Durham University

[KingscoteStaff]

The continuation thread for those with DC at Durham, or applying to Durham, or alumni, or staff!

September 2021 finds us packing, unpacking, meeting old friends and new, and all with our fingers firmly crossed for a positive year!

History = 100 pages by Friday apparently...

Do we know yet what educational provision will be provided? It will be absurd after freshers week if students now have to have online lectures!

I don’t think DS knows yet, although he isn’t messaging every little detail. They don’t have to have LFTs every 48hrs if they aren’t doing social stuff, so not sure if lectures are then deemed to be ‘safe’. Masks to be worn, iirc.

Has anyone else’s dc had anything f2f?
Dd said she has had a f2f introduction lecture to one of her modules at the mount joy centre . Im hoping it’s not telling, that this 1 f2f lecture went from originally being 4 possible sessions (last week on planner) to 8 possible sessions once she arrived and had to be pre booked to avoid over capacity . 1 of the 8 was an online session.
Perhaps it was more to do with induction week planning and other orientation week commitments ?>

@chopc my DD’s lectures and tutorials all seem to be in person so maybe that will be universal…. but I’m not sure how the university is going to sustain the 48 hour ‘test to participate’ for 20000 students. There are going to be roaming covid testers doing random spot checks apparently.

There’s a couple of compulsory lectures on my dd’s course and they have been moved to online because of capacity issues. I think she said she’d read they’d considered holding two separate lecture sessions to fit them all in, but had gone for online instead. 😐
She’s not back yet because returning to halls and told not to come back while freshers is on so that this years freshers get to experience it all and they had their chance their year. Except of course they didn’t, because last year it was all online and everything not online was cancelled. She said she felt quite sad looking at the Matriculation ceremony on social media, and the photos of the freshers fairs because she has never been. She’s signed up to a couple of societies online.
I’m wondering if she would have been better to defer last year, like some of your children did. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️
@chopc your son should be able to tell from his timetable, which lectures and seminars are online and which are in person. The in person ones have buildings and room numbers.
With regard to reading for lectures and seminars, my dd is doing English and there is a lot of reading to do. She bought 51 text books last year. She is quite diligent but still found the amount of reading difficult to keep up with!

Hi - long time follower of this thread but namechange for obvious reasons. My dc decided at last minute not go to Durham & rather than defer is reapplying for same course. Realise was all a mess this year but any advice re colleges. College was reallocated was totally uncommunicative before went & heard nothing about freshers events etc. Looking for friendly, catered & near geography - any suggestions please
Also does anyone know whether irrelevant as likely to ask offer holders to rank later anyway. Thanks

@nacras

Hi - long time follower of this thread but namechange for obvious reasons. My dc decided at last minute not go to Durham & rather than defer is reapplying for same course. Realise was all a mess this year but any advice re colleges. College was reallocated was totally uncommunicative before went & heard nothing about freshers events etc. Looking for friendly, catered & near geography - any suggestions please Also does anyone know whether irrelevant as likely to ask offer holders to rank later anyway. Thanks

I am struggling to understand the logic of this @nacras particularly given the financial incentive available to defer. DS did this last year because he wanted to reapply to Oxford (he didn't realised he could have deferred his place AND still reapplied to Oxford... but that's by the by).

He then had to wait nearly 6 months to get his Durham offer (it was a bloody nervous wait after a second Oxford rejection) AND he got reallocated to the same college he was reallocated to last year.

Anyway your DS should look at Grey and Mary's for proximity to the geography Dept.

@nacras I had a look at Durham’s virtual open day which is still available online so suggest maybe you have a look on there. It’s online until the 10th October I think, and there was a chat facility when I looked but that might have just been the first day. Lots of info about colleges and courses. But I do think you would be better off deferring if you are still able to? It’s just that they are saying that college allocation is now going to be provisional and they aren’t guaranteeing offering freshers college accommodation. I’ve copied and pasted below.
Geography was one of the targeted subjects for deferral and guaranteeing college of choice for accommodation for next year if you deferred by a certain date, now passed unfortunately.

