Durham Freshers 2012 Thread

What do you mean by variety? There are lots of international students from a huge variety of countries, lots of British students who have lived abroad/have family abroad/travelled a lot so have had a range of experiences, and British students from all over the UK. There are over 100 societies so people are definitely into a huge variety of things

Also I don't think the difference in middle-class intake is very different between Nottingham and Durham, it's not like you're comparing Durham to one of the new universities in London which has large numbers of working-class and Muslim students.

Hi thanks so much for your reply Yeap, I definitely don't doubt that interest-wise and activities-wise, people are into a whole load of things. I was asking more about the ethnicity of people. I understand it would definitely be a lot less international than say London schools, or big cities like Manchester. Just wanna know if there's still a solid group of ethnic people around (pakistanis, indians, arabs, etc. these are just the ones off the top of my head!!) Thanks again!

Congratulations! I have also firmed Hatfield and I just really hope I make my points because Durham seems so amazing! What university have you guys put down as your insurance?

Academically, yeah. Although William and Mary is very close too. Then there's VCU and VT...we have a few

Oh right. Well there are lots of international students from Pakistan, India, etc.
There are some home students too from those ethnic minorities - not loads - but all the ones I know are British born/British in culture and therefore behave the same way as white British people so apart from having darker skin, they're just the same . I'm sure there are some British Pakistani and British Indian students who are more multicultural and are Muslim/Hindu/etc but all the ethnic minority British students who I know have the same culture as the white British students.

So basically - lots of international students from different countries; if you're asking whether there is physical (skin colour) diversity in British students then yes but the majority are white, if you're asking whether there is cultural/religious/etc diversity amongst the British students then yes (there's an Islamic society etc) but much less so than the physical image of British students would suggest. However it's not like there's any chance of anyone being the only non-white student!

Which subject are you doing? There are a lot, lot more international students from Pakistan, India, China etc doing business, accounting and economics degrees than doing History or English Lit degrees.

I hope that makes sense - I'm not too sure on the ethnicity/race difference in definitions so not sure if you're asking what people look like or what their culture is.

Thank you so much for your reply I kind of get an idea what it woould be like!! And I'm pretty convinced there is some diversity. I guess it also differs with every year and all that so mine was a pretty hard question. You were really helpful though thanks.

On a whole other note, would you happen to know if the uni has a legal advice centre? I know Manchester and Queen Mary has one, and my sister (who's in manchester) tells me its really useful. From what I can tell from my research, Durham doesn't have one, but do you know if there are any plans to set one up? OH YES, I plan to do law, and I just realised you may not be a law student.

Anyone else who can help? Thanks