Durham University
Encyclopedia
The University of Durham, commonly known as Durham University, is a university in Durham
, England
. It was founded by Act of Parliament in 1832 and granted a Royal Charter in 1837. It was one of the first universities to open in England for more than 600 years and has a claim towards being the third oldest university in England
.
Durham is a collegiate university
, with its main functions divided between the academic departments of the University and 16 colleges. In general, the departments perform research and provide lectures to students, while the colleges are responsible for the domestic arrangements and welfare of undergraduate students, graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and some University staff.
The University is considered as very prestigious and is consistently one of the highest ranked universities in the UK. The Sunday Times
ranked Durham as the 3rd best university in the UK in 2011/2012. The University was ranked 15th globally for employer reputation in the 2011 QS World University Rankings
following an extensive survey of 17,000 blue-chip organisations across the world. "Long established as the leading alternative to Oxford
and Cambridge
", the University attracts "a largely middle and higher class student body" according to The Times
Good University Guide. Durham also has the second highest proportion of privately educated students in the country. The University was named Sunday Times University of the Year
in 2005, having previously been shortlisted for the award in 2004.
The Chancellor
of the University is Bill Bryson
, who will be succeeded by Sir Thomas Allen in January 2012. The post-nominal letters
of graduates have Dunelm (the Latin abbreviation for Durham) attached to indicate the University.
The strong tradition of theological teaching in Durham gave rise to various attempts to form a university there, notably under King Henry VIII
and Oliver Cromwell
, who issued letters patent
and nominated a proctor and fellows for the establishment of a college in 1657. However, there was deep concern expressed by Oxford and Cambridge that the awarding of degree powers could hinder their position. Indeed were it not for the "sheltered" position of Oxbridge, the university system in the UK would perhaps look very different today. Consequently, it was not until 1832 when Parliament
, at the instigation of Archdeacon Charles Thorp
and with the support of the Bishop of Durham, William van Mildert
, passed "an Act to enable the Dean and Chapter of Durham to appropriate part of the property of their church to the establishment of a University in connection therewith" to fund a new university, that the University actually came into being. Accommodation was provided in the Archdeacon's Inn from 1833 to 1837 when an order of the Queen-in-Council
was issued granting the use of Durham Castle
(previously the Bishop's palace) as a college of the university. The Act received Royal Assent and became law on 4 July 1832. The University's Royal Charter
was granted on 1 June 1837 by William IV
, with the first students graduating a week later.
's Hall (later to become Hatfield College
) was founded, providing for the opportunity for students to obtain affordable lodgings with fully catered communal eating. Those attending University College
were expected to bring a servant with them to deal with cooking, cleaning and so on. Elsewhere, the University expanded from Durham into Newcastle
in 1852 when the medical school there (established in 1834) became a college of the University. This was joined in 1871 by the College of Physical Sciences (renamed the College of Science in 1884 and again renamed Armstrong College in 1904). St Cuthbert's Society
was founded in 1888 to cater for non-resident students in Durham (although now mainly caters for resident students), while two teacher-training colleges – St Hild's for women, established in 1858, and The College of the Venerable Bede for men, established in 1839, also existed in the city. These merged to form a mixed college (the College of St Hild and St Bede
) in 1975. From 1896 these were associated with the University and graduates of St Hild's were the first female graduates from Durham in 1898.
In 1842, the Durham Union Society
was set up as a forum for debates, the first of which took place in the reading rooms in Hatfield Hall. It also served as the students' union (hence the name) until Durham Colleges Students' Representative Council was founded in 1899, thus separating into two independent bodies, the DSU and DUS (it was later renamed Durham Students' Union
in 1963).
For most of the 19th century, University of Durham degrees were subject to a religion test and could only be taken by members of the established church. This situation lasted until the Universities Tests Act 1871. However, "dissenters" were able to attend Durham and then receive degrees of the University of London
, which were not subject to any religious test, on completing their course. Following the grant of a supplemental charter in 1895 allowing women to receive degrees of the University, the Women's Hostel (St Mary's College
from 1919) was founded in 1899.
The Newcastle division of the University, which comprised both Armstrong College (named after Lord Armstong) and Durham University College of Medicine, quickly grew to outnumber the Durham colleges, despite the addition of two Anglican
foundations: St Chad's College
(1904) and St John's College
(1909). A parliamentary bill proposed in 1907 would have fixed the seat of the University in Durham for only ten years, allowing the Senate to choose to move to Newcastle after this. This was blocked by a local MP
, with the support of graduates of the Durham colleges, until the bill was modified to establish a federal university with its seat fixed in Durham. This reform also removed the University from the authority of the Dean and Chapter of Durham Cathedral
, who had nominally been in charge of the University since its foundation. Thirty years after this, the Royal Commission
of 1937 recommended changes in the constitution of the federal University, resulting in the merger of the two Newcastle colleges to form King's College. The Vice-Chancellorship alternated between the Warden of the Durham Colleges and the Rector of King's. (The legacy of this lives on, in that the titular head of the University is still called "The Vice-Chancellor and Warden.")
After World War II, the Durham division expanded rapidly. St Aidan's Society (St Aidan's College
from 1965) was founded in 1947 to cater for non-resident women and the decision was made to expand onto Elvet Hill, vastly expanding the existing pure science provision in Durham, and adding applied science and engineering.
In 1947, the foundation stones for the new St Mary's
College building on Elvet Hill were laid by the Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II). The new building opened in 1952, and is said to be the last government funded university building to have been built in stone. In the same year, tensions surfaced again over the Durham-Newcastle divide, with a proposal to change the name of the University to the 'University of Durham and Newcastle'. This motion was defeated in Convocation
(the assembly of members of the University) by 135 votes to 129. Eleven years later, with the Universities of Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne Act 1963, King's College became the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, leaving Durham University based solely in its home city.
By this time, the Elvet Hill site was well established, with the first of the new colleges, Grey College
(named after the second Earl Grey
, who was the Prime Minister
when the University was founded) being founded in 1959. Expansion up Elvet Hill continued, with Van Mildert College
and the Durham Business School (1965), Trevelyan College
(1966) and Collingwood College
(1972) all being added to the University, along with a botanic garden
(1970).
These were not the only developments in the University, however. The Graduate Society, catering for postgraduate students, was founded in 1965 (renamed Ustinov College
in 2003) and the Roman Catholic seminary
of Ushaw College
, which had been in Durham since 1808, was licensed as a hall of residence in 1968. By 1990, the last male-only college became mixed, leaving St Mary's as the last single-sex college.
In 1992, a joint venture between the University and the University of Teesside
saw the Joint University College on Teesside of the Universities of Durham and Teesside (JUCOT) established at Thornaby-on-Tees
in the borough of Stockton-on-Tees and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, 30 miles (48.3 km) to the south of Durham. This was initially intended to grant joint degrees validated by both institutions (BAs and BScs). However, Teesside, which had only become a university in 1992, had difficulties in taking on its responsibilities for the college and Durham took full control of the new college in 1994.
A programme of integration with Durham began, however the college was renamed University College, Stockton (UCS) in 1992 – a college of the University of Durham. Further integration led to the campus being renamed the University of Durham, Stockton Campus (UDSC) in 1998, removing teaching responsibilities from the College. In 2001, two new colleges, John Snow
and George Stephenson
(after the physician
and the engineer
) were established at Stockton, replacing UCS, and the new medical school
(which operates in association with the University of Newcastle upon Tyne
) took in its first students – the first medics to join Durham since 1963. In 2002, her golden jubilee
year, the Queen
granted the title "Queen's Campus" to the Stockton site.
As of 2005 Queen's Campus, Stockton accounts for around 18% of the total university student population. This is likely to increase in coming years thanks to future expansion plans. In 2007 the campus cafeteria, "The Waterside Room", was renovated and now serves as the campus student bar. In addition to this facility both colleges at the campus benefit from their own college bars, managed centrally however and not by their JCR.
In the last half of the 20th century, the number of students at the university has grown considerably, and continues to grow with the addition of Queen's Campus, Stockton. The more recent rises are in line with government policy of increasing access to higher education. In 1989 the University started its fund-raising and alumni office, with a virtual community for alumni and several large gifts made to the University, including for the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, the Department of Physics
and the Wolfson Research Institute
. In 2006 Josephine Butler College
, opened at the Howlands Farm site on Elvet Hill. This was the first new college to open in Durham itself since the 1970s, at the creation of Collingwood. The University's Strategic Plan through to 2010 is at the University's web site. In 2005, St Mary's College
had its first mixed undergraduate intake. In October 2006, Josephine Butler College
, a long-standing development, opened its doors to students as Durham's newest college; the only purpose-built self catering college for students within Durham.
In July 2009, the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair
announced a strategic partnership with Durham University, following Yale University
and National University of Singapore
, to create a global network
of twelve leading research universities for delivering his Faith and Globalization Initiative in association with Tony Blair Faith Foundation
.
In May 2010, Durham joined the Matariki Network of Universities
(MNU) together with Dartmouth College
(USA), Queen’s University (Canada), University of Otago
(New Zealand), University of Tübingen (Germany), University of Western Australia
(Australia) and Uppsala University
(Sweden).
In 2011, the University of Durham's ethical reputation was called into question by the revelation that a donation of £125,000 had been accepted from British American Tobacco despite the involvement of members of the university's department of anthropology, School of Applied Social Sciences and medical school in the tobacco control
field. Criticised as being of dubious financial necessity and showing insensitivity to the surrounding population (Durham being in the North East, one of England's worst-afflicted regions as regards smoking-related ill health), the controversy led to direct appeals to the then Chancellor Bill Bryson - to whose scheme for educating female Afghan students the donation had been made. The tobacco industry donation was not repaid.
, five grade-one listed buildings and 68 grade two-listed buildings along with 44.9 ha of woodland. The estate is divided across two separate locations: Durham City and Queen's Campus, Stockton. The two locations are connected via a free bus service that runs frequently throughout the week. One of the major public attractions in Durham City is the 7.3 ha Botanic Gardens
, established in 1970, with over 78,000 visitors (2007/08).
and Stephenson Colleges) and the Wolfson Research Institute
. There are currently a limited number of subjects studied at Queen's Campus. Current subjects are: Medicine (shared with Newcastle University), Biomedical Sciences, degrees in Accounting, Business and Finance, Applied Psychology, Primary education and Human Sciences. The University has recently purchased a 4 acres (16,187.4 m²) site on the North bank of Stockton and has plans to develop the academic structure at Queens and the possibility of a new college. A bus line connects Queen's Campus to Durham City and a one-way journey usually takes 45 minutes.
system holds over 1.5 million printed items. The library was founded in January 1833 at Palace Green
by a 160-volume donation by the then Bishop of Durham, William Van Mildert. The library operates four branches: Main library, Education Library, Queen's Campus Library and the Palace Green Library which holds the special and heritage collections. The Bishop Cosin's Library (contains over 5,000 medieval titles) and the Sudan Archive ("the pre-eminent archive on the Sudan outside Khartoum
") of the central library were granted Designation Status in 2005 by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.
In addition to the central library system, each College maintains its own library and reading rooms such as the Bettenson, Brewis, Williams and Fenton Libraries of St Chad's College, which contain over 38,000 volumes. Many departments also maintain a library in addition to the subject collections in the central and college libraries.
Built in the 1960s the University's Oriental Museum
grew predominantly from the acquisitions of the University's former School of Oriental Studies Initially housed across the University and used as a teaching collection, the size of the collection lead to the building of the current museum to house the material. The collection to date contains over 30,000 objects from Asian art to antiquities, covering the Orient
and Levant
to the Far East and the Indian Sub-continent, with over a 1/3 of the collection relating to China. The national importance of the Chinese and Egyptian collections can been seen in the Designated Status from the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
achieved in 2008.
The Old Fulling Mill
is the University's Museum of Archaeology. The museum was opened in 1833 being the second University museum in England to allow admittance to the general public. The museum focuses on the heritage of the North East of England with collections spanning the prehistoric, to Ancient Greek and Roman to the Anglo Saxon periods, although the key collection is that of the Medieval & Post Medieval period.
lasts ten weeks from October to December; Epiphany term
lasts nine weeks from January to March and Easter term
lasts nine weeks from April to June. Within Michaelmas term, the academic week begins on a Thursday with lectures starting on the first Thursday of October and ending on a Wednesday. All other terms begin their academic week on a Monday. Internally the weeks are classed as "Durham Weeks" with the first week of Michaelmas starting at week 1.
Students at the University are also expected to "Keep Term", whereby students must fulfil their academic requirements at the University. As such Heads of Departments must be satisfied that each student has attended all necessary tutorials, seminars and practical work throughout the term and vacation period.
, setting Durham colleges apart from those at the universities of Kent, Lancaster, and York. However, unlike at Oxford, Cambridge, Wales, and London, there is no formal teaching at most Durham colleges (although St John's, St Chad's and Ushaw College have their own academic and research staff and offer college-based programmes in conjunction with the University). The colleges dominate the residential, social, sporting, and pastoral functions within the university, and there is heavy student involvement in their operation.
Formal dinners (known as "formals") are held at nearly every college; gowns
, the exact design of which varies depending on the college, are worn to these events at most colleges (the notable exceptions in Durham City are Van Mildert and Collingwood). There is a great deal of intercollegiate rivalry, particularly in rowing
and other sporting activities. There is also rivalry between the older colleges of the Bailey and the newer colleges of the Hill
.
