Upsetting changes in Durham Grant Scheme

Hi all, is there anyone affected by this changes in Durham Grant Scheme? We cannot have it anymore if we rent outside Uni

As a graduate, and also a mature student, I've often found that Durham preaches about class in lectures and, yet, appears to be going against their teaching in day to day administration. It is no surprise to me that this has happened. They stop students of all socioeconomic backgrounds from taking up employment during the holidays to wait a few weeks to sign a few forms to register for modules for the following academic year just so they promote the virtues of living in college. So what are we supposed to do geniuses? Some of us hate university sport and take part in sport that is not catered for at university level. Go out clubbing in Klute and go out on the pull? Yeah? I can do that at home. How is registration seen as an academic commitment I don't know.

It's like the price of taking part in sport keeps going up. I renounced my sports card because I don't see why I should subsidise a bunch of fat oafs who chuck an egg ball around the pitch. I wouldn't mind if costs were spread out to sports using the fields but the costs were spread across the whole spectrum. And at £120 for three years that is a pretty penny to anyone's pocket.

I wouldn't recommend Durham to anyone who wishes to find employment during the holidays or those that despise anything that resembles a boarding school atmosphere, which Durham does on many levels. University education has been commercially pimped for decades and Durham are a pinnacle of this. They do this with careers fairs. There is more to the graduate market than investment banking. Stop trying to hide your costs by bending over for IB firms and condition your students into thinking they can earn lost of money because of you, and no, you did not give them all these transferable skills either. At least Harvard puts you on a placement where the university has a direct influence to your career progression of a related area to your study and, as a result, do not claim undue credit onto your own personal achievement for which they have little to no responsibility for.

I'd recommend everyone to look into financial assistance and see if the "worth" of a degree is really justified. Higher education has been commercially pimped for too long so this grant scheme is just another sign.

Are you basically saying you don't see the point in having those 3 weeks after exams where nothing happens? It's not all about sport, lots of stuff happens then, lots of FUN stuff, it gives everyone a chance to let their hair down for a few weeks after exams, spend quality time with friends before you go your separate ways for 3 months. Also registration is all done online now, and I've heard rumours that they're going to start teaching courses for the following year in those few weeks. And I don't see how it stops people finding summer placements etc, we don't exactly finish term much later than other universities, and there are ways around it if you do have to miss the registration days.

I have to somewhat agree with you about the high cost of sport; I too have no interest in university sport but I know that it means a lot to a lot of students and is a big part of university life.

I do however agree with your point about careers fairs; they do seem to mostly revolve around investment banking and law firms; they were even present at the "science" fair which in terms of science just had a few engineering companies I think, not even any pharma companies...

As a graduate, and also a mature student, I've often found that Durham preaches about class in lectures and, yet, appears to be going against their teaching in day to day administration. It is no surprise to me that this has happened. They stop students of all socioeconomic backgrounds from taking up employment during the holidays to wait a few weeks to sign a few forms to register for modules for the following academic year just so they promote the virtues of living in college. So what are we supposed to do geniuses? Some of us hate university sport and take part in sport that is not catered for at university level. Go out clubbing in Klute and go out on the pull? Yeah? I can do that at home. How is registration seen as an academic commitment I don't know.

It's like the price of taking part in sport keeps going up. I renounced my sports card because I don't see why I should subsidise a bunch of fat oafs who chuck an egg ball around the pitch. I wouldn't mind if costs were spread out to sports using the fields but the costs were spread across the whole spectrum. And at £120 for three years that is a pretty penny to anyone's pocket.

I wouldn't recommend Durham to anyone who wishes to find employment during the holidays or those that despise anything that resembles a boarding school atmosphere, which Durham does on many levels. University education has been commercially pimped for decades and Durham are a pinnacle of this. They do this with careers fairs. There is more to the graduate market than investment banking. Stop trying to hide your costs by bending over for IB firms and condition your students into thinking they can earn lost of money because of you, and no, you did not give them all these transferable skills either. At least Harvard puts you on a placement where the university has a direct influence to your career progression of a related area to your study and, as a result, do not claim undue credit onto your own personal achievement for which they have little to no responsibility for.

I'd recommend everyone to look into financial assistance and see if the "worth" of a degree is really justified. Higher education has been commercially pimped for too long so this grant scheme is just another sign.

Thank you for the reply.
It is indeed a ridiculous rule especially for mature students.
Unless I am able to move to a college with all my family (pets included) I will not be eligible to receive the grant.
And for those that have to move to Durham, with their household an live there 12 months per year, college isn't an option.
And I am not too sure if my college room mates will enjoy the crying and general mess of 3 children
The situation has been revised by the University and I hope those that need grants will write to the Treasury to make them aware of this ordeal!

Most of what was happening during those three weeks didn't interest me and I wanted to earn money to justify purchasing overpriced academic textbooks that were funded from research councils whose money comes from the tax payer plus with a little extra for some ideals.



It gives me the impression that nobody has played sport at a sizeable level prior to university. I know the massive increase in numbers means smaller sized sports become more popular but even then the usual most popular sports are still dominant as they outside of university life. I was interested in sailing, kayaking and rifling but the sailing was done about 20 miles away from campus and it was very expensive in terms of transport. That put me off kayaking and I don't think I found rifling but I didn't look for too long since the air club was the original plan, but it closed down before I joined due to finances. Which then makes me wonder why they didn't bother to increase the cost of sports membership. Because it's not rugby, football or rowing? I did think about archery but I think I was told that they received nothing from the collected funds from sports membership too. So, basically, the sports I was interested in, didn't benefit from the sports membership fee but I still had to pay it to do sport.



I thought I was just getting bad luck when I went to the general ones! I did ask a lecturer at my department, the School of Applied Social Sciences, but I didn't get much of an answer. If people want to do IB I have no problem, but we're not all the same. Some of us would have studied a different subject if we knew from the start that the subject of choice for my degree has little to no relation to my future job. I even took up the idea of having subject based placements with a lecturer, so those who study sociology and criminology can get some experience in correctional settings (they need not be top security prisons), Home Office, Probation, etc. I even asked some societies who oversee those funky journals related to my degree if they do work experience schemes but was told none existed. This was while I was still itnerested in a career in academia but over time I felt more and more disillusioned with higher education in general (probably doesn't help reading up on genocide either, writing all the stuff that goes on the world to only put it to one side because EastEnders is on TV?!). I mean if I studied medicine it would be a good idea to think I want to be a doctor no? *sigh*

I do wonder who organises these career fairs because even the military and journalism weren't represented and I was a little surprised at that, given that we tend to have a a fair few high ranked officers in the military currently serving, or recently retired, just to promote the stereotype in a fun way! But I do think any current Durham student who is taken aback at the overrepresentation of IB to the detriment of subject specific careers should take it up. I'll probably moan about this in GUD some time (I've been meaning for a long while) to see if other universities cater better at this.

A lot of it is to do with the government's national scholarship scheme. The money from that scheme is part of the money that funds the Durham Grant, and the NSS money can only be spent on fee waivers or accommodation as far as I'm aware (ie not given as cash).

Have you asked if they will make an exception for you? Queen's campus students are exempt from the living in in 3rd year rule so I would expect that they would say that as a mature student you don't need to live in at all. If the college can't provide family accommodation then they can't expect you to live in, anyway.

Durham University in there OFFA agreement wrote that colegiate life was an integral part of student experience and that as such applying to live in a college would be compulsory for a student to be eligible to receive the Durham grant scheme.

The registration date in June isn't all their fault. They need to have the term dates that long because otherwise it's not technically a full time course

Did you not think of going home, getting a job and then just returning to Durham for 1 day to register or filling in the exemption form? I know several people who go home to work, book the last Friday in June off work and come up to register if they didn't get permission to register in advance.

