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COMMON AWARDS - JANUARY 2022
All communications, updates and changes regarding Covid-19 will be communicated on this FAQ section and through emails to TEI Key Contacts and Principals. Please remember that the best way to contact the team is via the common.awards@durham.ac.uk email address. We continue to work from home and do not have access to the office phones.
TEIs were made aware of the following changes to the Winter Congregation 2022 ceremonies in December:
Due to continuing Covid-19 uncertainties, including the new Omicron variant, and UK Government measures introduced to help control its spread, the University took the difficult decision to postpone the Congregation ceremonies planned for January 2022. This included the Common Awards ceremonies due to take place on 6th January 2022, and means that the Celebration Event at St John’s College was also postponed.
All Common Awards students who had registered to attend the ceremonies were contacted by the Ceremonies Team, confirming details of the postponement and details of how their degrees will be awarded. You may find the following information useful if you are contacted by graduands:
We understand that this may be disappointing news to many students and their families, but please be reassured that all students will have the opportunity to attend a ceremony in the future.
If you have not already done to, please could TEIs provide us with your 2021-22 Board of Examiner Membership Lists at your earliest convenience. These need to be approved at the January meeting of the Common Awards Management Board.
TEIs are required to submit Curriculum Development proposals for substantive changes or new developments at the TEI (e.g. introducing or withdrawing a programme or programme centre, or making changes to the mode of delivery of programmes or modules) by 28th January 2022. Smaller TEI programme and module changes do not need to be provided to us until the May deadline.
Further information on the approvals process is available here.
Members of the Common Awards Management Board recently reviewed the regulations on Assessment Irregularities, following queries relating to the capping of marks at the passmark when work has been resubmitted - and whether it is the whole module mark or the mark for an individual assessed component that is capped.
To avoid confusion, the wording of 3B under ‘Possible Outcomes’ has been expanded to include the italicised phrase as written below:
B. award a mark of 0 for the work (this may be appropriate where the plagiarism/collusion/multiple submission is more extensive, the work makes a significant contribution to the module/programme as a whole, or it is a repeat offence or there is clear evidence of dishonesty) and permit the student to resit/resubmit the piece of work with a mark for that piece of work capped at the pass mark (within the resit limitations set out in the Core Regulations for the Common Awards programmes).
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 have recently been 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 2022/23 is 11th February.
We would be grateful if TEIs could forward the call for student feedback for the Management Board (sent to TEI key contacts on 6th January) onto all Common Awards Students.
Students should provide any feedback that they have to the elected Student Representatives for the Management Board by 19th January 2022. Further details are in the email sent to TEI key contacts.
The standard entry requirements for all approved Common Awards programmes for 2022-23 have been approved by the Quality and Standards Sub-Committee. No changes have been made from the 2021-22 requirements, but as updates have been made in recent years please ensure that TEI Admissions Policies refer to the latest version, which can be found here.
TEIs are to submit New Student Programme Registration data for late entrants by the 11th February.
Detailed guidance on this process is available on the Common Awards website here.
This programme provides participants with the opportunity to work through interactive online content in their own time, to discuss their learning with colleagues across the UK and with facilitators from Durham University’s Centre for Academic Development.
Successful completion of the Account of Professional Practice confers Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (now known as AdvanceHE) and the post-nominal letters AFHEA.
An introductory session was held on December 3rd. If you would like to join this programme but missed the registration deadline please contact the Common Awards team directly by the 14th January 2022, and provide us with your Durham user name and email address. If you do not have a Durham email address please download and complete the ‘CIS New Registration Form’ from our Templates page (under ‘Staff Resources’) and attach it to your email.
More information about the programme is available on our website.
The second discussion meeting focused on racial justice and diversity in theological education will take place on Thursday 20th January, 10am - 12 noon. This is an identical meeting to the one held on 29th November so there is no need to attend twice; however our hope is that every TEI will be able to send at least one member of staff to one of the meetings.
You can book your place here: Responding to 'From Lament to Action' Tickets, Thu 20 Jan 2022 at 10:00 | Eventbrite
This meeting will:
We would be delighted to see TEI Inclusion Officers, but also any other staff who have relevant experience or expertise.
This is just one part of our response to From Lament to Action. We will be following up with each TEI individually through the ASE process this year and especially next year – using this year’s ASE to gather initial information on each TEI’s current activity and plans, and next year’s to discuss plans and progress more formally.
The Common Awards Team is pleased to be able to offer to TEI staff some training on working with students with dyslexia or other Specific Learning Differences.
The training will be offered over two sessions, from 2 - 4.30pm on Wednesday 16th February and Wednesday 23rd February. The first session will focus on what it’s like to be dyslexic or have another Specific Learning Difference, with the second focussing on how best TEI staff can support students with an SpLD.
The training will be run by Ginny Stacey. Ginny is herself dyslexic, and was responsible for the development of support for students with Specific Learning Differences at Oxford Brookes University. She has co-authored a number of books in the area (see Living Confidently with Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD) (routledgetextbooks.com)).
Book your place here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/244346957327
Currently we are planning on hosting the Annual Conference for Theological Educators in-person at College Court, the University of Leicester between 4-6th July 2022. We hope to offer online participation options for some elements of the conference, for those who are unable to attend in-person.
TEIs are advised to make a note of the date, and booking information will follow closer to the time.
Last year the Common Awards team trialled a new process for responding to TEI Annual Self-Evaluation reports, which involved replacing formal ULO and University response reports with a conversation between the TEI and the University Liaison Officer. Following very positive feedback from TEIs we will continue with this format, and will shortly be contacting you to arrange a suitable time for the meeting. The conversation will provide an opportunity for both parties to reflect on the previous academic year, and highlight anything from the ASE report that they would like to discuss further.
Please note that this year all meetings will be led by either Mike Higton or Eve Parker as ULO, to help facilitate discussions around the TEI’s response to the From Lament to Action report. A member of the Common Awards Team will take a record of the meeting, and provide a written report summarising the discussion following the meeting.
If you have not sent in your submission yet, please send to David Hanson at your earliest convenience.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank TEIs for the support, patience and understanding shown to the Common Awards Team last term as we navigated through an extremely busy period with a reduced staffing team. We are now very pleased to announce that we have three new members of staff joining us this term:
The full 2021/2022 academic calendar is available here.
With thanks,
The Common Awards Team
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