Do you need photo ID for full enrollment?

My passport has been expired since about 2021 and my provisional driver's lisence has the birthday wrong so I'm trying to sort that out, but I know I'll need ID for enrollment.

The guide for enrollment on the website does say birth certificates can be used if you don't have valid photo ID, but apparently at some unis, people have been told that birth certificates can be used and then they get there and find out that certificates are only good for a temporary enrollment until about a month in to study and they have a mad panic to get their ID sorted.

I'm in the middle of a surname change right now so the passport is not going to arrive in time with the processing, and I intended to leave getting a deed poll done till after uni has already started so I can go directly to Durham and not UCAS. The provisional might come with an old name and fixed birthday in time, but the website says "driving lisence," not "driving or provisional" so I'm not sure if that's even accepted.

TL;DR, in the worst case scenario with no photo ID ready, is a birth certificate enough ID for a full enrollment, not a temporary "we'll take this for now but we need photo ID in X weeks" enrollment?

Reply 1

Durham Students

Official Rep

Original post by čiūto-tūto

Hiya

As far as I can tell from the website and from what I remember about my enrolment process, you only need to show your ID to collect your campus card and that's gonna be about 1 week into your arrival at Durham. Presumably until then, you wouldn't need to show any ID proof in online enrolment processes. Do you think you can get a driver's license or your passport sorted by then? Also I don't see any caveats mentioned on the website about the birth certificate only being acceptable for a temporary period, so I believe you should be good to show that in case the other identities don't sort out by then.

I can only provide a student perspective on this though so I'd still recommend contacting admissions and confirming this information is correct: https://www.durham.ac.uk/study/ask-us/. Just give them a quick call and they'd be happy to assist you :smile: