Read our latest news bulletin
See in Microsoft Sway
11th June - Registration to attend the Theological Educators' Conference closes.
4th - 6th July - The Annual Conference for Theological Educators
16th July: Deadline - CIS Account Holders to complete extension requests. TEIs will receive an email this week with instructions on how to extend CIS accounts.
TEIs are reminded to submit concession requests and change of registration forms 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 deferred 2022 and 2021 Congregation Ceremonies for Common Awards students are scheduled for 27th June 2022.
The Common Awards registration form has now closed, but graduands and staff should get in touch with the Common Awards team as soon as possible if they missed the deadline and would like to attend.
TEI Staff
Members of staff in TEIs are also welcome to attend the Common Awards graduation ceremonies and celebration event.
In addition, members of staff in TEIs who hold an undergraduate degree are eligible to participate in the academic procession for the Common Awards students.
Please contact the Common Awards team asap if you would like to attend the event or participate in the academic procession.
Celebration Event - St John's College
A celebration event for Common Awards students will take place at St John's College, Durham after the graduation ceremonies have concluded on 27th June (approximately 5.15 - 7pm). Staff are also welcome to attend this event. Again if you missed the deadline for registration please get in touch with the team as soon as possible to book your place.
In preparation for upcoming TEI Boards of Examiners meetings, please see below list of documentation/data reports required by the University following each Board:
As there is no Covid-19 safety net policy for 2021-22, TEIs will not be expected to undertake any additional Covid-19 related analysis or provide any Covid-19 related data for modules and assessments taken in 2021-22. However if the TEI Board will be considering any marks for assessments taken in 2020-21 please follow the 2020/21 ‘Academic Safety Net process’ as indicated in the template agenda. Please contact the Common Awards Team if you have any questions about this, or wish to go over any details before your Boards.
Confirmed module marks for continuing students (Moodle report V4 January marks ALL Boards) should be returned in January 2023, following all TEI Boards (Deadline: 28th January 2023).
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.
The Annual Conference for Theological Educators 2022 will be held at College Court, the University of Leicester between 4-6th July 2022. There are still plenty of spaces left, please use the link below to book your place by 11th June 2022
The theme of the conference is ‘Learning for the Whole of Life.’
This covers three main ideas:
This year’s conference is a hybrid conference. This conference is available
Before booking your place, please note that not all on-site sessions will be available online.
For more information, including booking, please visit the conference webpage.
The 2021/22 Common Awards Student Survey has been running throughout May, and closed on Friday 27th May 2022.
The survey, completed by students registered on Common Awards programmes in 2021/22, will be analysed by the Durham team, with TEI-specific results shared with each TEI over the summer.
Highlighting Good Practice
Starting with this issue, we will be using the Common Awards Bulletin to highlight examples of good practice from around the TEIs, and we will be gathering those examples on the Common Awards website. You can read the first highlighted example, on staff development, below. If you have ideas for other examples that we could highlight in a similar way in future Bulletins, please let us know.
Academic Staff Development: burden and obligation, or a key to flourishing?
I wonder whether your experience of academic staff development in your TEI has been positive, negative, or even non-existent? Dr Alison Gray from Westminster College, part of the Cambridge Theological Federation (CTF), has been engaged in both research and development in this area. Alison’s work is built upon a core conviction that staff development within the context of a TEI must be shaped by its Christian ethos and mission. Alison has been implementing a collaborative curriculum of staff development within the CTF, not only to maximise staff engagement and foster a positive institutional culture of professional development, but more importantly so that the CTF can flourish as a community of faith and learning together. Click here for a video interview in which Alison speaks about the research behind her approach and the benefits, and challenges, of implementing it in her context.
TEIs are reminded to share details of staff appointment processes with the Common Awards Team in advance, so that we have an opportunity to be involved in the recruitment process if we deem it appropriate. This is part of the contractual arrangement the University has with TEIs.
TEIs are reminded that their library staff (or equivalent) can contact Ken Farrimond at the National Ministry Development Team (ken.farrimond@churchofengland.org) if their students have any requests for online books which they would like to see added to the Common Awards Hub. Please could TEIs continue to remind students to put requests to their TEIs.
TEIs are reminded that the Common Awards website contains detailed guidelines and criteria for using the full range of assessment types which are available: Assessment Types. This includes guidance on the different ways in which TEIs can use assessed conversations.
Recruitment to replace Leaona Clarkson is ongoing and we will update TEIs once an appointment has been made.
The full 2021/22 academic calendar is available here. The 2022/23 Calendar is under construction and will be shared with TEIs when available.
With thanks,
The Common Awards Team