College Allocation
Applicants can still state their first preference college on the UCAS form but will also be sent a link allowing them to rank colleges in order of preference. The process will begin in early to mid-February as usual and you will receive a college allocation. The important change we have made from previous years is that your allocated college is provisional and whilst we will make every endeavour to keep it, we may, in extremis, have to change it.
Accommodation
We expect to make an offer of accommodation to every fresher who requests it. The important change we have made is that we no longer guarantee that we will make every fresher an offer of accommodation.

@chopc

DS said no History timetable yet….

As I’ve said before, I really hope Durham’s overcapacity this year is not a reason for online.

Thanks everyone for the info!

I think next week will be such a big come down for many. Will be interesting to see how people are feeling a month on

@MidLifeCrisis007 - thanks - didnt defer as wanted option to apply elsewhere aswell, thought you werent allowed to apply elsewhere if deferred?
@SpringSparrow - thanks - interesting, wasnt aware that had changed

Last year was an exception @nacras.... although no one told DS until he'd declined his Durham place.

@nacras a deferment for Durham would have seen your child get their first choice college as it was in the drop down box of accept the place or defer and college choice. It was part of the incentive to defer.

Deferring did mean that you couldn't apply elsewhere though so if Durham isn't top of their list then maybe this is a good option for them. Considering how many students at other universities were offered £10k to defer until 2022 the number of places available for all courses will have been affected. It follows on from the over subscription from 2020.

For catered colleges, Marys, Grey and Trevs are the closest to Geography I believe.

Second Trevs if you are looking for a small friendly catered College with gowned formals. Although early days, cannot fault it so far.

I really feel for last year's freshers, it must be gutting to have missed out. At Bath Uni last week they held a second chance freshers week for the new year 2 to give them a chance to do all the things they had missed in 2020. It finished just as the new freshers arrived so effectively 2 weeks of full on events for the university but so great for those second years.

I am sure South college have said they will hold second year fresher events in an FAQ thing which I think is right. Everyone missed out last year on formals, freshers etc.

@LeiatheSchnauzer my dd is a second year going back to Durham tomorrow. She’s not allowed to move into her halls until Sunday which is a day before the course starts 😐. She’s being feeling sad looking at all the freshers events on the college Instagram page, and the Matriculation photos. She had to watch it online alone in her room last year. 😥. She only had three face to face seminars. Only met the catering staff and the porters face to face, everything else over zoom. Not been able to go to the societies fairs this year either.
Currently trying to pack all her stuff and hoping her room is going to be okay 🤞🏻and that she will get to meet some nice people this year 🤞🏻

That is so sad @SpringSparrow

To not even be allowed to go and sign up for societies is a bit much

However I know a 4th year who is back in Grey after a year abroad and he was allowed to move in a week earlier

Thanks @chopc. I think international students would be able to move in earlier and also if you were a frep or one of the executive roles.
Last year you could only go to the dining hall at a set time with your household and couldn’t mix with anyone from another household. It’s a bit of a worry that most of the people will have been there a week already so will have already made friends ?! 😬

Sorry @SpringSparrow didn't understand why already making friends is a bit of a worry? You talking about freshers or the second year freps?

If your DD wanted to go back earlier, surely she could have volunteered to be a FREP @SpringSparrow? It must be much easier to be a FREP if you live in college than if you live out.

@MidLifeCrisis007 the sign up to frep in my dd’s college was a very short window, a day or so, months ago, and she saw it too late sadly.

It’s a shame she couldn’t go back earlier @SpringSparrow ..you think they could have made allowances for the few 2nd years who were returning to halls and had nothing by way of a freshers week themselves.
I’m sure they must have been talking about current 3rd years when saying they’d already had freshers as I’m guessing more of these return to halls? Also, they would have been the last year to have a normal freshers week?
Anyway I hope your Dd manages to settle in well and perhaps manage a few weekend fun activities at the tail end of freshers week before lectures start for her. I hope she has a really good second year

@Longtimenewsee thank you, that’s really kind 😊.