The University holds the powers to award degrees under the Royal Charter of 1837, extended to include the power to award degrees to women under the Supplementary Charter of 1895. However, the rules governing how the University is constituted are to be found in the Statutes put in place by the Universities of Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne Act, 1963, and subsequently amended by the Privy Council
. The Statutes provide that: "The University shall be governed by a Visitor, Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Convocation, Council, Senate, and Boards of Studies."
The Visitor for the University of Durham is the Bishop of Durham. The Visitor is the final arbiter of any dispute within the University, except in those areas where legislation has removed this to the law courts or other ombudsmen
, or in matters internal to the two non-maintained colleges (St Chad's College and St John's College), each of which has its own Visitor. Student complaints and appeals were heard by the Visitor until the Higher Education Act 2004 came into force. All student complaints are now heard by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education.
The Chancellor
of the University is Bill Bryson
, who will be succeeded by Sir Thomas Allen in January 2012. The current Vice-Chancellor is Chris Higgins
. The office of Chancellor, which is held for five years and renewable, is mainly ceremonial, while the Vice-Chancellor is de facto the principal academic and administrative officer.
Convocation is the assembly of members of the University. It consists of the Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, and Pro-Vice-Chancellors, all graduates, the teaching staff (lecturers, senior lecturers, readers, and professors), and the heads of colleges and licensed halls of residence. It must meet once each year in order to hear the Vice-Chancellor's Address and to debate any business relating to the University. Further meetings can be called if representation is made by a minimum of 50 members. Its powers are limited to appointing the Chancellor (and even then, only on the nomination of Council and Senate) and the making of representations to the University on any business debated.
Council is the executive body of the University. In addition to representatives from the University it includes 12 lay members (not being teachers or salaried staff in the University or any of its colleges), the Dean of Durham and the President of Durham Students' Union. Its powers include establishing and maintaining colleges, and recognising non-maintained colleges and licensed halls of residence. Senate is the supreme governing body of the University in academic matters. It nominates the Vice-Chancellor and Pro-Vice-Chancellors to Council, and recommends the establishment of Faculties and Boards of Studies. It is Senate that grants degrees, and has the authority to revoke them. It also regulates the use of academic dress
of the University.
, and Social Sciences
and Health. Each faculty is headed by a Pro-Vice-Chancellor and one or more Deputies. These, along with the heads of the departments in the faculty and the Vice-Chancellor, make up the Faculty Board for that faculty. Each department also has a Board of Studies consisting of the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of their faculty, the teaching staff of the department, and student representatives. See also Natural Sciences
, one of the largest degree programmes.
Faculty of Social Science & Health
Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Faculty of Science
and higher classes background which is the 5th highest result in the UK. 47.27% of the undergraduate student body for 2007/2008 arrived from either a grammar school or independent school 12.24% of full time students are of ethnic minorities and 51.32% are female. For the undergraduate class of 2008, the colleges with the most students from independent schools (in descending order) were Hatfield, Hilde Bede and Chad's College. For the undergraduate class of 2007, Durham received 29,712 applications, of which 36.8% were from Independent schools and 9.2% from ethnic minorities, overall 32% of applicants were successful in receiving an offer of admissions. Durham requires students applying for degrees in Law to sit the LNAT
admission test and the UKCAT
for the MBBS in Medicine. Durham also runs the Durham Gifted and Talented Summer School at Van Mildert College in the University and takes part in the Duke University
TIP Summer Studies Programme
as part of its widening access policy.
Since 1992 the university has also run a widening access programme, originally called the Centre for Lifelong Learning. The centre is now called the Foundation Centre homepage which delivers courses at both Durham City and Queens campus, Stockton on Tees. The centre provides access to Durham degrees for mature students who show academic promise but do not hold the traditional entry requirements and international students who require an extra year of study to bring them up to the standard expected. The Centre runs a range of courses which cover specific academic disciplines and key skills, in the year 2010–11 195 students were enrolled onto the programme.
According to the latest league tables of British universities
many courses of Durham University are among the best in the country with Education Studies, Engineering and History in particular being number 1 in the UK:
World rankings of universities have placed Durham as follows:
In April 2009 Durham Business School joined a group of academic institutions worldwide who are accredited by the three major bodies – AACSB, AMBA
and EQUIS
. In 2011, the MBA programme was ranked 55th in the world by both the Financial Times and the Economist along with the MA in Management programme being ranked 56th in the world by FT European Masters Ranking and the Executive MBA being ranked 83rd in the world by the 2008 Financial Times EMBA Ranking.
Durham was ranked 11th overall in the Sunday Times University Guide's cumulative table over ten years of study (1997–2007), along with being a member of the 'Sutton 13' of top ranked Universities in the UK.
Durham is also one of the few to have won University Challenge
more than once. Teams from Durham won University Challenge
in both 1977 and 2000.
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The University is part of the 1994 Group
, Virgo Consortium
and the N8 Group
of Universities. Durham was ranked eighteenth for quality of research out of 124 of the institutions which took part in the UK Funding Councils'
2001 Research Assessment Exercise
in the Guardian's unofficial ranking. Nearly 87% of the University's academic staff are located in departments with top research ratings of 5 or 5*, with Durham's research averaging a 5 rating – "international excellence in more than half of the research activity submitted and attainable levels of national excellence in the remainder". In terms of individual academic departments, the Department of Geography
is considered one of the best in the United Kingdom and a world leader in many research areas, gaining a 5* rating. Other subjects that gained a 5* rating in the RAE were Applied Mathematics
, Physics
, Chemistry
, English
, History, and Law.
The latest national Research Assessment Exercise (RAE 2008) sponsored by the UK government, The Times, Guardian and The Independent rank Durham as joint-thirteenth by grade point average and twelfth by quality index across the thirty units of assessment it submitted. The RAE results also rank Durham as the UK's top university with Archaeology, Geography, Theology & Divinity being ranked as first. Over 60.9% of research was given a 4* (world leading) or 3* (internationally excellent) grading and 91.6% falling within the 4*, 3* and 2* (international quality) bands. Additionally, Durham ranks 1st amongst the members of the 1994 group as the most research intensive University (when taking into account both the quality and volume of research activity at 4* and 3* grades).
Furthermore, Durham's Physics Department's
research into Space Science and Astrophysics was rated as number one in Europe and fourth in the world by Thomson Reuters from its Essential Science Indicators (1998–2008). Alongside the Times Higher Education Supplement's citation rankings placed Durham as the number 1 university in the UK for its impact of scientific research in 2005.
Durham students belong to a college for the duration of their time at the University. Most students live in their college for the first year of their undergraduate life, then choose to ‘live-out’ in their second year, and subsequently have the option of moving back into college for their final year, usually via a ballot system. The Colleges provide a key role in the pastoral care and social centre of students with each running a college tutorial system, along with JCRs providing events and societies for undergraduate members, MCRs being a centre for postgraduate students and the SCRs for the college officers, fellows and tutors. Each college has a unique identity and a variety of facilities for students ranging from computer rooms and libraries to tennis courts and gyms. Most colleges have their own sports teams and compete in the collegiate leagues such as Durham College Rowing
and have their own theatre company and orchestra which operate parallel to the university level sports teams and organizations.
(DSU) charters and provides most of the funding for these organisations, and represents students' interests when dealing with the administration. DSU also operates events based in Dunelm house ranging from club nights such as Planet of Sound, Revolver (alternative & indie), Twisted (underground electronic) and the Jazz café. The DSU also runs a Comedy Café, Fresher's Ball, Silent Discos and Vintage fashion fair amongst others.
, Durham's independent student run fortnightly newspaper, has been continually published since 1948. Notable former editors include George Alagiah
, Hunter Davies
, Piers Merchant
, Sir Timothy Laurence
, Jeremy Vine
and Harold Evans
.
Purple Radio
is Durham's only student radio station. It is run entirely by students and broadcasts live from the DSU
24 hours a day during term time. The station has existed since the 1980s and is a recognised DSU society. Two daily news bulletins are broadcasted every weekday, as well as a Breakfast Show and an Evening Show.
Student views and opinions are represented by Durham21
, an independent student website, founded in 2001, which has won the NUS Website of the Year Award in five of the last six years and is also the current holder.
Durham University has a literary magazine, The Grove, which comes out five times a year and a termly arts journal, the fun and beautiful journal which publishes poetry, stories, photography and artwork submitted by students. The Groves sister publication, the online magazine The Bubble http://www.thebubble.org.uk/, was launched in 2010.
Mostly Harmlesshttp://www.mostly-harmless.org.uk/ is the student run satire newspaper. Other university publications include college run magazines such as Hatfield's The Hatfielder, Grey's Grey Matter or The Bog Sheet of St Chad's College
.
A new online tabloid newspaper called DurhamOne was created in February 2011.
Durham University Charity Kommittee or DUCK is the university's equivalent of student's rag week. Original set-up as a week event, DUCK has become a permanent feature in raising money for local or national charities with events taking place throughout the year. Activities take place with-in each college as well as centrally with events such as Back 2 School club nights, Raft Races, Firewalks and Rag Raids to the Jailbreak hitch hike, sky dives and the three and five peaks challenge. DUCK also organises expeditions to the Himalayas, Jordan and Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money as well being involved in the university-run ‘Project Sri Lanka’ and ‘Project Thailand’. In July 2009, DUCK partnered with international NGO Coral Cay Conservation.
Team Durham Community Outreach is a sports community programme aimed at giving support and opportunities through the use of sport. The programme runs projects such as Summer Camps for children from the Youth Engagement Service and fostered backgrounds along with providing coaching at local schools as well as participating in sports in action.
with many being predominantly based at the Graham Sports Centre at Maiden Castle which has 26 courts and pitches for sports ranging from rugby to lacrosse to netball, additional facilities include eleven boat houses and two astroturfs a fitness studio and weights room. The university also owns The Racecourse
which has a further eight courts and pitches for cricket, rugby (union and league), squash and football.
The University is recognised as a Centre of Cricketing Excellence
(which is one of only six to play first-class matches) by the England and Wales Cricket Board
and subsequently the Marylebone Cricket Club
along with rowing
and fencing
also being recognised as centres of excellence. Durham also host the House of Sport which includes an English Institute of Sport
hub site and being a British Olympic passport holder's site. Durham was ranked joint 4th across all sports by the British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) in 2007/8. It is also the current BUSA rowing champion, which Durham has won for the past six years.
Durham University is one of three universities to compete in the Doxbridge Tournament, a sporting competition between Durham University, the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. The Durham University Boat Club
also competes in the Durham Regatta
and the Northumbrian Water University Boat Race
against Newcastle University, which it has only lost once in its 12 year history.
Durham University Rugby Football Club 1st XV recorded an unbeaten season in 2010–2011 making them BUCS champions after a thrilling final at Twickenham against UWIC. The team secured the league title with memorable doubles over Loughborough and Leeds Metropolitan under the captaincy of Ron Malaney and coaching of new Head of Rugby at the University, Alex Reay. These unbelievable scenes have seen the 1st XV dubbed "The Invincibles". That same season The 1st VII won the BUCS 7s Championship, being the first team in BUCS history to complete the "Treble" being premier league winners (undefeated), cup champions and 7s champions. This has earned the side a second visit to Twickenham to compete in the Middlesex 7s on 9 July
Since 1975 the university has played host to the Durham Drama Festival, an internationally renowned event which is predominately a celebration of new writing in Durham. Other University Theatre Groups, such as those from Newcastle or Sheffield, are also invited to take part in the event.
Music is also a high-ranking activity in Durham, particularly marked by the Durham University Chamber Choir and Orchestral Societies (including the Palatinate Orchestra).
The Durham Cathedral Choir offers seven scholarships to students of the University. Several of the colleges (University College, Hatfield, St Chad's, St John's and Hild-Bede) also offer organ and choral scholarships to prospective students.
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Durham alumni are active through organizations and events such as the annual Reunions, Dinners and Balls. There are 67 Durham associations ranging from international to college and sports affiliated groups that cater for the more than 109,000 living alumni. A number of Durham alumni have made significant contributions in the fields of government, law, science, academia, business, arts, journalism, and athletics, among others.
Sir Milton Margai
, first prime minister of Sierra Leone
graduated with a medical degree in 1926, the 7th Queensland Premier John Douglas
graduated with an Arts degree in 1850, Henry Holland, 1st Viscount Knutsford
, Secretary of State for the Colonies
from 1887 to 1892, graduated with a Laws degree in 1847, Herbert Laming, Baron Laming
, head of the Harold Shipman inquiry
and the investigation of Britain's social services following the death of Baby P
, graduated in Applied Social Studies in 1960, along with Dame Caroline Swift
, the lead counsel to the Shipman inquiry, further Mo Mowlam
(Sociology and Anthropology), Edward Leigh
(History), and Crispin Blunt
(Politics) are among the most notable alumni with involvement in politics. Within the military graduates include General Sir Richard Dannatt
(Economic History), the Chief of the General Staff
, the professional head of the British Army
, Vice-Admiral Tim Laurence (Geography), Chief Executive of Defence Estates
and husband to The Princess Royal
, and Rear-Admiral Amjad Hussain
(Engineering, 1979) highest ranking officer from an ethnic minority in the British Armed Forces
.
In the research realm, Durham graduates include Prof John D. Barrow
(Mathematics and physics, 1974), winner of the Templeton Prize
, Sir George Malcolm Brown
(Chemistry & Geology, 1950), invited by NASA to work on the moon rock
samples recovered from the Apollo 11
lunar mission, Prof George Rochester
(1926), co-discoverer of the kaon
sub-atomic particle, alongside Sir Harold Jeffreys
(Mathematics, 1919), winner of the Royal Society
's Copley Medal
, and Sir Kingsley Charles Dunham
(Geology, 1930) former director of the British Geological Survey
. The current Vice-chancellors of Cardiff (David Grant, PhD, 1974), Durham (Chris Higgins
, PhD, 1979), and Lancaster (Paul Wellings, MSc) are also graduates.
Several alumni hold top positions in the Business world. Richard Adams
(Sociology), founder of fair trade
organisation Traidcraft
, Paul Hawkins (PhD in Artificial Intelligence), inventor of the Hawk-Eye
ball-tracking system, Dame Elisabeth Hoodless
(Sociology), Executive Director of Community Service Volunteers
, Sir Nick Scheele
(German, 1966), former President and Chief Operating Officer of Ford Motor Company
, David Sproxton
(Geography, 1976), co-founder of Aardman Animations
who produce Wallace & Gromit, Tim Smit
(Archaeology and Anthropology), co-founder of the Eden Project
and David Walton
(Economics and Mathematics, 1984), member of the Bank of England
's Monetary Policy Committee
.
Prominent journalists and media specialists include Sir Harold Evans
(Politics and Economics), editor of The Sunday Times
from 1967 to 1981, Nigel Farndale
(Philosophy), Sunday Telegraph
journalist, and George Alagiah
(Politics), presenter of the BBC News at Six. Matthew Amroliwala
(Law and Politics, 1984) is the BBC News
channel presenter and BBC one weekend news host. Biddy Baxter
(1955) former producer of Blue Peter
. Arthur Bostrom
(BA Hons) most famous for his role as Officer Crabtree
in the long-running BBC
sitcom 'Allo 'Allo!
. Jamie Campbell (English Literature) is a film maker, and also joins Alastair Fothergill
(Zoology, 1983),series producer of The Blue Planet
, Planet Earth
and the director of Earth
. Shelagh Fogarty
(Modern Languages, 1988) current host of the BBC Radio 5 Live
breakfast show alongside Lorraine Heggessey
(English Language & Literature) the first female Controller of BBC One
. Chris Terrill
(Anthropology and Geography) documentary maker, writer and adventurer famous for being the only civilian to pass the Royal Marines Commando tests to gain an honorary green beret. Further BBC hosts who have graduated from Durham include Chris Hollins
, sports presenter on BBC Breakfast
, Gabby Logan
(Law, 1995), Kate Silverton
(Psychology), Jeremy Vine
(English), Tim Willcox
(Spanish), Nina Hossain
(English Language and Linguistics) and Apprentice Ben Clarke (MBA, 2011).
Noted writers include Edward Bradley
author of The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green
, Minette Walters
(French, 1971), author of The Sculptress
and The Scold's Bridle
, Graham Hancock
(Sociology, 1973) author of The Sign and the Seal
, and Lorna Hill (born Lorna Leatham, English, 1926), children's writer, author of the Sadlers Wells series.
In the sports realm, former England rugby captains Will Carling
(Psychology), Phil de Glanville
(Economics), and vice-captain Will Greenwood
(Economics, 1994), alongside Olympic gold-medal triple jumper Jonathan Edwards
(Physics, 1987), the 1992 Olympic spare Wade Hall-Craggs
(MBA), and Beijing Olympics Bronze-medal winner Stephen Rowbotham
(Business Economics), former England cricket captain Nasser Hussain
(Mathematics) and the current Captain Andrew Strauss
(Economics) are among the most famous.
In Africa, Durham University has produced professionals such as Brenda Lindiwe Mabaso-Chipeio
who is currently based in South Africa, but has extensive experience in the Swaziland academic fraternity. She currently specialises in South African Trade Tariffs and is Deputy Chief Commissioner of the International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) of South Africa. Mabaso was one of the leading Masters in Business Administration (MBA) students at the University of Durham in year 1999.
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It was founded by Act of Parliament in 1832 and granted a Royal Charter in 1837. It was one of the first universities to open in England for more than 600 years and has a claim towards being the third oldest university in England
Third oldest university in England debate
The title of third-oldest university in England is a topic of much debate, with prime contenders for the title usually being considered to include University College London, King's College London, Durham University and the University of London, however deciding which is truly the 'oldest' depends...
.
Durham is a collegiate university
Collegiate university
A collegiate university is a university in which governing authority and functions are divided between a central administration and a number of constituent colleges...
, with its main functions divided between the academic departments of the University and 16 colleges. In general, the departments perform research and provide lectures to students, while the colleges are responsible for the domestic arrangements and welfare of undergraduate students, graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and some University staff.
The University is considered as very prestigious and is consistently one of the highest ranked universities in the UK. The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
ranked Durham as the 3rd best university in the UK in 2011/2012. The University was ranked 15th globally for employer reputation in the 2011 QS World University Rankings
QS World University Rankings
The QS World University Rankings is a ranking of the world’s top 500 universities by Quacquarelli Symonds using a method that has published annually since 2004....
following an extensive survey of 17,000 blue-chip organisations across the world. "Long established as the leading alternative to Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
and Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
", the University attracts "a largely middle and higher class student body" according to The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
Good University Guide. Durham also has the second highest proportion of privately educated students in the country. The University was named Sunday Times University of the Year
Sunday Times University of the Year
The Sunday Times University of the Year is an annual award given to a British university or other higher education institution by The Sunday Times....
in 2005, having previously been shortlisted for the award in 2004.
The Chancellor
Chancellor (education)
A chancellor or vice-chancellor is the chief executive of a university. Other titles are sometimes used, such as president or rector....
of the University is Bill Bryson
Bill Bryson
William McGuire "Bill" Bryson, OBE, is a best-selling American author of humorous books on travel, as well as books on the English language and on science. Born an American, he was a resident of Britain for most of his adult life before moving back to the US in 1995...
, who will be succeeded by Sir Thomas Allen in January 2012. The post-nominal letters
Post-nominal letters
Post-nominal letters, also called post-nominal initials, post-nominal titles or designatory letters, are letters placed after the name of a person to indicate that the individual holds a position, educational degree, accreditation, office, or honour. An individual may use several different sets of...
of graduates have Dunelm (the Latin abbreviation for Durham) attached to indicate the University.
History
Origins
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
and Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
, who issued letters patent
Letters patent
Letters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch or president, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, title, or status to a person or corporation...
and nominated a proctor and fellows for the establishment of a college in 1657. However, there was deep concern expressed by Oxford and Cambridge that the awarding of degree powers could hinder their position. Indeed were it not for the "sheltered" position of Oxbridge, the university system in the UK would perhaps look very different today. Consequently, it was not until 1832 when Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
, at the instigation of Archdeacon Charles Thorp
Charles Thorp
Charles Thorp was an English churchman, rector of the parish of Ryton and, later, Archdeacon of Durham and the first warden of the University of Durham.-Life:...
and with the support of the Bishop of Durham, William van Mildert
William Van Mildert
William Van Mildert was the last palatine Bishop of Durham , and one of the founders of the University of Durham...
, passed "an Act to enable the Dean and Chapter of Durham to appropriate part of the property of their church to the establishment of a University in connection therewith" to fund a new university, that the University actually came into being. Accommodation was provided in the Archdeacon's Inn from 1833 to 1837 when an order of the Queen-in-Council
Queen-in-Council
The Queen-in-Council is, in each of the Commonwealth realms, the technical term of constitutional law that refers to the exercise of executive authority, denoting the monarch acting by and with the advice and consent of his or her privy council or executive council The Queen-in-Council (during...
was issued granting the use of Durham Castle
Durham Castle
Durham Castle is a Norman castle in the city of Durham, England, which has been wholly occupied since 1840 by University College, Durham. It is open to the general public to visit, but only through guided tours, since it is in use as a working building and is home to over 100 students...
(previously the Bishop's palace) as a college of the university. The Act received Royal Assent and became law on 4 July 1832. The University's Royal Charter
Royal Charter
A royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organizations such as cities or universities. Charters should be distinguished from warrants and...
was granted on 1 June 1837 by William IV
William IV of the United Kingdom
William IV was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death...
, with the first students graduating a week later.
19th century
In 1846, Bishop HatfieldThomas Hatfield
Thomas Hatfield was Bishop of Durham from 1345 to 1381.Hatfield was receiver of the chamber when he was selected to be Lord Privy Seal in late 1344. He relinquished that office to his successor in July of 1345....
's Hall (later to become Hatfield College
Hatfield College
Hatfield College is a college of the University of Durham in England. Founded in 1846 by the Rev. David Melville, it is the second oldest of Durham's colleges, and was originally called Bishop Hatfield's Hall...
) was founded, providing for the opportunity for students to obtain affordable lodgings with fully catered communal eating. Those attending University College
University College, Durham
University College, commonly known as Castle, is a college of the University of Durham in England. Centred around Durham Castle on Palace Green, it was founded in 1832 and is the oldest of Durham's colleges. As with all of Durham's colleges, it is, independently of the University, a listed body...
were expected to bring a servant with them to deal with cooking, cleaning and so on. Elsewhere, the University expanded from Durham into Newcastle
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
in 1852 when the medical school there (established in 1834) became a college of the University. This was joined in 1871 by the College of Physical Sciences (renamed the College of Science in 1884 and again renamed Armstrong College in 1904). St Cuthbert's Society
St Cuthbert's Society
St Cuthbert's Society, colloquially known as Cuth's, is one of sixteen collegiate bodies within the University of Durham. It was founded in 1888 for students who were not attached to the existing colleges...
was founded in 1888 to cater for non-resident students in Durham (although now mainly caters for resident students), while two teacher-training colleges – St Hild's for women, established in 1858, and The College of the Venerable Bede for men, established in 1839, also existed in the city. These merged to form a mixed college (the College of St Hild and St Bede
College of St Hild and St Bede
The College of St Hild and St Bede, commonly known as Hild Bede, is a college of Durham University in England. It is the University's second largest collegiate body, with over 1000 students. The co-educational college was formed in 1975 following the merger of two much older single-sex...
) in 1975. From 1896 these were associated with the University and graduates of St Hild's were the first female graduates from Durham in 1898.
In 1842, the Durham Union Society
Durham Union Society
The Durham Union Society is a debating society founded in 1842 by the students of the Durham University. Commonly referred to as the "DUS" or "The Durham Union", it is the university's largest society with over 3,000 members...
was set up as a forum for debates, the first of which took place in the reading rooms in Hatfield Hall. It also served as the students' union (hence the name) until Durham Colleges Students' Representative Council was founded in 1899, thus separating into two independent bodies, the DSU and DUS (it was later renamed Durham Students' Union
Durham Students' Union
The Durham Students' Union is a body, set up as the Durham Colleges Students’ Representative Council in 1899 and renamed in 1969, with the intention of representing and providing welfare and services for the students of the University of Durham in England.-Location:DSU occupies and manages Dunelm...
in 1963).
For most of the 19th century, University of Durham degrees were subject to a religion test and could only be taken by members of the established church. This situation lasted until the Universities Tests Act 1871. However, "dissenters" were able to attend Durham and then receive degrees of the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
, which were not subject to any religious test, on completing their course. Following the grant of a supplemental charter in 1895 allowing women to receive degrees of the University, the Women's Hostel (St Mary's College
St Mary's College, Durham
St Mary's College is a college of the University of Durham in England. Following the grant of a supplemental charter in 1895 allowing women to receive degrees of the university, St Mary's was founded as the Women's Hostel in 1899, adopting its present name in May 1920...
from 1919) was founded in 1899.
20th century
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...
foundations: St Chad's College
St Chad's College
St Chad's College is a college of the University of Durham in England. One of the smallest of Durham's colleges in terms of student numbers , it has the largest staff, the most extensive college library facilities, and consistently the highest academic results in Durham...
(1904) and St John's College
St John's College, Durham
St John's College is a college of the University of Durham, United Kingdom. It is one of only two 'Recognised Colleges' of the University, the other being St Chad's. This means that it is financially and constitutionally independent of the University and has a greater degree of administrative...
(1909). A parliamentary bill proposed in 1907 would have fixed the seat of the University in Durham for only ten years, allowing the Senate to choose to move to Newcastle after this. This was blocked by a local MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, with the support of graduates of the Durham colleges, until the bill was modified to establish a federal university with its seat fixed in Durham. This reform also removed the University from the authority of the Dean and Chapter of Durham Cathedral
Durham Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham is a cathedral in the city of Durham, England, the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Durham. The Bishopric dates from 995, with the present cathedral being founded in AD 1093...
, who had nominally been in charge of the University since its foundation. Thirty years after this, the Royal Commission
Royal Commission
In Commonwealth realms and other monarchies a Royal Commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue. They have been held in various countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Saudi Arabia...
of 1937 recommended changes in the constitution of the federal University, resulting in the merger of the two Newcastle colleges to form King's College. The Vice-Chancellorship alternated between the Warden of the Durham Colleges and the Rector of King's. (The legacy of this lives on, in that the titular head of the University is still called "The Vice-Chancellor and Warden.")
After World War II, the Durham division expanded rapidly. St Aidan's Society (St Aidan's College
St Aidan's College
St Aidan's College is a college of the University of Durham in England. Founded in 1947 as St Aidan's Society, but able to trace its roots back to the end of the 19th century, the college is named for St Aidan of Lindisfarne.-History:...
from 1965) was founded in 1947 to cater for non-resident women and the decision was made to expand onto Elvet Hill, vastly expanding the existing pure science provision in Durham, and adding applied science and engineering.
In 1947, the foundation stones for the new St Mary's
St Mary's College, Durham
St Mary's College is a college of the University of Durham in England. Following the grant of a supplemental charter in 1895 allowing women to receive degrees of the university, St Mary's was founded as the Women's Hostel in 1899, adopting its present name in May 1920...
College building on Elvet Hill were laid by the Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II). The new building opened in 1952, and is said to be the last government funded university building to have been built in stone. In the same year, tensions surfaced again over the Durham-Newcastle divide, with a proposal to change the name of the University to the 'University of Durham and Newcastle'. This motion was defeated in Convocation
Convocation
A Convocation is a group of people formally assembled for a special purpose.- University use :....
(the assembly of members of the University) by 135 votes to 129. Eleven years later, with the Universities of Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne Act 1963, King's College became the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, leaving Durham University based solely in its home city.
By this time, the Elvet Hill site was well established, with the first of the new colleges, Grey College
Grey College, Durham
Grey College is a college of the University of Durham in England. Although it was originally planned that the college was to be named Oliver Cromwell College, this proved too controversial and it was instead named after Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, who was Prime Minister at the time of the...
(named after the second Earl Grey
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, KG, PC , known as Viscount Howick between 1806 and 1807, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 22 November 1830 to 16 July 1834. A member of the Whig Party, he backed significant reform of the British government and was among the...
, who was the Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
when the University was founded) being founded in 1959. Expansion up Elvet Hill continued, with Van Mildert College
Van Mildert College
Van Mildert College, commonly known as Mildert, is a college of the University of Durham in England. Founded in 1965, it takes its name from William Van Mildert, Prince-Bishop of Durham from 1826 to 1836 and a leading figure in the University's 1832 foundation.Van Mildert College occupies grounds...
and the Durham Business School (1965), Trevelyan College
Trevelyan College
Trevelyan College, often abbreviated to Trevs, is a college of the University of Durham in North Eastern England. Founded in 1966, the college takes its name from social historian George Macaulay Trevelyan, Chancellor of the University from 1950 to 1957. Originally an all-female college , the...
(1966) and Collingwood College
Collingwood College, Durham
Collingwood College is a college of Durham University in England. It is the second largest of Durham's undergraduate colleges. Founded in 1972 as the first purpose-built, mixed-sex college in Durham, it is named after the mathematician Sir Edward Collingwood , who was also for a time Chair of the...
(1972) all being added to the University, along with a botanic garden
Durham University Botanic Garden
The Durham University Botanic Garden is a botanical garden located in Durham, England. The site is set in of mature woodlands in the southern outskirts of the city...
(1970).
These were not the only developments in the University, however. The Graduate Society, catering for postgraduate students, was founded in 1965 (renamed Ustinov College
Ustinov College
Ustinov College is the largest college of Durham University. Founded as the Graduate Society in 1965, it became a college in 2003 and was named after the university's then chancellor, the late Sir Peter Ustinov. It is located at the Howlands Farm site at the top of Elvet Hill.-History:In 1965,...
in 2003) and the Roman Catholic seminary
Seminary
A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...
of Ushaw College
Ushaw College
Ushaw College was a Roman Catholic seminary near Durham, England that closed in 2011. Ushaw was the principal seminary in the north of England for the training of Catholic priests.-History:...
, which had been in Durham since 1808, was licensed as a hall of residence in 1968. By 1990, the last male-only college became mixed, leaving St Mary's as the last single-sex college.
Queen's Campus, Stockton
University of Teesside
Teesside University is a university in Middlesbrough, England. It has a student body of 29,285 students as of the 2009/10 academic year. It recorded rises in applications of 25.1 per cent and 23.5 per cent for degree courses beginning in 2010, the highest such percentage increases of the five...
saw the Joint University College on Teesside of the Universities of Durham and Teesside (JUCOT) established at Thornaby-on-Tees
Thornaby-on-Tees
Thornaby-on-Tees is a town and civil parish within the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. It is on the south bank of the River Tees, three miles southeast of Stockton-on-Tees, and four miles southwest of Middlesbrough town centre and has a...
in the borough of Stockton-on-Tees and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, 30 miles (48.3 km) to the south of Durham. This was initially intended to grant joint degrees validated by both institutions (BAs and BScs). However, Teesside, which had only become a university in 1992, had difficulties in taking on its responsibilities for the college and Durham took full control of the new college in 1994.
A programme of integration with Durham began, however the college was renamed University College, Stockton (UCS) in 1992 – a college of the University of Durham. Further integration led to the campus being renamed the University of Durham, Stockton Campus (UDSC) in 1998, removing teaching responsibilities from the College. In 2001, two new colleges, John Snow
John Snow College
John Snow College is a college of the University of Durham in England, and one of two located at Queen's Campus in Thornaby-on-Tees, south of the city of Durham itself...
and George Stephenson
George Stephenson College
Stephenson College is a college of the University of Durham in England, and one of two located at Queen's Campus in Stockton-on-Tees, south of the city of Durham itself...
(after the physician
John Snow (physician)
John Snow was an English physician and a leader in the adoption of anaesthesia and medical hygiene. He is considered to be one of the fathers of epidemiology, because of his work in tracing the source of a cholera outbreak in Soho, England, in 1854.-Early life and education:Snow was born 15 March...
and the engineer
George Stephenson
George Stephenson was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who built the first public railway line in the world to use steam locomotives...
) were established at Stockton, replacing UCS, and the new medical school
Medical school
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution—or part of such an institution—that teaches medicine. Degree programs offered at medical schools often include Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, Bachelor/Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Philosophy, master's degree, or other post-secondary...
(which operates in association with the University of Newcastle upon Tyne
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle University is a major research-intensive university located in Newcastle upon Tyne in the north-east of England. It was established as a School of Medicine and Surgery in 1834 and became the University of Newcastle upon Tyne by an Act of Parliament in August 1963. Newcastle University is...
) took in its first students – the first medics to join Durham since 1963. In 2002, her golden jubilee
Golden Jubilee
A Golden Jubilee is a celebration held to mark a 50th anniversary.- In Thailand :King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest-reigning monarch, celebrated his Golden Jubilee on 9 June 1996.- In the Commonwealth Realms :...
year, the Queen
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
granted the title "Queen's Campus" to the Stockton site.
As of 2005 Queen's Campus, Stockton accounts for around 18% of the total university student population. This is likely to increase in coming years thanks to future expansion plans. In 2007 the campus cafeteria, "The Waterside Room", was renovated and now serves as the campus student bar. In addition to this facility both colleges at the campus benefit from their own college bars, managed centrally however and not by their JCR.
Recent developments
In 2005, the University unveiled a re-branded logotype and introduced the trading name of Durham University. However, the official name of the institution remains the University of Durham and the official coat of arms is unchanged.In the last half of the 20th century, the number of students at the university has grown considerably, and continues to grow with the addition of Queen's Campus, Stockton. The more recent rises are in line with government policy of increasing access to higher education. In 1989 the University started its fund-raising and alumni office, with a virtual community for alumni and several large gifts made to the University, including for the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, the Department of Physics
Durham University Department of Physics
The Department of Physics at Durham University in Durham, England, is a large Physics and Astronomy Department involved in both undergraduate teaching and scientific research...
and the Wolfson Research Institute
Wolfson Research Institute
The Wolfson Research Institute is a multi-disciplinary research institute at Durham University in England. The Institute facilitates research on medicine, health, and well-being and is named after the Wolfson Foundation, which provided funds for the Institute's establishment...
. In 2006 Josephine Butler College
Josephine Butler College
Josephine Butler College is the newest college at Durham University, having opened in October 2006. It is located at the Howlands Farm site next to residences of Ustinov College...
, opened at the Howlands Farm site on Elvet Hill. This was the first new college to open in Durham itself since the 1970s, at the creation of Collingwood. The University's Strategic Plan through to 2010 is at the University's web site. In 2005, St Mary's College
St Mary's College, Durham
St Mary's College is a college of the University of Durham in England. Following the grant of a supplemental charter in 1895 allowing women to receive degrees of the university, St Mary's was founded as the Women's Hostel in 1899, adopting its present name in May 1920...
had its first mixed undergraduate intake. In October 2006, Josephine Butler College
Josephine Butler College
Josephine Butler College is the newest college at Durham University, having opened in October 2006. It is located at the Howlands Farm site next to residences of Ustinov College...
, a long-standing development, opened its doors to students as Durham's newest college; the only purpose-built self catering college for students within Durham.
In July 2009, the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
announced a strategic partnership with Durham University, following Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
and National University of Singapore
National University of Singapore
The National University of Singapore is Singapore's oldest university. It is the largest university in the country in terms of student enrollment and curriculum offered....
, to create a global network
Faith and Globalisation Network of Universities
The Faith and Globalisation Network of Universities is an international group of universities created in 2008 by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Faith Foundation....
of twelve leading research universities for delivering his Faith and Globalization Initiative in association with Tony Blair Faith Foundation
Tony Blair Faith Foundation
The Tony Blair Faith Foundation was established by Tony Blair in May 2008.-The Foundation:The Foundation was launched in May 2008 in New York at the headquarters of media group Time Warner. In his speech Blair outlined its aim that "idealism becomes the new realism", and that one of its goals was...
.
In May 2010, Durham joined the Matariki Network of Universities
Matariki Network of Universities
The Matariki Network of Universities is an international group of universities created in 2010, which focuses on strong links between research and undergraduate teaching. It claims that each member is leading international best practice in research and education based on long academic traditions...
(MNU) together with Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
(USA), Queen’s University (Canada), University of Otago
University of Otago
The University of Otago in Dunedin is New Zealand's oldest university with over 22,000 students enrolled during 2010.The university has New Zealand's highest average research quality and in New Zealand is second only to the University of Auckland in the number of A rated academic researchers it...
(New Zealand), University of Tübingen (Germany), University of Western Australia
University of Western Australia
The University of Western Australia was established by an Act of the Western Australian Parliament in February 1911, and began teaching students for the first time in 1913. It is the oldest university in the state of Western Australia and the only university in the state to be a member of the...
(Australia) and Uppsala University
Uppsala University
Uppsala University is a research university in Uppsala, Sweden, and is the oldest university in Scandinavia, founded in 1477. It consistently ranks among the best universities in Northern Europe in international rankings and is generally considered one of the most prestigious institutions of...
(Sweden).
In 2011, the University of Durham's ethical reputation was called into question by the revelation that a donation of £125,000 had been accepted from British American Tobacco despite the involvement of members of the university's department of anthropology, School of Applied Social Sciences and medical school in the tobacco control
Tobacco Control
Tobacco control is a field of public health science, policy and practice dedicated to controlling the growth of tobacco use and thereby reducing the morbidity and mortality it causes...
field. Criticised as being of dubious financial necessity and showing insensitivity to the surrounding population (Durham being in the North East, one of England's worst-afflicted regions as regards smoking-related ill health), the controversy led to direct appeals to the then Chancellor Bill Bryson - to whose scheme for educating female Afghan students the donation had been made. The tobacco industry donation was not repaid.
Campus
Durham University owns a 227.8 hectare (ha) estate which includes part of a UNESCO world heritage site, one ancient monumentAncient monument
An ancient monument is an early historical structure or monument worthy of preservation and study due to archaeological or heritage interest. In the United Kingdom it is a legal term, differing from the American term National Monument in being far more numerous and always man-made...
, five grade-one listed buildings and 68 grade two-listed buildings along with 44.9 ha of woodland. The estate is divided across two separate locations: Durham City and Queen's Campus, Stockton. The two locations are connected via a free bus service that runs frequently throughout the week. One of the major public attractions in Durham City is the 7.3 ha Botanic Gardens
Durham University Botanic Garden
The Durham University Botanic Garden is a botanical garden located in Durham, England. The site is set in of mature woodlands in the southern outskirts of the city...
, established in 1970, with over 78,000 visitors (2007/08).
Durham City
Durham City is the main location of the university and contains 14 of the 16 colleges along with most of the academic departments. The Durham City estate is spread across several different sites. The Science site contains the vast majority of departments and large lecture theatres such as Appleby, Scarborough, James Duff, Heywood and more recently the Calman Learning Centre, along with the Main University library. Mountjoy contains the Psychology and Biological & Biomedical schools, along with various research centres. The Old and New Elvet areas contains a number of departments in Humanities and Social Sciences including Philosophy, and Sociology. It is also the current site of the University's administration in Old Shire Hall, which will be housed in the new £48m Student Services building on Stockton Road from 2012.Queen's Campus
Queen's Campus was established in 1992 and is located in the town of Thornaby-on-Tees some 30 miles away from Durham City. The Campus is home to around 2,000 full-time students, two residential colleges (John SnowJohn Snow College
John Snow College is a college of the University of Durham in England, and one of two located at Queen's Campus in Thornaby-on-Tees, south of the city of Durham itself...
and Stephenson Colleges) and the Wolfson Research Institute
Wolfson Research Institute
The Wolfson Research Institute is a multi-disciplinary research institute at Durham University in England. The Institute facilitates research on medicine, health, and well-being and is named after the Wolfson Foundation, which provided funds for the Institute's establishment...
. There are currently a limited number of subjects studied at Queen's Campus. Current subjects are: Medicine (shared with Newcastle University), Biomedical Sciences, degrees in Accounting, Business and Finance, Applied Psychology, Primary education and Human Sciences. The University has recently purchased a 4 acres (16,187.4 m²) site on the North bank of Stockton and has plans to develop the academic structure at Queens and the possibility of a new college. A bus line connects Queen's Campus to Durham City and a one-way journey usually takes 45 minutes.
