@blasketmum Durham are usually late to offer, speculation always is that they wait until the Oxbridge offers are done and they do not like being anyone's insurance choice. I believe they sometimes ask why they are your insurance and not first choice! They do love themselves.
There was a big cock up when Ds started that they had not been given the pre-reading maths so it was an uphill battle at first, some students complained about 3 weeks into the course when it was finally discovered that they hadn't uploaded the maths stuff. So it was a bit of a baptism by fire. But it all calmed down.
For the first term he had 23 hours of contact time, around 4 hours each day with a 6 hour day with a 1 hour break and a 5 hour day with a 2 hour and then a 1 hour break. But it is to be expected, it isn't a subject you read. He says it is full on but he loves it. He has 19 hours of contact this term.
Although he was home for 4 weeks over Christmas he was working for most of it on CS coursework so it certainly didn't feel like a holiday. He did take some whole days off but was revising for a maths test too. He is working at a 1st level so high achiever, very committed.
He absolutely loves Durham the place too. Small enough that you are not trekking for miles to get somewhere, easy enough to walk home after a night out. He has some friends there from sixth form but in different colleges who all moan that there is no McDonalds or KFC in town 
but there are loads of other places to get food.
There is a Durham thread in Higher Education for any previous, current, prospective students, alumni and we are lucky that some staff post and some people who live in that beautiful city. Hope this all helps.