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1. Common Awards Team
Please note that the Common Awards administrative team may be less responsive than usual from 1st July – 8th July. During this period members of the team will be involved in marshalling at the University congregation ceremonies. The Durham Theological Educator’s Conference will also run from 15th-17th July. Please bear with us and we will respond to queries as soon as we are able to.
2. Upcoming Dates and Deadlines
15th - 17th July - The Annual Conference for Theological Educators
17th July: Proposed Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Policy/Procedure: Deadline for consultation responses
3rd August - Deadline: TEIs to submit Common Awards Management Committee membership lists and quoracy arrangements, as well as dates for upcoming CAMCs
3rd August - Deadline: TEIs to submit their updated T9: Staff CV Summary Table - please ensure you download the latest version of the form from this page
3rd August - Deadline: TEIs to submit Common Awards policies, to include the following:
3. Partnership Renewal with TEIs
As part of the forthcoming renewal of the Common Awards contract with the Archbishops’ Council, Durham University will be undertaking a partnership renewal process with Common Awards TEIs over the coming months.
The details of this process are still being finalised and are currently progressing through the University's approval committees. We anticipate that the process will be lighter-touch than the partnership renewal exercise undertaken in 2023/24. However, we expect that we will need to contact TEIs to request some information to support the renewal.
We will provide further details and confirm the process with TEIs once the necessary approvals have been secured. In the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact the team if you have any questions.
4. Consultation on Template Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Policy
As previously communicated, a consultation is currently open on the proposed template Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Policy, which has been developed to support TEIs in meeting the requirements of OfS Condition E6.
We encourage all TEIs to review the draft policy and provide feedback on its content and implementation. Your input will help ensure that the template is practical, effective, and reflective of the needs of the Common Awards partnership.
The consultation will close on Friday 17 July. Thank you in advance for your engagement with this important piece of work.
5. 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
Please also note that the date of the next Overarching Board meeting has been changed. The meeting will now take place on Monday 7th September. Outcomes from the meeting will be communicated to TEIs within two weeks of the meeting.
6. TEI Attendance – Durham Board of Examiners
TEIs are reminded that they are very welcome to send a representative from their TEI Board of Examiners (normally the Chair) to observe the meetings of the overarching Board. Up to three TEI BoE representatives may attend each board. This can be a good way for TEIs to discover more about how the overarching Board works, and to see how we handle decisions about their students.
Please contact the team if a representative from your TEI Board of Examiners wishes to attend the September Board of Examiners meeting, which will now take place on Monday 7th September.
The winter Board of Examiners meeting will take place on Tuesday 1st December.
7. 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.
8. Academic Misconduct Panel Reports
A reminder that Academic Misconduct Panel Reports should be submitted as soon as possible following the panel meeting to enable timely review by your TEI's University Liaison Officer (ULO).
When completing the report, please ensure that the Outcome section includes the appropriate Durham Outcome grade:
Including the Durham Outcome grade is essential for accurate recording and processing of panel decisions. Thank you for your cooperation in ensuring reports are completed and submitted promptly.
9. Common Awards Student Survey 2026
We are pleased to report that the overall satisfaction rate for Common Awards students remains very high, with 95.74% of students agreeing that they are satisfied with the quality of their course. We are also delighted to report a response rate of 40.3%, representing a significant increase on previous years. Thank you to all TEI staff and student representatives for your support in promoting the survey and encouraging student participation. Raw survey data is in the process of being shared with TEIs, and further analysis will follow.
10. 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
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.
11. ZendTo file sharing software
TEIs are reminded that ZendTo (the University’s file sharing software) is available to facilitate file sharing with the Common Awards Team. This is particularly useful for file types that cannot be password-protected, such as HTML files.
To use ZendTo visit https://zendto.dur.ac.uk/, select Drop Off and follow the instructions to send files to the Common Awards Team. Files can be encrypted within ZendTo with your usual password for added security.
Please do contact the Team if you have any questions.
12. Common Awards Webinar Videos
We are pleased to announce that the recordings of recent webinars are now available online:
13. Common Awards AI Policy cited in HEPI report
The Higher Education Policy Institute has published a report, 'What UK university AI policies actually do: A study of 96 institutions’, which identifies the Common Awards AI policy as one of four ‘exemplars’ around the country – evidence that some institutions are 'getting it right' on AI policy.
14 Admissions/Return to Study
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 in the academic year 2019/20 or before.
15. 2026/27 Calendar
The Common Awards calendar for the academic year 2026/27 is now available here.
With thanks,
Common Awards Team
