Durham University

Freshers was good fun, socialising within the course was easy and other students were more lively than I had imagined. Overall I really enjoyed the first few weeks, though the workload is certainly tough when a 2 week conference runs 9-6 every day. Durham University has great college accomodation with a wide range of rooms from sharing to single rooms and contains ensuite and shared bathrooms. Overall it's a nice accomodation. I stayed in a house and lived out, which was far from the university but good if you want to bring a car. The rent is not cheap via private rent or college rent, and this is the biggest issue so far. Facilities are amazing here. Sports facilities are bookable, or owned by colleges. Libraries are in every college and the big library is a great set of resources. The SU is great too, as there are regular events and a welcoming atmosphere. The course was good because it was a hands on learning environment, and we were really thrown into teaching practice, the support during the course was also fantastic. I felt supported throughout and felt the facilities provided were exactly what we needed for the course. The city is great fun, and has a vast number of pubs in the vicinity. It is a welcoming city and there is little 'gown Vs town' between students and local members of the community. The night life is vibrant, though it ends at 2AM, and overall it is a safe, well contained, well supplied area.

It was amazing, did not expect it could be so good. During that time I met a lots friends and have unforgettable memories. The college system is one of the best type I have ever heard. Each college has its own community of students and enable students brilliant facilities like gym, catering, bar, leisure spaces. Durham has amazing facilities. There is amassive library, classroom are fully equipped and the sports areas are adapted to every sport. There is a good balance between classroom learning and own pace learning. What's more we've got world class lectures from each module so the academic level is amazing. There is no better place for student life that Durham is. The unique atmosphere comes from the fact that it is typical student town and everywhere around the city you can find your friends and have a quick chat during way to lectures.

Great. Freshers week was conducted within your college - so all activities and events were organised by older years in the same college, and it was a good way to form close bonds with people who lived in the same accommodation as you. On the other hand, there was only 2 other people studying the same subject as me within my college, so I didn't get to meet anyone from my course until lectures started. Durham Accommodation is amazing. Due to the collegiate system, everyone spends their first year living in a College (either catered or self-catered). It was a great way to form close friendships with people from your College, because you spent most mealtimes with them, eating in a big dining hall - often meeting new people every day. Each college has their own library, gym, music rooms, sports teams and student groups. This means that everything feels more accessible. Because sports can be played at both a collegiate level and a university level (playing for the university team and using the Team Durham facilities), more people are able to participate. There is access to both collegiate facilities and University facilities. So, you can either use your college's library or use the Bill Bryson or Palace Green libraries. Similarly, you can be involved with University-wide groups such as the DSU societies, or Durham Union. The course I did had a lot of flexibility with module choices. I could tailor my degree so that I only took certain types of modules (for example, not taking maths-based modules). Lectures were low-key, they were never overwhelming. Emphasis was placed on independent study and learning - which is much better for me. Durham is a very small city. It can feel claustrophobic at times. Its hard to walk down the street and not see someone you at least vaguely know - this can also be a positive, though. There are lots of cafes, and cheap clubs. And if it does start to feel too small, Newcastle is only a 10 minute train-ride away.

AMAZING!! Durham university has proven to be as friendly and beautuful as seen online. The facilities are great, welcoming and helpful. The business school is equipped with helping all students get a top quiality degree and leave being as employable as possible. I'm absolutely in love with Durham and cannot wait for the next three years at my university.

It was great fun and a fantastic opportunity to get to know lots of new people! The accommodation was good with an en suite and a large desk The college facilities were very handy, only being a few minutes walk, such as the computer room and the quiet study room. There are many places suitable for sport such as the fields around the college and Maiden Castle. The course is brilliant because of the emphasis on the importance of labs and the learning of new skills. Durham is a small but lively city, where it is difficult to feel unsafe. There are many clubs and restaurants so it makes for a fun night out, and the walk home is never too far!

Fresher's is fantastic! The university were great in sending out information about what to expect and a schedule of events. There was plenty to do: club nights, themed quizzes, formal meals and societies to join as well as opportunities to meet friends on similar and different courses. College accomodation was fantastic, surrounded by parkland and the riverside, there was lots of places to sit outside, run and exercise on the doorstep. The city was only a five minute walk away. My room was spacious, with a lovely view and shared bathrooms and kitchen at the end of the corridor. The facilities are really good. The library is well stocked with books, plenty of study spaces and the online library supplements the actual books well. The SU is warm and welcoming, with cafes and pool tables, cinema rooms and classrooms so it is a very sociable space. The sports complex is state of the art and has particularly good running facilities with multiple tracks and an on-site cafe. My course has quite a small cohort so it instantly feels like a family you join. It also meant the lecturers knew you by name very quickly so I felt like a valued and appreciated course member. The content of lectures is interesting, often delivered by lecturers who are world leaders in their area of study and the content also supports our placements in school. Durham is a compact city so easy to navigate but still with plenty to do. The city is well connected by buses and there are plenty of things to do. My favourite thing is the riverside cafes, where I meet friends or go for runs around the city.