Libraries
The Durham University LibraryDurham University Library
The Durham University Library is the centrally-administered library of Durham University in England. It was founded in January 1833 at Palace Green by a 160 volume donation by the then Bishop of Durham, William Van Mildert and now holds over 1.5 million printed items...
system holds over 1.5 million printed items. The library was founded in January 1833 at Palace Green
Palace Green
Palace Green is a small area of grass in the centre of Durham, England, flanked by Durham Cathedral and Durham Castle. The Cathedral and Castle together form a UNESCO World Heritage Site....
by a 160-volume donation by the then Bishop of Durham, William Van Mildert. The library operates four branches: Main library, Education Library, Queen's Campus Library and the Palace Green Library which holds the special and heritage collections. The Bishop Cosin's Library (contains over 5,000 medieval titles) and the Sudan Archive ("the pre-eminent archive on the Sudan outside Khartoum
Khartoum
Khartoum is the capital and largest city of Sudan and of Khartoum State. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile flowing west from Ethiopia. The location where the two Niles meet is known as "al-Mogran"...
") of the central library were granted Designation Status in 2005 by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.
In addition to the central library system, each College maintains its own library and reading rooms such as the Bettenson, Brewis, Williams and Fenton Libraries of St Chad's College, which contain over 38,000 volumes. Many departments also maintain a library in addition to the subject collections in the central and college libraries.
Museums
Durham University Oriental Museum
The Oriental Museum, formerly the Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art and Archaeology, is a museum of the University of Durham in England. The museum has a collection of more than 23,500 Chinese, Egyptian, Korean, Japanese and other far east and Asian artefacts...
grew predominantly from the acquisitions of the University's former School of Oriental Studies Initially housed across the University and used as a teaching collection, the size of the collection lead to the building of the current museum to house the material. The collection to date contains over 30,000 objects from Asian art to antiquities, covering the Orient
Orient
The Orient means "the East." It is a traditional designation for anything that belongs to the Eastern world or the Far East, in relation to Europe. In English it is a metonym that means various parts of Asia.- Derivation :...
and Levant
Levant
The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...
to the Far East and the Indian Sub-continent, with over a 1/3 of the collection relating to China. The national importance of the Chinese and Egyptian collections can been seen in the Designated Status from the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council is a non-departmental public body in England and a registered charity with a remit to promote improvement and innovation in the area of museums, libraries and archives...
achieved in 2008.
The Old Fulling Mill
Durham University Museum of Archaeology
The Museum of Archaeology, opened in 1975, is a museum of the University of Durham in England. The museum has collections ranging from the prehistoric, Ancient Greece, Roman to Medieval...
is the University's Museum of Archaeology. The museum was opened in 1833 being the second University museum in England to allow admittance to the general public. The museum focuses on the heritage of the North East of England with collections spanning the prehistoric, to Ancient Greek and Roman to the Anglo Saxon periods, although the key collection is that of the Medieval & Post Medieval period.
Academic year
The academic year is divided into 3 terms: Michaelmas termMichaelmas term
Michaelmas term is the first academic term of the academic years of the following British and Irish universities:*University of Cambridge*University of Oxford*University of St...
lasts ten weeks from October to December; Epiphany term
Epiphany term
Epiphany term is the second academic term of the University of Durham and formerly of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne . The term runs from January to March.-See also:*Michaelmas term...
lasts nine weeks from January to March and Easter term
Easter term
Easter term is the name of the summer term at the University of Cambridge, the University of Wales, Lampeter, University of Durham, and formerly University of Newcastle upon Tyne , in the United Kingdom...
lasts nine weeks from April to June. Within Michaelmas term, the academic week begins on a Thursday with lectures starting on the first Thursday of October and ending on a Wednesday. All other terms begin their academic week on a Monday. Internally the weeks are classed as "Durham Weeks" with the first week of Michaelmas starting at week 1.
Students at the University are also expected to "Keep Term", whereby students must fulfil their academic requirements at the University. As such Heads of Departments must be satisfied that each student has attended all necessary tutorials, seminars and practical work throughout the term and vacation period.
Colleges
Durham operates a collegiate structure similar to that of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge, in that all the colleges at Durham are "listed bodies" under the Education Reform Act, 1988, "recognised by the UK authorities as being able to offer courses leading to a degree of a recognised body" (the "recognised body" being, in this case, the federal University). Though most of the Durham colleges are governed and owned directly by the University itself, the status of the Durham colleges is similar to those and the constituent institutions of the University of WalesUniversity of Wales
The University of Wales was a confederal university founded in 1893. It had accredited institutions throughout Wales, and formerly accredited courses in Britain and abroad, with over 100,000 students, but in October 2011, after a number of scandals, it withdrew all accreditation, and it was...
, setting Durham colleges apart from those at the universities of Kent, Lancaster, and York. However, unlike at Oxford, Cambridge, Wales, and London, there is no formal teaching at most Durham colleges (although St John's, St Chad's and Ushaw College have their own academic and research staff and offer college-based programmes in conjunction with the University). The colleges dominate the residential, social, sporting, and pastoral functions within the university, and there is heavy student involvement in their operation.
Formal dinners (known as "formals") are held at nearly every college; gowns
Academic dress of Durham University
The academic dress of Durham University has many similarities with that of other older British universities such as Oxford and Cambridge. Most Durham colleges insist on gowns being worn on formal occasions, including matriculation and formal halls ; exceptions are Van Mildert, St Cuthbert's Society...
, the exact design of which varies depending on the college, are worn to these events at most colleges (the notable exceptions in Durham City are Van Mildert and Collingwood). There is a great deal of intercollegiate rivalry, particularly in rowing
Durham College Rowing
Durham College Rowing represents all sixteen College Boat Clubs in Durham University, encompassing approximately half of the rowers, scullers and coxes in the region of North East England....
and other sporting activities. There is also rivalry between the older colleges of the Bailey and the newer colleges of the Hill
Hill college
Hill College may refer to:* Hill college, college of Durham University on Elvet Hill* Hill College, Hillsboro, Texas, USA...
.
Governance
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
. The Statutes provide that: "The University shall be governed by a Visitor, Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Convocation, Council, Senate, and Boards of Studies."
The Visitor for the University of Durham is the Bishop of Durham. The Visitor is the final arbiter of any dispute within the University, except in those areas where legislation has removed this to the law courts or other ombudsmen
Ombudsman
An ombudsman is a person who acts as a trusted intermediary between an organization and some internal or external constituency while representing not only but mostly the broad scope of constituent interests...
, or in matters internal to the two non-maintained colleges (St Chad's College and St John's College), each of which has its own Visitor. Student complaints and appeals were heard by the Visitor until the Higher Education Act 2004 came into force. All student complaints are now heard by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education.
The Chancellor
Chancellor (education)
A chancellor or vice-chancellor is the chief executive of a university. Other titles are sometimes used, such as president or rector....
of the University is Bill Bryson
Bill Bryson
William McGuire "Bill" Bryson, OBE, is a best-selling American author of humorous books on travel, as well as books on the English language and on science. Born an American, he was a resident of Britain for most of his adult life before moving back to the US in 1995...
, who will be succeeded by Sir Thomas Allen in January 2012. The current Vice-Chancellor is Chris Higgins
Chris Higgins (academic)
Chris Higgins is, since April 2007, the Vice-Chancellor of Durham University. He was previously the director of the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre and Head of Division in the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London....
. The office of Chancellor, which is held for five years and renewable, is mainly ceremonial, while the Vice-Chancellor is de facto the principal academic and administrative officer.
Convocation is the assembly of members of the University. It consists of the Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, and Pro-Vice-Chancellors, all graduates, the teaching staff (lecturers, senior lecturers, readers, and professors), and the heads of colleges and licensed halls of residence. It must meet once each year in order to hear the Vice-Chancellor's Address and to debate any business relating to the University. Further meetings can be called if representation is made by a minimum of 50 members. Its powers are limited to appointing the Chancellor (and even then, only on the nomination of Council and Senate) and the making of representations to the University on any business debated.
Council is the executive body of the University. In addition to representatives from the University it includes 12 lay members (not being teachers or salaried staff in the University or any of its colleges), the Dean of Durham and the President of Durham Students' Union. Its powers include establishing and maintaining colleges, and recognising non-maintained colleges and licensed halls of residence. Senate is the supreme governing body of the University in academic matters. It nominates the Vice-Chancellor and Pro-Vice-Chancellors to Council, and recommends the establishment of Faculties and Boards of Studies. It is Senate that grants degrees, and has the authority to revoke them. It also regulates the use of academic dress
Academic dress of Durham University
The academic dress of Durham University has many similarities with that of other older British universities such as Oxford and Cambridge. Most Durham colleges insist on gowns being worn on formal occasions, including matriculation and formal halls ; exceptions are Van Mildert, St Cuthbert's Society...
of the University.
Schools and faculties
The teaching departments of the University are divided into three faculties: Science, Arts and HumanitiesHumanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
, and Social Sciences
Social sciences
Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...
and Health. Each faculty is headed by a Pro-Vice-Chancellor and one or more Deputies. These, along with the heads of the departments in the faculty and the Vice-Chancellor, make up the Faculty Board for that faculty. Each department also has a Board of Studies consisting of the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of their faculty, the teaching staff of the department, and student representatives. See also Natural Sciences
Natural Sciences (Durham)
Natural Sciences is one of the most popular degree programmes offered by the University of Durham offering either BSc or MSci Natural Sciences degrees or a 'named route'/joint honours degree....
, one of the largest degree programmes.
Faculty of Social Science & Health
- Department of Anthropology
- School of Applied Social Sciences
- Department of Archaeology
- Durham Business School
(Including the Economic, Finance and Business Departments) - School of Education
- Department of Geography
- School of Government and International Affairs
(Including the Politics department and the Institute for Middle East and Islamic Studies) - School of Medicine and HealthDurham University School of Medicine and HealthThe School of Medicine and Health at the University of Durham was founded in 2001 as a partner with the University of Newcastle Medical School to educate medical students in the first phase of their medical education...
- Durham Law SchoolDurham Law DepartmentDurham Law School at Durham University is one of the UK's leading centres for legal research and teaching. Durham ranked joint 4th in the UK in the latest Research Assessment Exercise in terms of the proportion of research activity ranked at the highest 4* level, and was one of only five UK law...
Faculty of Arts and Humanities
- Department of Classics & Ancient History
- Department of English
- Department of History
- School of Modern Languages and Cultures
(Includes Arabic, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish Departments) - Department of Music
- Department of Philosophy
- Department of Theology and Religion
- English Language Centre
Faculty of Science
- School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
- Department of Chemistry
- Department of Earth Sciences
- School of Engineering and Computing SciencesDurham University School of EngineeringThe School of Engineering and Computing Sciences at Durham University is the department engaged in the teaching and research of Engineering and Computer Science.The School is a member of the Sterling Group of research-led universities....
- Department of Mathematical Science
- Department of PhysicsDurham University Department of PhysicsThe Department of Physics at Durham University in Durham, England, is a large Physics and Astronomy Department involved in both undergraduate teaching and scientific research...
- Department of Psychology
Admissions
The average UCAS point score for each student was 490.8 points (2009/10) which places Durham University 5th in the country in terms of entrants' points. Durham's student body consists of 11,409 undergraduates and 4,098 graduate and students (2007/08). Durham's demographic consists of 85.7% arriving from a middleMiddle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
and higher classes background which is the 5th highest result in the UK. 47.27% of the undergraduate student body for 2007/2008 arrived from either a grammar school or independent school 12.24% of full time students are of ethnic minorities and 51.32% are female. For the undergraduate class of 2008, the colleges with the most students from independent schools (in descending order) were Hatfield, Hilde Bede and Chad's College. For the undergraduate class of 2007, Durham received 29,712 applications, of which 36.8% were from Independent schools and 9.2% from ethnic minorities, overall 32% of applicants were successful in receiving an offer of admissions. Durham requires students applying for degrees in Law to sit the LNAT
LNAT
The LNAT or National Admissions Test for Law, is an admissions aptitude test that was adopted in 2004 by eight UK university law programs as an admissions requirement for home applicants...
admission test and the UKCAT
UKCAT
The UK Clinical Aptitude Test is a test that is beginning to be used in the selection process by a consortium of UK university Medical and Dental Schools. It is run by the UKCAT Consortium in partnership with Pearson VUE...
for the MBBS in Medicine. Durham also runs the Durham Gifted and Talented Summer School at Van Mildert College in the University and takes part in the Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
TIP Summer Studies Programme
Talent Identification Program
The Duke Talent Identification Program is a gifted education program based at Duke University. Its purpose is to identify gifted children and provide them and their parents the resources for them to reach their full educational potential....
as part of its widening access policy.
Since 1992 the university has also run a widening access programme, originally called the Centre for Lifelong Learning. The centre is now called the Foundation Centre homepage which delivers courses at both Durham City and Queens campus, Stockton on Tees. The centre provides access to Durham degrees for mature students who show academic promise but do not hold the traditional entry requirements and international students who require an extra year of study to bring them up to the standard expected. The Centre runs a range of courses which cover specific academic disciplines and key skills, in the year 2010–11 195 students were enrolled onto the programme.
Rankings and Reputation
League tables of British universities
Rankings of universities in the United Kingdom are published annually by The Guardian, The Independent, The Sunday Times and The Times...
many courses of Durham University are among the best in the country with Education Studies, Engineering and History in particular being number 1 in the UK:
- Durham is in the Top 3 Universities (including History, Education Studies and Engineering) for Archaeology, Anthropology, Chemistry, Economics, French, Geography, Iberian Languages, Italian, Performing Arts, Philosophy, Physics & Astronomy, Sports Science, Subjects Applied to Medicine, Theology & Religious Studies;
- Durham is in the Top 5 Universities (including former mentioned subjects) for Biological Sciences, English, Geology, German, Classics & Ancient History, Law, Mathematics, Middle Eastern & African Studies, Politics, Russian & East European Languages, Social Work, Sociology;
- Durham is in the Top 10 Universities (including former mentioned subjects) for Accounting & Finance, Asian Studies, Business Studies, Human & Social Geography, Linguistics, Medicine, Music, Psychology.
