The "Ask a Durham Student" Thread :)

I didn't apply to oxbridge. I did however apply to be part of Doxbridge . (let me have this my grades weren't good enough for oxbridge x)

I would imagine being eligible for them would be what matters, or possibly if your school/college is currently claiming the extra money they can get for pupils eligible for free school meals for you. It says on here: https://www.dur.ac.uk/study/ug/apply/contextualoffers/, that your referee needs to email the email address on there if you're eligible for free school meals so you should get them to do this asap

Having had a quick google it does look to be that way, yes

From what you've said it actually sounds like Collingwood is perfect for you. Bailey colleges are always oversubscribed, and don't have the space/capacity to have a strong sports focus. A lot of people seem to think the newer hill colleges don't have the same sort of traditions, but this is completely wrong. Collingwood doesn't have gowned formals, that is the only thing your 'missing out' on. It should be said you spend £60 on a gown you wear max 20 times and really isn't worth it in my opinion . Collingwood has one of the most popular bars, a signature drink, I believe i'm right in saying the biggest sports teams (going down to a J team) and its catered which is far more social than self catered AND is far less work.

I have a few questions for anyone that has been at Durham during Covid:

What support has there been for students who have got ill or been asked to self-isolate?


What is the quality of online teaching and assessment?

During the lockdowns, how have Durham facilitated opportunities for students to get to know each other, both from the same and different courses and from within and outside your college?

How big can a household ‘bubble’ be, is it the size of your whole college or just your corridor?

What learning facilities has the university made available to students to access during the lockdowns and is this likely to be the same should another lockdown be imposed? (i.e. have you still been able to use the Library or Sports Centre)


As it is possible that the lockdowns may continue, I wanted to know if Durham was proactively helping students or not, thanks

I have a few questions for anyone that has been at Durham during Covid:

What support has there been for students who have got ill or been asked to self-isolate?


What is the quality of online teaching and assessment?

During the lockdowns, how have Durham facilitated opportunities for students to get to know each other, both from the same and different courses and from within and outside your college?

How big can a household ‘bubble’ be, is it the size of your whole college or just your corridor?

What learning facilities has the university made available to students to access during the lockdowns and is this likely to be the same should another lockdown be imposed? (i.e. have you still been able to use the Library or Sports Centre)


As it is possible that the lockdowns may continue, I wanted to know if Durham was proactively helping students or not, thanks

I have a few questions for anyone that has been at Durham during Covid:

What support has there been for students who have got ill or been asked to self-isolate?


What is the quality of online teaching and assessment?

During the lockdowns, how have Durham facilitated opportunities for students to get to know each other, both from the same and different courses and from within and outside your college?

How big can a household ‘bubble’ be, is it the size of your whole college or just your corridor?

What learning facilities has the university made available to students to access during the lockdowns and is this likely to be the same should another lockdown be imposed? (i.e. have you still been able to use the Library or Sports Centre)


As it is possible that the lockdowns may continue, I wanted to know if Durham was proactively helping students or not, thanks

Hi! Just wanted to ask about the vegetarian options at the catered colleges (specifically, at Chad's). Thank you

oof, that's quite a big question. Overall, I think they have done quite well, in comparison to my friends at other unis. The online teaching for me - business school, has been immaculate. I have all the learning facilities I need, and there hasn't been a moment where I thought to myself that I am missing something / at a resource disadvantage for not being onsite. Although, I have no clue how other subjects feel regarding this.. E.g., I don't have labs / workshops, so I wouldn't able to comment on how Durham have facilitated this for sport or science people etc

During the lockdowns, how have Durham facilitated opportunities for students to get to know each other, both from the same and different courses and from within and outside your college?

Yes! This is where colleges really do make a difference. I am at Butler atm, and the amount of engagement and support has been incredible! So yes, you still feed like a part of a huge and loving college community. The same for sport, all societies that I am part of / know (college or DU) have been super engaging and proactive in terms of getting students together and keeping in contact.

Yeah I think your right. I just got worried with Collingwood that it might not be as traditional as other colleges but the more I read about it the more it looks like there are a lot of traditions. Plus, I think I'm right in saying that friends from other colleges can invite you to their gowned formals?

Are you currently at Durham?

I have a few questions for anyone that has been at Durham during Covid:

What support has there been for students who have got ill or been asked to self-isolate?


What is the quality of online teaching and assessment?

During the lockdowns, how have Durham facilitated opportunities for students to get to know each other, both from the same and different courses and from within and outside your college?

How big can a household ‘bubble’ be, is it the size of your whole college or just your corridor?

What learning facilities has the university made available to students to access during the lockdowns and is this likely to be the same should another lockdown be imposed? (i.e. have you still been able to use the Library or Sports Centre)


As it is possible that the lockdowns may continue, I wanted to know if Durham was proactively helping students or not, thanks

During the lockdowns, how have Durham facilitated opportunities for students to get to know each other, both from the same and different courses and from within and outside your college?

Yes! This is where colleges really do make a difference. I am at Butler atm, and the amount of engagement and support has been incredible! So yes, you still feed like a part of a huge and loving college community. The same for sport, all societies that I am part of / know (college or DU) have been super engaging and proactive in terms of getting students together and keeping in contact.

Are you living off sight, I think that's what you are saying.

Do you know if its a big difference for people at colleges, what support are they getting?

Fellow Butlerite here

omg omg whats your name?

It's not as traditional in terms of like gowned formals etc., but that doesn't mean they don't have plenty of college traditions, which I'm fairly sure pretty much every college will have It does depend on the formal, but in general friends can invite you to gowned formals at other colleges (but expect to pay a bit more for them since you won't be a member of their JCR). Some colleges do prioritise their own college members, or for specific formals say only their members can attend though, so it requires a bit more planning!

The first question depends massively if you're in college or not. If you're in a catered college for instance then you had all your meals delivered, and many colleges were allowing one household out at a time for some exercise (since you were meant to be isolating from each other too so were basically confined to your room). If you were living out then I don't think any support was automatic, but it was available if you needed it iyswim? Welfare support is always available for all students at any time, practical support was more a if you ask then they'll sort it type thing. Most livers out would have got friends who lived nearby to for instance drop off food if they couldn't get a delivery etc. rather than asking their college, but I'm sure the college would have arranged something if necessary. There's also a specific covid hardship fund if you were financially hit by covid (eg. by parents losing job etc.)

Online teaching varies per department (or even by lecturer tbh). For my department the provision has generally been very good, we get pre-recorded lectures for almost every module which are actually better than live lectures as you can pause it, get something repeated etc. without having to get behind while trying to figure it out. You seem to come out with a much better understanding at the end of it which is a massive benefit! We also have an online forum for each module for questions which the lecturers answer regularly, and live Q&A sessions with the lecturer 1-2 times a week. In-year assessment is the same (and indeed is for many subjects), just with online submission (which many subjects did pre-covid and I'm hoping my department will stick with post-covid). Exams aren't ideal is probably the biggest problem, we're getting 24 hours with open book, but because obviously that's much easier than 3 hour closed book exams then they're having to make them a lot more difficult or they become impossible to standardise, so not looking forward to that!

I'm not a first year, so I may be unaware of activities that were put on specifically for first years but it's not really specifically Durham's job to put on those activities, it's down to the colleges and SU. So in my college (and I'm sure the others), I think there's 5 times a week welfare chats which are run by the welfare committee but are an opportunity to chat to anyone there. Societies are running as much as they can, but online obviously. Some of the big societies such as Durham Student Theatre are running a lot of workshops and doing online shows etc. Colleges have opened up a lot of spaces for you to use within your household, for instance my college allowed households living in college to book the gym, the JCR lounge and spaces in the bar such as the pool tables. When it was allowed the bar was open and you could sit with your household etc. Most things in person had to be in households because Durham was tier 3/in lockdown for most of term 1, so that meant no indoor mixing between households legally and obviously they can't go against that! Online there was plenty of opportunities to mix though.

Households varied by college, definitely not as big as your college, because that would probably have meant the whole college was in isolation most the term! In catered colleges I think a corridor was typical, which tends to be around 20, although I have heard of households up to 37. Even in colleges where you were in flats, then they tended to put 3 or so flats together to form a household of around 20 also that you didn't need to social distance with.

In lockdown 1 when we were all sent home (and the vast majority of people did go), almost nothing was open, I think the library was postal service or click and collect only, and I imagine the sports centre was completely closed as was required by law. In lockdown 2, very little actually changed from the rest of term, the library was still open 22 hours a day (2 hours closed for cleaning), booking only, along with other places to study and teaching continued in person where it had been for the most part. Because schools stayed open, they were able to do this. The sports centre did have to reduce itself to household groups only, and you had to book for a household session if you wanted to use it, plus in my college you could borrow equipment from a college team for a while to use in your household. In this lockdown, obviously most of us haven't gone back to Durham because of the lockdown beginning before term started. The library has cut it's opening hours to I think 8am-10pm, still booking only, and reopened it's postal service for all the students not in Durham (though I think it's limited in some way possibly? My course doesn't use books really so I haven't been paying the most attention to it, but I think it's possibly for students doing research projects only rather than just essays). The sports centre I think is closed this time, but the other study areas are open for booking. Other services I think have been online throughout, for instance all the councilling services, careers service etc.

I'd say Durham has done a pretty good job in terms of dealing with it. We've been getting at least weekly emails since last February about it (daily at the point we were being sent home/they were sorting everything), they've refunded the rent for students living in college both times we've been in big lockdowns, and indeed when it was suggested students should have staggered returns they were going to refund the 2 weeks some courses were delayed by to those students. There's an absolute tonne of support of all types if you reach out for it from colleges, from the university, from societies etc. They're proactive about keeping us updated and if they don't have an update (eg. when the government announces something about unis but they have to work through it), they usually tell us they will send an update by x day so we know. Every time the rules changed they worked to get as much open they could during that time, often everything would be closed for a day or two, then they would assess what was allowed and reopen anything they could.
I will add a lot of this is my college, so it's possible other collegs aren't so proactive, but I would expect at least most of them to have been!

