There are many services that we are able to provide to you as a Common Awards student. Because you are registered at your Theological Education Institution (TEI) rather than at Durham University – and are therefore a student of that TEI rather than of the University – there are some limits on the services that we can offer you.
Find out more:
Disability Support
Your TEI is responsible for providing you with disability guidance and support. Durham University is able to provide disability support guidance to staff at TEIs, but is not permitted to offer guidance and support directly to students. You can view our guidance for TEI staff on the Financial and Disability Support pages of the Common Awards website. The Church of England’s Ministry Development Team may be able to provide disability guidance and support to ordinands.
Student Finances
The University is not able to provide you with confirmation of Durham University student status for statutory support purposes through Student Finance England (i.e. Tuition Fee Loans, Maintenance Loans/Grants and supplementary grants). If you mistakenly apply for statutory support as a Durham University student, you will need to contact the University on [email protected].
You may, however, still be eligible for statutory support if your TEI has been designated for statutory support under the Education (Student Support) Regulations 2011. A small number of TEIs do have designated course status; you are advised to contact your TEI directly to confirm whether this is the case.
Additionally, financial support may be provided by Ministry Development Team to ordinands. You are advised to contact your TEI for advice in the first instance.
IT accounts and email addresses
You are provided with access to IT facilities directly through your TEI, rather than through the University. You will not, therefore, be given a University IT account and email address. If the University needs to contact you (for example, to invite you to Congregation), it will do so through your TEI.
We have regularly been asked why we can't provide durham.ac.uk email addresses. The main reason is that these addresses provide access to various resources and that the licenses for these resources do not cover Common Awards students. To extend them to cover Common Awards students – who number in the thousands – would result in a prohibitive increase in the cost of Common Awards to the churches and to TEIs.
Eduroam
As it is outside the scope of its current licensing agreement, the University is not able to provide you with access to Eduroam.
Other electronic resources
As noted on our 'What we provide' above, Durham University, in conjunction with Ministry Development Team, provides all Common Awards students with access to certain electronic resources. Access to these resources is subject to the terms of the licensing agreements. This means that the University is not able to provide you with access to further specific electronic resources, as this would contravene the terms of our current licensing agreements – and extending those licenses would be prohibitively expensive. Access to electronic resources is available through Moodle; please contact your TEI's key contact if you are unsure how to access these resources (you can find the name and contact details of your TEI’s key contact on the Contact us page of the Common Awards website).
Where to look instead: support from your TEI
For the following services, you should contact your TEI directly:
See our page on How Does the Common Awards Framework Shape Your Programme? for more information on which elements of your Common Awards programme are the responsibility of Durham, which are the responsibility of Ministry Development Team, and which are the responsibility of your TEI.