World rankings of universities have placed Durham as follows:
- The Times Higher Education World University RankingsTimes Higher Education World University RankingsThe Times Higher Education World University Rankings is an international ranking of universities published by the British magazine Times Higher Education in partnership with Thomson Reuters, which provided citation database information...
place Durham 83 in the world in 2011. - The QS World University RankingsQS World University RankingsThe QS World University Rankings is a ranking of the world’s top 500 universities by Quacquarelli Symonds using a method that has published annually since 2004....
place Durham 95 in the world in 2011. - The Global University Ranking places Durham 70–71 in the world in 2009.
- The Academic Ranking of World UniversitiesAcademic Ranking of World UniversitiesThe Academic Ranking of World Universities , commonly known as the Shanghai ranking, is a publication that was founded and compiled by the Shanghai Jiaotong University to rank universities globally. The rankings have been conducted since 2003 and updated annually...
places Durham 201–300th in the world in 2011.
In April 2009 Durham Business School joined a group of academic institutions worldwide who are accredited by the three major bodies – AACSB, AMBA
Association of MBAs
The Association of MBAs is a London-based international organization that accredits postgraduate business programs at business schools worldwide. The Association is one of the three main global accreditation bodies in business education and styles itself "the world's impartial authority on...
and EQUIS
Equis
Equis may refer to:*European Quality Improvement System an international system of assessment and accreditation of higher education institutions in management and business administration run by the European Foundation for Management Development....
. In 2011, the MBA programme was ranked 55th in the world by both the Financial Times and the Economist along with the MA in Management programme being ranked 56th in the world by FT European Masters Ranking and the Executive MBA being ranked 83rd in the world by the 2008 Financial Times EMBA Ranking.
Durham was ranked 11th overall in the Sunday Times University Guide's cumulative table over ten years of study (1997–2007), along with being a member of the 'Sutton 13' of top ranked Universities in the UK.
Durham is also one of the few to have won University Challenge
University Challenge
University Challenge is a British quiz programme that has aired since 1962. The format is based on the American show College Bowl, which ran on NBC radio from 1953 to 1957, and on NBC television from 1959 to 1970....
more than once. Teams from Durham won University Challenge
University Challenge
University Challenge is a British quiz programme that has aired since 1962. The format is based on the American show College Bowl, which ran on NBC radio from 1953 to 1957, and on NBC television from 1959 to 1970....
in both 1977 and 2000.
Research
1994 Group
The 1994 Group is a coalition of 19 top "smaller research-intensive universities" in the United Kingdom founded in 1994 to defend their interests following the creation of the Russell Group by larger research-intensive universities earlier that year...
, Virgo Consortium
Virgo Consortium
The Virgo Consortium was founded in 1994 for Cosmological Supercomputer Simulations in response to the UK's High Performance Computing Initiative. Virgo developed rapidly into an international collaboration between dozen scientists in the UK, Germany, Netherlands, Canada, USA and Japan-Nodes:The...
and the N8 Group
N8 Group
The N8 Group consists of the eight most research-intensive universities in northern England. Rather than being a lobbying group , it is a research partnership intended to enhance collaboration between the universities in the group...
of Universities. Durham was ranked eighteenth for quality of research out of 124 of the institutions which took part in the UK Funding Councils'
Higher Education Funding Council for England
The Higher Education Funding Council for England is a non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in the United Kingdom, which has been responsible for the distribution of funding to Universities and Colleges of Higher and Further Education in England since...
2001 Research Assessment Exercise
Research Assessment Exercise
The Research Assessment Exercise is an exercise undertaken approximately every 5 years on behalf of the four UK higher education funding councils to evaluate the quality of research undertaken by British higher education institutions...
in the Guardian's unofficial ranking. Nearly 87% of the University's academic staff are located in departments with top research ratings of 5 or 5*, with Durham's research averaging a 5 rating – "international excellence in more than half of the research activity submitted and attainable levels of national excellence in the remainder". In terms of individual academic departments, the Department of Geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
is considered one of the best in the United Kingdom and a world leader in many research areas, gaining a 5* rating. Other subjects that gained a 5* rating in the RAE were Applied Mathematics
Applied mathematics
Applied mathematics is a branch of mathematics that concerns itself with mathematical methods that are typically used in science, engineering, business, and industry. Thus, "applied mathematics" is a mathematical science with specialized knowledge...
, Physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, Chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
, English
English studies
English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
, History, and Law.
The latest national Research Assessment Exercise (RAE 2008) sponsored by the UK government, The Times, Guardian and The Independent rank Durham as joint-thirteenth by grade point average and twelfth by quality index across the thirty units of assessment it submitted. The RAE results also rank Durham as the UK's top university with Archaeology, Geography, Theology & Divinity being ranked as first. Over 60.9% of research was given a 4* (world leading) or 3* (internationally excellent) grading and 91.6% falling within the 4*, 3* and 2* (international quality) bands. Additionally, Durham ranks 1st amongst the members of the 1994 group as the most research intensive University (when taking into account both the quality and volume of research activity at 4* and 3* grades).
Furthermore, Durham's Physics Department's
Durham University Department of Physics
The Department of Physics at Durham University in Durham, England, is a large Physics and Astronomy Department involved in both undergraduate teaching and scientific research...
research into Space Science and Astrophysics was rated as number one in Europe and fourth in the world by Thomson Reuters from its Essential Science Indicators (1998–2008). Alongside the Times Higher Education Supplement's citation rankings placed Durham as the number 1 university in the UK for its impact of scientific research in 2005.
Student life
Residential life
Durham College Rowing
Durham College Rowing represents all sixteen College Boat Clubs in Durham University, encompassing approximately half of the rowers, scullers and coxes in the region of North East England....
and have their own theatre company and orchestra which operate parallel to the university level sports teams and organizations.
Student organisations
Approximately 130 student clubs and organisations run on Durham's campuses, including numerous student government, special interest, and service organisations. Durham Students' UnionDurham Students' Union
The Durham Students' Union is a body, set up as the Durham Colleges Students’ Representative Council in 1899 and renamed in 1969, with the intention of representing and providing welfare and services for the students of the University of Durham in England.-Location:DSU occupies and manages Dunelm...
(DSU) charters and provides most of the funding for these organisations, and represents students' interests when dealing with the administration. DSU also operates events based in Dunelm house ranging from club nights such as Planet of Sound, Revolver (alternative & indie), Twisted (underground electronic) and the Jazz café. The DSU also runs a Comedy Café, Fresher's Ball, Silent Discos and Vintage fashion fair amongst others.
Student media
PalatinatePalatinate (newspaper)
Palatinate is the award-winning official student newspaper of Durham University and is one of Britain's oldest and best-known student publications, having celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2008. The paper was named NUS/Independent Student Newspaper of the Year in 2001...
, Durham's independent student run fortnightly newspaper, has been continually published since 1948. Notable former editors include George Alagiah
George Alagiah
George Maxwell Alagiah OBE is a British newsreader, journalist and television news presenter.Since 3 December 2007, he has been the sole presenter of the BBC News at Six and has also been the main presenter of GMT on BBC World News since its launch on 1 February 2010...
, Hunter Davies
Hunter Davies
Edward Hunter Davies is a prolific British author, journalist and broadcaster, perhaps best known for writing the only authorised biography of The Beatles.- Early life :...
, Piers Merchant
Piers Merchant
Piers Rolf Garfield Merchant was a British Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament for Newcastle upon Tyne Central from 1983 to 1987, and then MP for Beckenham from 1992 until he resigned in October 1997 following a scandal.- Education :He was educated at Nottingham High...
, Sir Timothy Laurence
Timothy Laurence
Vice Admiral Sir Timothy James Hamilton Laurence, KCVO, CB, ADC is a senior British naval officer and the second husband of HRH The Princess Royal, the only daughter of HM The Queen...
, Jeremy Vine
Jeremy Vine
Jeremy Guy Vine is a British author, journalist and news presenter for the BBC. He is known for his direct interview style and exclusive reporting from war-torn areas throughout Africa...
and Harold Evans
Harold Evans
Sir Harold Matthew Evans is a British-born journalist and writer who was editor of The Sunday Times from 1967 to 1981. He has written various books on history and journalism...
.
Purple Radio
Purple Radio
Purple Radio is Durham University's student radio station . Purple broadcasts online 24 hours a day during term time, from October until June each year .-Purple FM :Purple Radio was previously known as Purple FM and later Purple 107...
is Durham's only student radio station. It is run entirely by students and broadcasts live from the DSU
Durham Students' Union
The Durham Students' Union is a body, set up as the Durham Colleges Students’ Representative Council in 1899 and renamed in 1969, with the intention of representing and providing welfare and services for the students of the University of Durham in England.-Location:DSU occupies and manages Dunelm...
24 hours a day during term time. The station has existed since the 1980s and is a recognised DSU society. Two daily news bulletins are broadcasted every weekday, as well as a Breakfast Show and an Evening Show.
Student views and opinions are represented by Durham21
Durham21
Durham21.co.uk, or d21 for short, is an independent online newspaper and lifestyle magazine for students from Durham University.Averaging over 38,000 pageviews per month, durham21 is the current Student Website of the Year at the NUS National Student Journalism Awards, having also won the award in...
, an independent student website, founded in 2001, which has won the NUS Website of the Year Award in five of the last six years and is also the current holder.
Durham University has a literary magazine, The Grove, which comes out five times a year and a termly arts journal, the fun and beautiful journal which publishes poetry, stories, photography and artwork submitted by students. The Groves sister publication, the online magazine The Bubble http://www.thebubble.org.uk/, was launched in 2010.
Mostly Harmlesshttp://www.mostly-harmless.org.uk/ is the student run satire newspaper. Other university publications include college run magazines such as Hatfield's The Hatfielder, Grey's Grey Matter or The Bog Sheet of St Chad's College
St Chad's College
St Chad's College is a college of the University of Durham in England. One of the smallest of Durham's colleges in terms of student numbers , it has the largest staff, the most extensive college library facilities, and consistently the highest academic results in Durham...
.
A new online tabloid newspaper called DurhamOne was created in February 2011.
Civic engagement
Durham's Student Community Action (SCA) oversees 45 volunteer projects in Durham and the surrounding area. Examples include mentoring GCSE and A Level students, a week long ‘Child Achievement Through Student Support’ programme that aims to help children on the ‘at risk’ register, to help with gardening and decorating for the elderly, and sports coaching.Durham University Charity Kommittee or DUCK is the university's equivalent of student's rag week. Original set-up as a week event, DUCK has become a permanent feature in raising money for local or national charities with events taking place throughout the year. Activities take place with-in each college as well as centrally with events such as Back 2 School club nights, Raft Races, Firewalks and Rag Raids to the Jailbreak hitch hike, sky dives and the three and five peaks challenge. DUCK also organises expeditions to the Himalayas, Jordan and Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money as well being involved in the university-run ‘Project Sri Lanka’ and ‘Project Thailand’. In July 2009, DUCK partnered with international NGO Coral Cay Conservation.
Team Durham Community Outreach is a sports community programme aimed at giving support and opportunities through the use of sport. The programme runs projects such as Summer Camps for children from the Youth Engagement Service and fostered backgrounds along with providing coaching at local schools as well as participating in sports in action.
Sport
Sport at Durham is a key aspect of student life with some 85% of students regularly taking part. The 50 university level sport clubs are organised by Team DurhamDurham University Athletic Union
Durham University Athletic Union is a student-run organisation responsible for sport at Durham University. In 2006, the Athletic Union was rebranded "Team Durham" to signify a more modern approach to sport at Durham...
with many being predominantly based at the Graham Sports Centre at Maiden Castle which has 26 courts and pitches for sports ranging from rugby to lacrosse to netball, additional facilities include eleven boat houses and two astroturfs a fitness studio and weights room. The university also owns The Racecourse
The Racecourse
The Racecourse is the part of Durham University's sports facilities. It contains squash, tennis and fives courts, cricket, rugby, hockey and football pitches and rowing houses...
which has a further eight courts and pitches for cricket, rugby (union and league), squash and football.
The University is recognised as a Centre of Cricketing Excellence
Durham University Centre of Cricketing Excellence
Durham MCC University is a cricket coaching centre based at Durham University in Durham, County Durham, England and the name under which the university's cricket team plays....
(which is one of only six to play first-class matches) by the England and Wales Cricket Board
England and Wales Cricket Board
The England and Wales Cricket Board is the governing body of cricket in England and Wales. It was created on 1 January 1997 combining the roles of the Test and County Cricket Board, the National Cricket Association and the Cricket Council...
and subsequently the Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
along with rowing
Rowing (sport)
Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...
and fencing
Fencing
Fencing, which is also known as modern fencing to distinguish it from historical fencing, is a family of combat sports using bladed weapons.Fencing is one of four sports which have been featured at every one of the modern Olympic Games...
also being recognised as centres of excellence. Durham also host the House of Sport which includes an English Institute of Sport
English Institute of Sport
The English Institute of Sport , established in May 2002, is an organisation which provides sport science and medical support services to elite athletes through a nationwide network of expertise and facilities, working with Olympic and Paralympic summer and winter sports, as well as English and a...
hub site and being a British Olympic passport holder's site. Durham was ranked joint 4th across all sports by the British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) in 2007/8. It is also the current BUSA rowing champion, which Durham has won for the past six years.
