.
Students can register via the form: https://forms.office.com/e/0pj6seLRNM
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.
Download the full timetable here: Mental Health in Ministry Student Conference Programme.
For more information, please visit the Common Awards website Events for Students page.
8. Call for nominations: TEI CAMB Representative and Secretary to the TEI Forum
The Membership of the Common Awards Management Board includes two representatives of the Designated Common Awards TEIs, appointed by the TEI Forum. The first position is held by Revd Lucy Dallas as TEI Forum Chair. Revd Dr Simon Stocks is stepping down from the position of TEI Forum Representative to the Common Awards Management Board (CAMB) following the 2023/24 academic year, due to the time served in that role. The Common Awards team would like to extend a huge thanks to Revd Dr Simon Stocks for his valuable contribution to the TEI Forum and to the Management Board.
The Common Awards team will be facilitating a formal election to appoint a new TEI Forum Representative to the CAMB from the 2024/25 academic year, as well as a Secretary to the Forum to assist with the administration of the meetings. We would therefore like to invite forum members who are interested in taking on either of these roles to complete the nomination form by 12pm (noon) 14th Jun 2024 (please contact the team if you did not receive a nomination form). Please return completed forms to the Common Awards team (common.awards@durham.ac.uk). The election will be launched shortly after – more information on this to follow. We would welcome nominations from across all TEIs, groups and denominations. Nominations can be received from non-TEI Forum members, but only TEI Forum members are able to vote in the election.
9. Staffing Update
10. Further Information
The full 23/24 academic calendar is available here.
With thanks,
The Common Awards Team