Very engaging, my college's motto was “get involved”. Lots of activities every night to help you make friends - for those who enjoyed drinking alcohol there were bar activities, and for those who didn't there were “chilled” activities in other rooms, so all kinds of people felt welcomed. My college was very clean and the porters made sure all technical equipment worked well, and were very responsive if it ever didn't. Friendly cleaning staff once a week kept the place feeling homely. Beautiful spaces which encouraged happy studying, I always felt comfortable. Clean and tidy and hygeinic. I would have preferred more study spaces on the main campus as the library was often at max capacity especially during exam season. Sometimes I arrived at the library to study and had to immediately go back home because there was no space - this was terrible. The lecturers were truly experts and were very helpful and kind towards me always. A great lecturer fuels your drive to learn and this was the norm at my university. Lectures were detailed and interesting and up to date with modern research. Lecturers recommended papers to read at the end of every lecture to keep us learning which was very useful. The most gorgeous and picturesque city. A very friendly local and student community. Durham's night life was quite limited but it was a short train ride to Newcastle for big nights out, therefore city life at Durham University was very enjoyable. However, I wouldn't recommend it to a big city lover, as the place feels quite rural and more town-like.

It was good, the college ran lots of social events and had frep teams to look after us on nights out. The department gave good intro lectures and were very welcoming. There is a lovely welfare team that, although I didn't use, seemed very open and willing to help. It depends on the college. Mine was very nice, I had a decent room and big kitchen with a cleaner and facilities all working well. Also good location to town and science site. All very nice. Maiden Castle is the main sporting facility and very new and well equipped. The TLC is new and my favourite place to study, very open and bright. Lecturers were prepared well for lectures and knew what they were taking about. Tutorials were the most helpful as got more time with tutors to help fully understand the content. The city was smaller than expected but I like it. Very pretty and alot of character with a good amount of places to go on nights out.

Freshers 2019 at my student accommodation college was really good, a lot of effort went into events planning and making sure there were different things on each night (whether you wanted to party ot chill). Even during the freshers for 2020, months of planning and work went into organising and reorganising virtual events, especially because legislation kept on changing. A couple of small "household" in-person events were planned as well, following guidelines to try and make the freshers feel as welcome and safe as possible, whilst still trying to give them a sense of normality. The accommodation I had last year was adequate, probably average for the area. My room was big compared to many, but you definitely need tk bring blankets as the heating is set on a timer and it can get very cold when it isn't on over winter. Sgudent Union is really chill (vintage kilo sales are held there sometimes!) It has a big area to do work, with a bar that sells food, snacks and alcohol in the evenings. People go there to watch big sports games and play pool. The Bill Bryan library is HUGE, it also has a really good amount of study spaces for quiet work or group study, with a nice cafe and the resources available at great! Sporting events happen all the time at Durham (non-covid). I am a part of one of the college cheer teams and every year we have a cheer competition which we train twice a week for (everyone is welcome). Football matches usually occur once a week between various college teams (colleges have more than one team) and there is a huge rowing culture in Durham! Many more sporting clubs as well, whatever takes your fancy really. Considering everything hashad to be adapted quickly for this year, O think the lecturers are doing a fantastic job at trying to deliver in depth content - of course it is much harder this year having to try and understand difficult concept during asynchronous learning, but this is a learning curve for everyone and it can only get better with time. When things are back to normal, it will be much better because virtual labs are good, but actually being in the lab is definitely better. Durham City is filled with students, you walk down the street and are likely to pass several friendly faces of people you know on your wanders. Even though the city is small, it is buzzing with cafes and bars - the staurday market is always fun to have a browse through. If you fancy a bigger city day, Newcastle is a 10 minute train ride away and the trains are pretty regular, every 20 minutes or so!

Nights out are tight knit as Durham is small. You can always bump into friends. Lecturers are good and involved, they respond to queries relatively quickly. The course is good and I feel that I'll have many employment opportunities once I graduate