Durham University is one of three universities to compete in the Doxbridge Tournament, a sporting competition between Durham University, the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. The Durham University Boat Club
Durham University Boat Club
Durham University Boat Club is the Rowing Club of Durham University in England.- History :The club was founded in the 1880s to represent the University instead of University College Boat Club and Hatfield College Boat Club....
also competes in the Durham Regatta
Durham Regatta
Durham Regatta is the premier rowing event in the North East of England, held each year on the second weekend in June on the River Wear which provides a picturesque setting for regattas and head races....
and the Northumbrian Water University Boat Race
Northumbrian Water University Boat Race
The Northumbrian University Boat Race is an annual rowing event between the boat clubs of Durham and Newcastle universities in England. The event is staged on the River Tyne in Newcastle....
against Newcastle University, which it has only lost once in its 12 year history.
Durham University Rugby Football Club 1st XV recorded an unbeaten season in 2010–2011 making them BUCS champions after a thrilling final at Twickenham against UWIC. The team secured the league title with memorable doubles over Loughborough and Leeds Metropolitan under the captaincy of Ron Malaney and coaching of new Head of Rugby at the University, Alex Reay. These unbelievable scenes have seen the 1st XV dubbed "The Invincibles". That same season The 1st VII won the BUCS 7s Championship, being the first team in BUCS history to complete the "Treble" being premier league winners (undefeated), cup champions and 7s champions. This has earned the side a second visit to Twickenham to compete in the Middlesex 7s on 9 July
Music and drama
The main theatre society (Durham Student Theatre; aka DST) comprises over 850 active members. Each week of term the university's own theatre, The Assembly Rooms hosts a student production, but it is by no means the only venue where productions are held. College quads, the Castle Chapel and in the summer, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, are all other popular choices to put on shows. More than 25 individual theatre companies make up DST.Since 1975 the university has played host to the Durham Drama Festival, an internationally renowned event which is predominately a celebration of new writing in Durham. Other University Theatre Groups, such as those from Newcastle or Sheffield, are also invited to take part in the event.
Music is also a high-ranking activity in Durham, particularly marked by the Durham University Chamber Choir and Orchestral Societies (including the Palatinate Orchestra).
The Durham Cathedral Choir offers seven scholarships to students of the University. Several of the colleges (University College, Hatfield, St Chad's, St John's and Hild-Bede) also offer organ and choral scholarships to prospective students.
Alumni
Sir Milton Margai
Milton Margai
Sir Milton Augustus Strieby Margai was a Sierra Leonean politician and the first prime minister of Sierra Leone...
, first prime minister of Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
graduated with a medical degree in 1926, the 7th Queensland Premier John Douglas
John Douglas (Queensland politician)
John Douglas CMG was an Anglo-Australian politician and Premier of Queensland.Douglas was born in London, the seventh son of Henry Alexander Douglas and his wife Elizabeth Dalzell, daughter of the Earl of Carnwarth...
graduated with an Arts degree in 1850, Henry Holland, 1st Viscount Knutsford
Henry Holland, 1st Viscount Knutsford
Henry Thurstan Holland, 1st Viscount Knutsford GCMG, PC , known as Sir Henry Holland, Bt, from 1873 to 1888 and as The Lord Knutsford from 1888 to 1895, was a British Conservative politician, best known for serving as Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1887 to 1892.-Background and...
, Secretary of State for the Colonies
Secretary of State for the Colonies
The Secretary of State for the Colonies or Colonial Secretary was the British Cabinet minister in charge of managing the United Kingdom's various colonial dependencies....
from 1887 to 1892, graduated with a Laws degree in 1847, Herbert Laming, Baron Laming
Herbert Laming, Baron Laming
William Herbert Laming, Baron Laming, CBE isa British social worker and Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords. On 29 June 2011, it was announced that he had been elected to succeed Baroness D'Souza as Convenor of the Crossbench Peers; he will take up the post in September 2011 when the House...
, head of the Harold Shipman inquiry
Harold Shipman
Harold Fredrick Shipman was an English doctor and one of the most prolific serial killers in recorded history with 218 murders being positively ascribed to him....
and the investigation of Britain's social services following the death of Baby P
Death of Baby P
Peter Connelly was an English 17-month old boy who died in London after suffering more than 50 injuries over an eight-month period, during which he was repeatedly seen by Haringey Children's services and NHS health professionals...
, graduated in Applied Social Studies in 1960, along with Dame Caroline Swift
Caroline Swift
Dame Caroline Jane Swift, DBE , styled The Hon. Mrs Justice Swift, was leading counsel to the Inquiry in the Shipman Inquiry, which began in 2001....
, the lead counsel to the Shipman inquiry, further Mo Mowlam
Mo Mowlam
Marjorie "Mo" Mowlam was a British Labour Party politician. She was the Member of Parliament for Redcar from 1987 to 2001 and served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.Mowlam's time as Northern...
(Sociology and Anthropology), Edward Leigh
Edward Leigh
Edward Julian Egerton Leigh is a British Conservative politician. He has sat in the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for Gainsborough in Lincolnshire since 1997, and for its predecessor constituency of Gainsborough and Horncastle between 1983 and 1997...
(History), and Crispin Blunt
Crispin Blunt
Crispin Jeremy Rupert Blunt is a British Conservative Party politician. He is the Member of Parliament for the Reigate constituency in Surrey, and since May 2010 he has been the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Prisons and Youth Justice within the Ministry of Justice.He first entered...
(Politics) are among the most notable alumni with involvement in politics. Within the military graduates include General Sir Richard Dannatt
Richard Dannatt
General Francis Richard Dannatt, Baron Dannatt, is a retired British Army officer and the incumbent Constable of the Tower of London. He was commissioned into the Green Howards in 1971, and his first tour of duty was in Belfast as a platoon commander. During his second tour of duty, also in...
(Economic History), the Chief of the General Staff
Chief of the General Staff (United Kingdom)
Chief of the General Staff has been the title of the professional head of the British Army since 1964. The CGS is a member of both the Chiefs of Staff Committee and the Army Board...
, the professional head of the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
, Vice-Admiral Tim Laurence (Geography), Chief Executive of Defence Estates
Defence Estates
Defence Infrastructure Organisation is an operating arm of the Ministry of Defence , in the United Kingdom, which is responsible for the built and rural estate. The organisation formed on 1 April 2011 after a reorganisation of the Ministry of Defence's bodies in charge of infrastructure. It...
and husband to The Princess Royal
Anne, Princess Royal
Princess Anne, Princess Royal , is the only daughter of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
, and Rear-Admiral Amjad Hussain
Amjad Hussain
Rear-Admiral Amjad Mazhar Hussain, CB is the Director and Controller of the Royal Navy.Born in Pakistan, Hussain and his mother moved to the United Kingdom in 1962 when he was three years old, to join his father who was working as a railway signalman...
(Engineering, 1979) highest ranking officer from an ethnic minority in the British Armed Forces
British Armed Forces
The British Armed Forces are the armed forces of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.Also known as Her Majesty's Armed Forces and sometimes legally the Armed Forces of the Crown, the British Armed Forces encompasses three professional uniformed services, the Royal Navy, the...
.
In the research realm, Durham graduates include Prof John D. Barrow
John D. Barrow
-External links:****** The Forum-Publications available on the Internet:************...
(Mathematics and physics, 1974), winner of the Templeton Prize
Templeton Prize
The Templeton Prize is an annual award presented by the Templeton Foundation. Established in 1972, it is awarded to a living person who, in the estimation of the judges, "has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life's spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical...
, Sir George Malcolm Brown
George Malcolm Brown
Sir George Malcolm Brown, FRS was one of the most respected geologists of the second half of the Twentieth century...
(Chemistry & Geology, 1950), invited by NASA to work on the moon rock
Moon rock
Moon rock describes rock that formed on the Earth's moon. The term is also loosely applied to other lunar materials collected during the course of human exploration of the Moon.The rocks collected from the Moon are measured by radiometric dating techniques...
samples recovered from the Apollo 11
Apollo 11
In early 1969, Bill Anders accepted a job with the National Space Council effective in August 1969 and announced his retirement as an astronaut. At that point Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup Command Module Pilot in case Apollo 11 was...
lunar mission, Prof George Rochester
George Rochester
George Dixon Rochester, FRS was a British physicist known for having co-discovered, with Sir Clifford Charles Butler, a subatomic particle called the kaon....
(1926), co-discoverer of the kaon
Kaon
In particle physics, a kaon is any one of a group of four mesons distinguished by the fact that they carry a quantum number called strangeness...
sub-atomic particle, alongside Sir Harold Jeffreys
Harold Jeffreys
Sir Harold Jeffreys, FRS was a mathematician, statistician, geophysicist, and astronomer. His seminal book Theory of Probability, which first appeared in 1939, played an important role in the revival of the Bayesian view of probability.-Biography:Jeffreys was born in Fatfield, Washington, County...
(Mathematics, 1919), winner of the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
's Copley Medal
Copley Medal
The Copley Medal is an award given by the Royal Society of London for "outstanding achievements in research in any branch of science, and alternates between the physical sciences and the biological sciences"...
, and Sir Kingsley Charles Dunham
Kingsley Charles Dunham
Sir Kingsley Charles Dunham FRS was one of the leading British geologists and mineralogists of the 20th century. He was a Professor of Geology at the University of Durham from 1950-71. He was later Professor Emeritus from 1967-2001...
(Geology, 1930) former director of the British Geological Survey
British Geological Survey
The British Geological Survey is a partly publicly funded body which aims to advance geoscientific knowledge of the United Kingdom landmass and its continental shelf by means of systematic surveying, monitoring and research. The BGS headquarters are in Keyworth, Nottinghamshire, but other centres...
. The current Vice-chancellors of Cardiff (David Grant, PhD, 1974), Durham (Chris Higgins
Chris Higgins (academic)
Chris Higgins is, since April 2007, the Vice-Chancellor of Durham University. He was previously the director of the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre and Head of Division in the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London....
, PhD, 1979), and Lancaster (Paul Wellings, MSc) are also graduates.
Richard Adams (Traidcraft)
Richard Adams, OBE is the British founder of the UK fair trade organisations Tearcraft and Traidcraft and of a number of social enterprises which promote ethical business.Adams attended King Edward VI Five Ways school in Birmingham...
(Sociology), founder of fair trade
Fair trade
Fair trade is an organized social movement and market-based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries make better trading conditions and promote sustainability. The movement advocates the payment of a higher price to producers as well as higher social and environmental standards...
organisation Traidcraft
Traidcraft
Traidcraft is a UK-based fairtrade organisation, established in 1979. The organisation has two components: a public limited company called Traidcraft plc, which sells fairly traded products in the United Kingdom; and a development charity called Traidcraft Exchange that works with poor producers in...
, Paul Hawkins (PhD in Artificial Intelligence), inventor of the Hawk-Eye
Hawk-Eye
Hawk-Eye is a complex computer system used in cricket, tennis and other sports to visually track the trajectory of the ball and display a record of its most statistically likely path as a moving image. In cricket and tennis, it is now part of the adjudication process. It was developed by engineers...
ball-tracking system, Dame Elisabeth Hoodless
Elisabeth Hoodless
Dame Elisabeth Anne Marian Frost Hoodless, DBE is the Executive Director of Community Service Volunteers , the United Kingdom's leading volunteering and training charity. She is also a former Labour councillor in North London, and a long-term Labour party member...
(Sociology), Executive Director of Community Service Volunteers
Community Service Volunteers
Community Service Volunteers is the UK's largest volunteering and training charity.CSV was founded in 1962 by Mora and Alec Dickson, who also founded Voluntary Service Overseas . In the 2004/2005 financial year, CSV had six operating companies with a total expenditure of £43 million, employing 944...
, Sir Nick Scheele
Nick Scheele
Sir Nicholas Scheele is a former Chancellor of the University of Warwick and formerly President and Chief Operating Officer of Ford Motor Company...
(German, 1966), former President and Chief Operating Officer of Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
, David Sproxton
David Sproxton
David Sproxton CBE is one of the co-founders of the Aardman Animations studio.David graduated from Collingwood College, University of Durham before starting as an animator, producing segments for the Vision On TV program, Sproxton and Lord created the character of Morph for Take Hart .He is...
(Geography, 1976), co-founder of Aardman Animations
Aardman Animations
Aardman Animations, Ltd., also known as Aardman Studios, or simply as Aardman, is a British animation studio based in Bristol, United Kingdom. The studio is known for films made using stop-motion clay animation techniques, particularly those featuring Plasticine characters Wallace and Gromit...
who produce Wallace & Gromit, Tim Smit
Tim Smit
Tim Smit KBE is a Dutch-born British businessman, famous for his work on the Lost Gardens of Heligan and the Eden Project, both in Cornwall, Britain.-Biography:...
(Archaeology and Anthropology), co-founder of the Eden Project
Eden Project
The Eden Project is a visitor attraction in Cornwall in the United Kingdom, including the world's largest greenhouse. Inside the artificial biomes are plants that are collected from all around the world....
and David Walton
David Walton
David Robert Walton was a British economist, and a member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee from July 2005 until his death in June 2006....
(Economics and Mathematics, 1984), member of the Bank of England
Bank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694, it is the second oldest central bank in the world...
's Monetary Policy Committee
Monetary Policy Committee
The Monetary Policy Committee is a committee of the Bank of England, which meets for two and a half days every month to decide the official interest rate in the United Kingdom . It is also responsible for directing other aspects of the government's monetary policy framework, such as quantitative...
.
Prominent journalists and media specialists include Sir Harold Evans
Harold Evans
Sir Harold Matthew Evans is a British-born journalist and writer who was editor of The Sunday Times from 1967 to 1981. He has written various books on history and journalism...