Who told you this? What evidence is there that, by not having the registration date there it will not be deemed a full time course? I've heard this before but both Oxford and Cambridge have shorter terms and they don't impose mandatory personal attendance for registering for next year's modules. Neither do Leeds, as I used to correspond to a graduate from there.

In addition, how is twiddling my thumbs for three weeks listening to music suddenly a justification to make it a full time course when no exams, no coursework deadlines are placed, and no classes are held in this three week period? The only good thing is it made me looking forward to chatting up one of the catering staff in my college.



Well, I didn't know when my registration times exactly were and when I did, the cost of public transport was prohibitive to do that. My department didn't tell me the times until the cost of travel went up a fair bit. Plus I used to use a coach from home to London, another one from London to Newcastle, and then train to Durham to keep costs low. It meant a day was spent just for travel. So, depending on rail and coach prices at the time, along with the day to register, that could mean losing out on three days pay. I should have just left regardless because they never bother to fine students anyway. I just see it as very schoolish. I had much more freedom at my FE College where I had a good visit since graduating and more at my secondary school. We're adults and should be treated as such, otherwise you'll get instances where some of us will behave like kids. Staff at Durham may say there's more to life than money but when they're bending over for every finance and accounting firm on the planet inviting them to careers fairs I don't think they can justify that point any more.

Thanks to the collegiate strucuture (my senior tutor specifically), I was almost forced to withdraw a few years ago and goodness knows where I'd be know, if I'd even still be alive. The collegiate support and experience completely failed me and I know it has failed other students. The blame doesn't just lie entirely with college but they must take much of the blame.

I have never had much to do with my college during my number of years at Durham and don't feel I've really missed out on anything. My concern has been my departments at the wider university. I really resent the way the collegiate structure is forced on students, and the complete arrogance of the university in their assumption that it is an integral part of the student experience. To force the "collegiate experience" on financially disadvantaged students is completely disgraceful

Thank you again for your thoughts.
I have read the access agreement between Durham University and the Office for Fair Access (OFFA).
I have also read all the governmental information about the national scholarship programme.
the universities are allowed to implement any eligibility criteria they wish, within the specific goals of the national scholarship programme, which are to support students from under-represented backgrounds.
Durham University in there OFFA agreement wrote that colegiate life was an integral part of student experience and that as such applying to live in a college would be compulsory for a student to be eligible to receive the Durham grant scheme.
All we can hope as mature students is that Durham University agrees to revise its eligibility criteria.
And this will happen if people talk to them about this situation.

Thanks to the collegiate strucuture (my senior tutor specifically), I was almost forced to withdraw a few years ago and goodness knows where I'd be know, if I'd even still be alive. The collegiate support and experience completely failed me and I know it has failed other students. The blame doesn't just lie entirely with college but they must take much of the blame.

I have never had much to do with my college during my number of years at Durham and don't feel I've really missed out on anything. My concern has been my departments at the wider university. I really resent the way the collegiate structure is forced on students, and the complete arrogance of the university in their assumption that it is an integral part of the student experience. To force the "collegiate experience" on financially disadvantaged students is completely disgraceful

Thank you for the reply.
It is indeed a ridiculous rule especially for mature students.
Unless I am able to move to a college with all my family (pets included) I will not be eligible to receive the grant.
And for those that have to move to Durham, with their household an live there 12 months per year, college isn't an option.
And I am not too sure if my college room mates will enjoy the crying and general mess of 3 children
The situation has been revised by the University and I hope those that need grants will write to the Treasury to make them aware of this ordeal!

With respect, that is a bit like going to an agricultural college and complaining of cow pats.

Durham is a collegiate university, therefore it wants people to partake in collegiate activities. You only have to look at collegiate universities such as Kent, York or Lancaster to see what happens when the university takes its eye off this particular ball.

(Just to give a balanced view, I found that the collegiate structure was the only thing that kept me and a friend of mine in university, so it seems we've had opposite experiences.)