Durham university UK 2024 sept batch

What to do if i dont know how to cook but want to live in the castle (university college) since they dont offer catered accommodation for postgraduates and ill be a postgraduate.

Is castle worth the hype? Do we actually get to live inside the castle? Any other college that's as good as castle?

Also, i have claustrophobia and OCD so can you guys suggest which colleges have the biggest/ most spacious rooms?

Reply 1

random_matt

From the Durham university college webpage:

'Within the Castle walls we have around 100 rooms, mostly in the Keep, but also in Garden Stairs, Hall Stairs, Fellows' Garden, the Junction and the Norman Gallery. Most rooms within the Castle walls are occupied by final year students, but some of the shared rooms are occupied by first year undergraduates.'

'We offer self-catered accommodation for postgraduate students at New Kepier Court. We offer studio flats and apartments with shared kitchens. All rooms are en suite.'

New Kepier court is a bit of a trek, trust me. Also, it is not that great either. You may be better off going to Ustinov college.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 2

Durham Rep Ghala

Official Rep

Original post by Anonymous #1

Hiya

Postgraduates don't actually get to live in the castle. The paragraph from the website quoted by the other user is very helpful as it shows that most rooms within the actual castle walls are offered to final-year undergraduates. As you've mentioned, postgrad accommodation is only available at Kepier Court and it's self-catered. You will still get to go to events in the Castle and use their facilities including the gym, library, bar and social spaces. It might be worth learning how to cook basic meals like pasta, rice, burritos, oatmeal etc as it will help you in the long-term anyway. My friend didn't know how to cook either but once she started learning, she quite enjoyed it! There are also options like HelloFresh which sends you all the ingredients with step-by-step recipes so you don't have to worry about what to make or buy. Additionally, the Too Good To Go app offers food (often from uni cafes and college catering) at a cheaper rate and in my experience, has always been worth the price.

If you want a catered college instead, it might be worth looking at other bailey or hill colleges. All of them are most likely to have rooms of similar size but you might want to avoid Trevelyan as it is a hexagonal building and therefore the rooms aren't square shaped. I would recommend visiting some of the colleges on the upcoming open day on 13th March so you can check the room sizes and the rest of the facilities for yourself. You can book a place here: https://www.durham.ac.uk/visit-us/open-days/events/postgraduate-open-day---on-site/

I honestly don't think there is any 'best' college at Durham. I'm from South and the facilities there are super modern as it's a fairly newly built college. All rooms are ensuite and it's self-catered so it suited all my needs. If you wish to know about what it's like to live in other colleges, feel free to read some student blogs on this website: https://studentblog.webspace.durham.ac.uk/. Hopefully this will give you more insight into college life :smile:

Also we have really good student-produced content on our Tiktok, Instagram and Youtube channels so check them out if you find some time: @thedurhamstudent

-Himieka

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 3

Anonymous #1

How's the catered food at durham uni ? Is it good?