(Politics and Economics), editor of The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times (UK)
The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...
from 1967 to 1981, Nigel Farndale
Nigel Farndale
Nigel Farndale is a British author and journalist, known for his award-winning interviews in the Sunday Telegraph.He has written five books: two novels, two biographies and a collection of interviews...
(Philosophy), Sunday Telegraph
Sunday Telegraph
The Sunday Telegraph is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961. It is the sister paper of The Daily Telegraph, but is run separately with a different editorial staff, although there is some cross-usage of stories...
journalist, and George Alagiah
George Alagiah
George Maxwell Alagiah OBE is a British newsreader, journalist and television news presenter.Since 3 December 2007, he has been the sole presenter of the BBC News at Six and has also been the main presenter of GMT on BBC World News since its launch on 1 February 2010...
(Politics), presenter of the BBC News at Six. Matthew Amroliwala
Matthew Amroliwala
Matthew Amroliwala is a BBC newsreader who presents on the BBC News Channel each weekday from 11am - 2pm alongside Jane Hill. He is an occasional relief presenter of the BBC Weekend News on BBC One and appears in the revamped Crimewatch programme on BBC One, with Kirsty Young.-Biography:He was...
(Law and Politics, 1984) is the BBC News
BBC News
BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
channel presenter and BBC one weekend news host. Biddy Baxter
Biddy Baxter
Biddy Baxter MBE is best known as the former editor of the long-running popular BBC One children’s magazine show Blue Peter, a position she held from 1965 to 1988. She was also its producer from 1962 to 1965...
(1955) former producer of Blue Peter
Blue Peter
Blue Peter is the world's longest-running children's television show, having first aired in 1958. It is shown on CBBC, both in its BBC One programming block and on the CBBC channel. During its history there have been many presenters, often consisting of two women and two men at a time...
. Arthur Bostrom
Arthur Bostrom
Arthur Bostrom is an English actor, most famous for his role as Officer Crabtree, in the long-running BBC sitcom Allo 'Allo!.-Biography:...
(BA Hons) most famous for his role as Officer Crabtree
Officer Crabtree
Officer Crabtree is a fictional character in the BBC sitcom Allo 'Allo!, which ran from 1982 to 1992; he was played by actor Arthur Bostrom....
in the long-running BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
sitcom 'Allo 'Allo!
'Allo 'Allo!
'Allo 'Allo! is a British sitcom broadcast on BBC One from 1982 to 1992 comprising eighty-five episodes. It is a parody of another BBC programme, the wartime drama Secret Army, and was created by David Croft, who also wrote the theme music, and Jeremy Lloyd. Lloyd and Croft wrote the first 6...
. Jamie Campbell (English Literature) is a film maker, and also joins Alastair Fothergill
Alastair Fothergill
Alastair Fothergill is a producer of nature documentaries for television and cinema. He is the executive producer of the multi-award winning series The Blue Planet and Planet Earth and the co-director of the associated feature films Deep Blue and Earth.Fothergill attended Harrow...
(Zoology, 1983),series producer of The Blue Planet
The Blue Planet
The Blue Planet is a BBC nature documentary series narrated by David Attenborough, first transmitted in the UK from 12 September 2001.Described as "the first ever comprehensive series on the natural history of the world's oceans", each of the eight 50-minute episodes examines a different aspect of...
, Planet Earth
Planet Earth (TV series)
Planet Earth is a 2006 television series produced by the BBC Natural History Unit. Five years in the making, it was the most expensive nature documentary series ever commissioned by the BBC, and also the first to be filmed in high definition...
and the director of Earth
Earth (2007 film)
Earth is a 2007 nature documentary film which depicts the diversity of wild habitats and creatures across the planet. The film begins in the Arctic in January of one year and moves south, finishing in Antarctica in the December of the same year...
. Shelagh Fogarty
Shelagh Fogarty
Shelagh Fogarty, born 13 January 1966 in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, is a radio and television presenter and journalist. She formerly hosted the BBC Radio 5 Live breakfast show with Nicky Campbell.-Early life:...
(Modern Languages, 1988) current host of the BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is the BBC's national radio service that specialises in live BBC News, phone-ins, and sports commentaries...
breakfast show alongside Lorraine Heggessey
Lorraine Heggessey
Lorraine Heggessey is a British television producer and former Chief Executive of the production company Talkback Thames...
(English Language & Literature) the first female Controller of BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
. Chris Terrill
Chris Terrill
Chris Terrill is an anthropologist, adventurer, author and filmmaker born in Brighton in 1952. He attended Brighton College 1965–1970, and then went to Durham University where he gained a joint-honours degree in Geography and Anthropology...
(Anthropology and Geography) documentary maker, writer and adventurer famous for being the only civilian to pass the Royal Marines Commando tests to gain an honorary green beret. Further BBC hosts who have graduated from Durham include Chris Hollins
Chris Hollins
Chris Hollins is an English journalist, presenter and sportsman, currently employed by the BBC and best known for being the sports correspondent for BBC Breakfast, and for winning Strictly Come Dancing 2009.-Early life:...
, sports presenter on BBC Breakfast
BBC Breakfast
BBC Breakfast is the morning television news programme simulcast on BBC One and the BBC News channel. It is presented live from BBC Television Centre in White City, West London, and contains a mixture of news, sport, weather, business and feature items...
, Gabby Logan
Gabby Logan
Gabby Logan is a television presenter and radio presenter, as well as a former Wales international gymnast. She currently hosts programmes for BBC Sport, mainly focusing on football.- Early life :...
(Law, 1995), Kate Silverton
Kate Silverton
Kate Silverton is an English journalist, currently employed by the BBC.- Early life and education :Silverton was born in Essex, England, the daughter of English parents; Terry Silverton, a black-cab driver turned registered hypnotherapist and Patricia Silverton, who now heads her daughter's...
(Psychology), Jeremy Vine
Jeremy Vine
Jeremy Guy Vine is a British author, journalist and news presenter for the BBC. He is known for his direct interview style and exclusive reporting from war-torn areas throughout Africa...
(English), Tim Willcox
Tim Willcox
Tim Willcox is a British journalist for BBC News, where he presents news bulletins for both the BBC News Channel and BBC World News. Generally a relief presenter for the BBC, he is probably most recognisable for presenting the BBC's live coverage from Chile during events surrounding the Copiapó...
(Spanish), Nina Hossain
Nina Hossain
Nina Hossain is a British journalist, presenter and newscaster.Hossain is currently employed on a freelance basis by ITN where she is the main presenter of ITV London's regional news programme London Tonight. Nina also acts as a relief newscaster for ITV News.-Background:Hossain was born in...
(English Language and Linguistics) and Apprentice Ben Clarke (MBA, 2011).
Noted writers include Edward Bradley
Edward Bradley (writer)
Edward Bradley was an English novelist and clergyman. He was born in Kidderminster and educated at Durham University . He wrote under the name of Cuthbert M. Bede, B.A. a few novels and tales, Fairy Fables , Glencraggan , Fotheringhay , etc...
author of The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green
The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green
The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green is a novel by Cuthbert M. Bede, a pseudonym of Edward Bradley . It covers the exploits of Mr Verdant Green as an undergraduate freshman at Oxford University. Different editions have varying titles, including Mr Verdant Green: Adventures of an Oxford Freshman...
, Minette Walters
Minette Walters
Minette Walters is an English crime writer.- Life and work :After her birth in Bishop’s Stortford to a serving army officer, Capt Samuel Jebb and his wife Colleen, the first 10 years of Minette’s life were spent moving between army bases in the north and south of England...
(French, 1971), author of The Sculptress
The Sculptress
The Sculptress is a crime novel by English writer Minette Walters. She won an Edgar and a Macavity Award for the book. The novel was adapted as a BBC-TV series in 1996, starring Pauline Quirke as Olive Martin.-Synopsis:...
and The Scold's Bridle
The Scold's Bridle
The Scold's Bridle is a crime novel by English writer Minette Walters. The book, Walters' third, won a CWA Gold Dagger.-Synopsis:Mathilda Gillespie, an eccentric recluse known for her incredible meanness of nature, is found dead in her bathtub, her wrists slashed and her head locked inside a...
, Graham Hancock
Graham Hancock
Graham Hancock is a British writer and journalist. Hancock specialises in unconventional theories involving ancient civilizations, stone monuments or megaliths, altered states of consciousness, ancient myths and astronomical/astrological data from the past...
(Sociology, 1973) author of The Sign and the Seal
The Sign and the Seal
The Sign and the Seal: The Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant is a controversial book by British researcher Graham Hancock. It was published in 1992....
, and Lorna Hill (born Lorna Leatham, English, 1926), children's writer, author of the Sadlers Wells series.
In the sports realm, former England rugby captains Will Carling
Will Carling
William David Charles Carling, OBE is a former Rugby union player for Harlequins, and a former captain of England from 1988 to 1996, winning 72 caps.-Early life:...
(Psychology), Phil de Glanville
Phil de Glanville
Philip Ranulph de Glanville is a former English rugby union player who played at centre for Bath and England.-Rugby career:...
(Economics), and vice-captain Will Greenwood
Will Greenwood
William John Heaton "Will" Greenwood, MBE is an English former rugby union footballer of the 1990s and 2000s.-Career:...
(Economics, 1994), alongside Olympic gold-medal triple jumper Jonathan Edwards
Jonathan Edwards (athlete)
Jonathan David Edwards, CBE, is a former British triple jumper. He is a former Olympic, Commonwealth, European and World champion, and has held the world record in the event since 1995....
(Physics, 1987), the 1992 Olympic spare Wade Hall-Craggs
Wade Hall-Craggs
Oliver Wade Hall-Craggs is a British rower and Olympic sculler. He is current head coach at Durham University Boat Club, a position he has held since 2000, and mainly coaches the heavy-weight men. He represented Great Britain in the Single Scull at the 1992 Summer Olympics.- External links :*...
(MBA), and Beijing Olympics Bronze-medal winner Stephen Rowbotham
Stephen Rowbotham
Stephen Christopher Rowbotham is a British rower. He competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics, where he won a bronze medal in double sculls. Rowbotham was educated at Clifton College and Durham University where he switched from tennis to rowing, having previously represented the UK in tennis....
(Business Economics), former England cricket captain Nasser Hussain
Nasser Hussain
Nasser Hussain OBE is a former Essex and England cricketer.Beginning his career in a strong Essex side in the late 1980s, he was an outstanding fielder and a stylish but inconsistent batsman. In first-class cricket from 1987 to 2004 Hussain scored 20,698 runs in 334 matches at an average of 42.06,...
(Mathematics) and the current Captain Andrew Strauss
Andrew Strauss
Andrew John Strauss, OBE is an English cricketer who plays county cricket for Middlesex County Cricket Club and is the captain of England's Test cricket team. A fluent left-handed opening batsman, Strauss favours scoring off the back foot, mostly playing cut and pull shots...
(Economics) are among the most famous.
In Africa, Durham University has produced professionals such as Brenda Lindiwe Mabaso-Chipeio
Brenda Lindiwe Mabaso-Chipeio
Brenda Lindiwe Mabaso-Chipeio is an International Trade expert, currently based in Pretoria, South Africa. She is also a successful business entrepreneur as well as a motivational speaker...
who is currently based in South Africa, but has extensive experience in the Swaziland academic fraternity. She currently specialises in South African Trade Tariffs and is Deputy Chief Commissioner of the International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) of South Africa. Mabaso was one of the leading Masters in Business Administration (MBA) students at the University of Durham in year 1999.
Further reading
- Booth, Ian G. (1979) The College of St. Hild and St. Bede, Durham. Durham: The College of St. Hild and St. Bede.
- Boyd, Elizabeth B. (1999) St. Mary's College, University of Durham, 1899–1999: A Centenary Review. Durham: St. Mary's College.
- Bradshaw, A. (1990) Van Mildert College: The First 25 Years, A Sketch.
- Brickstock, Richard. (2007) Durham Castle: Fortress, Palace, College. Huddersfield: Jeremy Mills Publishing Ltd.
- Bythell, Duncan. (1985) Durham Castle: University College, Durham. Norwich: Jarrold Colour Publications.
- Craig, Amabel. (2009) FIDES NOSTRA VICTORIA: A Portrait of St John's College, Durham, Third Millennium Publishing
- Fowler, Joseph Thomas (1904), Durham University: Earlier Foundations and Present Colleges, Kessinger Publishing
- Heesom, Alan, (1982) The founding of the University of Durham, Durham Cathedral lecture 1982 (Durham, 1982)
- Hird, Marilyn, ed. (1974) St. Mary's College, 1899–1974: An Account of the Women's Hostel 1899–1920 and Some Impressions of Later College Life. Durham: St. Mary's College Society.
- Hird, Marilyn, ed. (1982) Doves & Dons: A History of St. Mary's College, Durham. An Account of the Women's Hostel 1899–1920 and Some Impressions of Later College Life. Durham: St. Mary's College.
- Lawrence, Angel. (1958) St. Hild's College: 1858–1958. Darlington: William Dresser and Sons.
- Jones, Edgar (1996), University College Durham: A Social History, Edgar Jones
- Martin, Susan. (2006) Trevs: A Celebration of 40 Years. Durham: The Trevelyan Trust, Trevelyan College.
- Moyes, W. A (1996), Hatfield 1846–1996: A history of Hatfield College in the University of Durham, Hatfield College Trust
- Rodmell, Graham E. (1997) St Aidan's: From Home Students to Society to College. Durham: St. Aidan's College.
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