The "Ask a Durham Student" Thread :)

Okay, Thank you very much. I'll keep looking for accommodation in Durham

Guys, please does Durham university loan laptops/ipads to students? I know a lot of unis do this. I need to send my Macbook to be fixed soon.

Hi,

I'm an international student and got an offer for Law (M101) from Durham. This morning I got an email asking me to rank my college preferences.

Scrolled through multiple threads and it added to the confusion

I've absolutely no idea what a "formal" is, what a bailey vs hill location is etc, though I understand the obvious "catered" and "self catered"

A more basic question: what exactly is the college system?

Any pointers to understand how this works would be helpful.

Also, can you let me know which of the colleges would be better for a Law student like me please? In terms of proximity to where majority of the law lectures happen, the diversity etc.

Hi there

In the most basic terms, colleges are where students live (mostly in their first year). But it's also more than just accommodation, colleges offer opportunities for students to socialise and grow personally. They have facilities like a bar, gym, library, and common socialising rooms. Some may have dance and yoga rooms and music facilities as well. Each college has its sports teams for different sports which are labelled from A to whatever. A teams consist of the best players, B slightly lower than that and so on. So even if you're a beginner, you have a chance fo being in a college sport team and play with other beginners. There's something called a Junior Common Room (JCR) that each college has. It's basically a community of undergraduates in that college (irrespective of what year they are in) and you have access to support reps like international officer, welfare officer, events officer etc who help in everything happening around the college and you can always approach them if you face any problems. Your college will also have other support like financial, mental health and will be your first point of contact for any issues.

The colleges, based on their location, are divided into hill and bailey colleges. Bailey colleges are the ones closer to town and located around the Cathedral (that makes it easier to distinguish them on Google Maps)- this includes Castle, Hatfield, Chads, St Johns and Cuths. Hill colleges are the ones located on South Road (near the science site)- these include Marys, Grey, Collingwood, Van Mildert, Trevs, South, John Snow, Josephine Butler, Aidans and Stephenson. Hild Bede is neither a bailey or hill college- it's more on the bank of River Wear.

A formal is basically a fancy dinner that occurs in the college dining rooms where the dress code is usually black tie and some colleges wear gowns (like Harry Potter). The frequency varies from college to college- weekly, fortnightly, monthly. You can find content on this on @thedurhamstudent Instagram, Tiktok and YouTube channels so do check that out

-Himieka

Guys, please does Durham university loan laptops/ipads to students? I know a lot of unis do this. I need to send my Macbook to be fixed soon.

Hi! I got an offer to for law M101 and I was wondering about how many students are in lectures and tutorials and so on? Its my first time attending uni and Im an international student so it's hard to find information. I am trying to use this to help me decide between Durham and a few other unis?

Hi! I got an offer to for law M101 and I was wondering about how many students are in lectures and tutorials and so on? Its my first time attending uni and Im an international student so it's hard to find information. I am trying to use this to help me decide between Durham and a few other unis?

Does anyone know if there is any advantage to "firming" early at Durham e.g. higher likelihood to get preferred college or whatever?

Does anyone know if there is any advantage to "firming" early at Durham e.g. higher likelihood to get preferred college or whatever?

Hi! Congrats and when did you get your offer? Also, what prediction etc did you have?

Hi there

In my law cohort (I'm in second year), we have 400 students. Since in first year everyone does the same modules, all of us were present in the same lecture hall but now people have chosen different modules so some have lots of people in lectures while others don't. It's standard for tutorials and seminars though- they are always held in smaller groups of 6-8 so it's really easy to engage with people and the tutor to ask any lingering questions. Feel free to pop any other questions about the course here, and you can find more about student life at Durham on our social media (Tiktok, Youtube, Instagram) @thedurhamstudent

-Himieka

Hi! thanks so much for answering! I'm about to ask a kinda stupid sounding question but what exactly is a tutor???? In the Canadian university system that refers to someone you hire and pay fees separate to the university, for aid in a specfic subject but it seems to refer to something else regarding the English university system?