It's not as traditional in terms of like gowned formals etc., but that doesn't mean they don't have plenty of college traditions, which I'm fairly sure pretty much every college will have It does depend on the formal, but in general friends can invite you to gowned formals at other colleges (but expect to pay a bit more for them since you won't be a member of their JCR). Some colleges do prioritise their own college members, or for specific formals say only their members can attend though, so it requires a bit more planning!

The first question depends massively if you're in college or not. If you're in a catered college for instance then you had all your meals delivered, and many colleges were allowing one household out at a time for some exercise (since you were meant to be isolating from each other too so were basically confined to your room). If you were living out then I don't think any support was automatic, but it was available if you needed it iyswim? Welfare support is always available for all students at any time, practical support was more a if you ask then they'll sort it type thing. Most livers out would have got friends who lived nearby to for instance drop off food if they couldn't get a delivery etc. rather than asking their college, but I'm sure the college would have arranged something if necessary. There's also a specific covid hardship fund if you were financially hit by covid (eg. by parents losing job etc.)

Online teaching varies per department (or even by lecturer tbh). For my department the provision has generally been very good, we get pre-recorded lectures for almost every module which are actually better than live lectures as you can pause it, get something repeated etc. without having to get behind while trying to figure it out. You seem to come out with a much better understanding at the end of it which is a massive benefit! We also have an online forum for each module for questions which the lecturers answer regularly, and live Q&A sessions with the lecturer 1-2 times a week. In-year assessment is the same (and indeed is for many subjects), just with online submission (which many subjects did pre-covid and I'm hoping my department will stick with post-covid). Exams aren't ideal is probably the biggest problem, we're getting 24 hours with open book, but because obviously that's much easier than 3 hour closed book exams then they're having to make them a lot more difficult or they become impossible to standardise, so not looking forward to that!

I'm not a first year, so I may be unaware of activities that were put on specifically for first years but it's not really specifically Durham's job to put on those activities, it's down to the colleges and SU. So in my college (and I'm sure the others), I think there's 5 times a week welfare chats which are run by the welfare committee but are an opportunity to chat to anyone there. Societies are running as much as they can, but online obviously. Some of the big societies such as Durham Student Theatre are running a lot of workshops and doing online shows etc. Colleges have opened up a lot of spaces for you to use within your household, for instance my college allowed households living in college to book the gym, the JCR lounge and spaces in the bar such as the pool tables. When it was allowed the bar was open and you could sit with your household etc. Most things in person had to be in households because Durham was tier 3/in lockdown for most of term 1, so that meant no indoor mixing between households legally and obviously they can't go against that! Online there was plenty of opportunities to mix though.

Households varied by college, definitely not as big as your college, because that would probably have meant the whole college was in isolation most the term! In catered colleges I think a corridor was typical, which tends to be around 20, although I have heard of households up to 37. Even in colleges where you were in flats, then they tended to put 3 or so flats together to form a household of around 20 also that you didn't need to social distance with.

In lockdown 1 when we were all sent home (and the vast majority of people did go), almost nothing was open, I think the library was postal service or click and collect only, and I imagine the sports centre was completely closed as was required by law. In lockdown 2, very little actually changed from the rest of term, the library was still open 22 hours a day (2 hours closed for cleaning), booking only, along with other places to study and teaching continued in person where it had been for the most part. Because schools stayed open, they were able to do this. The sports centre did have to reduce itself to household groups only, and you had to book for a household session if you wanted to use it, plus in my college you could borrow equipment from a college team for a while to use in your household. In this lockdown, obviously most of us haven't gone back to Durham because of the lockdown beginning before term started. The library has cut it's opening hours to I think 8am-10pm, still booking only, and reopened it's postal service for all the students not in Durham (though I think it's limited in some way possibly? My course doesn't use books really so I haven't been paying the most attention to it, but I think it's possibly for students doing research projects only rather than just essays). The sports centre I think is closed this time, but the other study areas are open for booking. Other services I think have been online throughout, for instance all the councilling services, careers service etc.

I'd say Durham has done a pretty good job in terms of dealing with it. We've been getting at least weekly emails since last February about it (daily at the point we were being sent home/they were sorting everything), they've refunded the rent for students living in college both times we've been in big lockdowns, and indeed when it was suggested students should have staggered returns they were going to refund the 2 weeks some courses were delayed by to those students. There's an absolute tonne of support of all types if you reach out for it from colleges, from the university, from societies etc. They're proactive about keeping us updated and if they don't have an update (eg. when the government announces something about unis but they have to work through it), they usually tell us they will send an update by x day so we know. Every time the rules changed they worked to get as much open they could during that time, often everything would be closed for a day or two, then they would assess what was allowed and reopen anything they could.
I will add a lot of this is my college, so it's possible other collegs aren't so proactive, but I would expect at least most of them to have been!