Durham University

[EwwSprouts]

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

June 2023 End of term for all. Hopefully young people are brim full of plans for summer fun and jobs to pay for it!

Link to old thread
]Previous thread (fingers crossed!)

Re accommodation, Ds is in private halls. He has a single bed en-suite for a bit less money than those 6 bedroomed houses are listed at. He paid £7395 for a 51 week contract for 2022/2023 and will be paying £7480 for a 41 week contract this year as it is his final year. That is £182 a week all bills in. Most of them will be 51 week contracts. They are in high demand. He paid for a 1 week rollover to stay in the same room. Flats are in 5s, 6s and 8s I believe and everyone would have the same sized room with their own en-suite and shared kitchen/sitting area. 24 hour security, key card entry etc.

If you want private halls then they need to put their name on a waiting list almost immediately as the term starts. If it is something they might consider then contact the halls and see when they would suggest getting their names down. There is a change your mind for free bit for a time but I can't remember how long that was for.

Congratulations to those graduating, I hope they have had an amazing time at Durham.

Our Dc had about £50 left per week in first year after catered accommodation fees went out (calculated over 52 weeks).
We top up minimum loan to maximum loan amount with our parental contribution.
They have now just finished second year and had about the same amount left per week after private accommodation rent was paid (including bills). Actual budgeting was required in year 2 as that £50 left was for food and everything else.
However, they do work over each summer to earn a few thousand -( so they can have more fun!). They still use the £50 as a yardstick as they say it helps. They also have a separate bank account for rent.
We pay for phone and insurance and buy them one big supermarket shop at beginning of year.

Hi - first post on this thread. My son will be applying for History to start in 2024.

Firstly I was wondering where lectures and seminars tend to take place for History students. He is most drawn to the least popular of the hill colleges but he may be persuaded to try for St Cuthberts (self catered as he is too fussy with food for catered) if that is closer to where his contact hours will be.

Secondly, I am quite concerned about 2nd year accommodation. He has ASD which is likely to make it even more difficult to find people you can house share with so early. I am fairly certain that it used to say that students with ASD could stay (possibly just apply) in halls beyond the 1st year but cannot find any mention of it now. I have read @SpamhappyTootsie son’s experience but was wondering if students with disabilities get any kind of priority?

@Jaxx DDs bf is doing history and lectures are all over but I’d say more Bailey based they have both been in JS which was fab this year but he had a longer walk but history is low contact hours compared to science so not awful.

Next year their 2nd year house is Viaduct so DD will have the longer walk

@Jaxx I believe students with disabilities do get priority for College halls, so worth checking with his preferences well in advance. A couple of DS's friends were accepted straight away.
DS did get a house in May, which was cutting it a bit fine for me! He actually got offered a College halls place 2 weeks before the end of term, which was neither use nor ornament as who would hang on that late?

Wrt to the walking from Hill Colleges, it depends if he likes walking, or at least doesn’t mind it. DS walked to the Science site through a little set of shortcuts he found. Didn’t cut much distance out but did avoid the crowds for much of it. Finds it preferable to waiting for a crowded bus.

Thanks for the replies. I will get him to contact the Autism Support service in September to check on accommodation options post Y1.

He says he doesn’t mind walking and actually likes buses, so I will leave college choice to him - not that I would have much influence anyway!

It’s lovely up South Road by the Hill colleges. They get free admission to the Botanic Gardens, a little way down there is a path to Observatory Hill or for a longer trek in the other direction there is Low Burnhall Woods nature reserve. I find it much more open and green and pleasant than the Bailey colleges, but of course it depends on how your DS feels about it!

@Jaxx Durham has a fantastic ASD separate induction at the start of term allowing the students with ASD to move in early before the crowds. There is a presentation for parents too. They are really supportive generally but my advice from my DD being there, a smaller college is likely to be more supportive and the student gets better known and less risk of getting lost. My DD had amazing support from Johns for all 4 years. At graduation she made a point of saying bye to the catering team who made sure she was fed even though she lived out!!

Good luck to the A level students who will hopefully find tomorrow morning that they have a Welcome to Durham email in their inbox!

So we’re well into August and despite the uni stating publicly that there will be more information on when marks will become available, there hasn’t been. The recent statement was appalling in its brevity and gave nothing to students. As PR goes, this is Durham all over. DC still has no degree nor any clue as to when to expect marks and is being passed from pillar to post trying to sort out post grad applications. We are now looking at the complaints procedure as want to escalate this . Durham is being utterly obstructive in refusing to even release a transcript of marks. There is a national student claims group looking at a class action but as far as I can see there are too few durham students willing to sign up for it. Other unis are also giving some financial compensation - nothing from Durham. We had a DC go through this uni years back - it was a better place then. We have watched 3 years of money grabbing, city destroying, flippant regard for student well being and frankly appalling contact hours and now this. It’s heartbreaking.

It must be awful if you're in your final year.

My son's had some but not all of his end of year exams. It feels harsh because it's a service we're paying for, rather than the government.

I'm surprised forces haven't combined to withhold the last instalment of tuition fee payment in protest. But that's as a parent, perhaps the students feel differently.

DD’s got into Durham - huge excitement here - now keeping everything crossed that Chads confirms her allocation- thanks to all who’ve helped with our questions x

Congratulations to her! Hope she gets her first choice of College.

Fantastic news @KittyMcKitty - is she the Tech Theatre whizz? DS says she’s going to love the new Varilites (whatever they are…)!

DD also in, and also hoping for Chad's (and was heavily into stage crew...is she actually your DD @KittyMcKitty ? 😂).

She's absolutely delighted, as am I (but also not particularly looking forward to long journeys from Bristol!). I'm taking her away for a couple of nights just before she goes up, will be nice to have that time together.

@EmmaStone Congratulations to your dd! So funny all the Tech Theatre people! What subject is she doing? Dd is doing Sociology.

@EmmaStone meant to say I think your journey is even worse then ours - we are South Bucks so 5.5 hrs on the train. We booked at hotel for moving in weekend a while ago (with free cancellation) as feared they would get snapped up quickly. Hope our DD’s both get confirmed into Chads!

@KittyMcKitty She's doing Archaeology and Class Civ. That's a great idea re: booking hotel, I'll look into that now 👍

Waiting to hear on Chad's and roommates!

@EmmaStone dd is really excited about the prospect of having a roommate!

Surprisingly, DD is excited too!

I've not been to Durham before, DH took DD up for open day, and they flew so could do it in a day, any recommendations for hotels? Radisson Blu charging big money 😱.

Congratulations to everyone whose DCs got places!

I look forward to potentially teaching some of them in a few years ;)

Re: the international admissions issue, it's complicated.

In general, i.e., not talking specifically about Durham here ...
Tuition fees have been frozen for years, meaning that the gap between what they pay for and what a degree actually costs the unis to deliver is getting bigger and bigger. On average, for every home student admitted to a UK university, the university loses about £3.5k. International students are not only vital to vibrant and academically competitive universities, and make wonderful contributions to our collegiate communities, but their fees are much higher. In effect they cross-subsidise home students. Without international income a very large number of UK universities would simply collapse.

It's not a sustainable funding model. It's squeezed staff wages and squeezed spending on many other things. It's terribly depressing, to be honest.

When we came up for Open Day and offer holders day we’ve stayed at the Premier Inn by the Passport Office - there is a massive car park next door. It’s centrally located to easy to walk to Chads / market place. We booked for the Sat night thinking it would work for both a Saturday or Sunday move in.

The room sharing is weird isn’t it - dd was v a ti until we visited Chads and then decided it would be great to have a ready made friend to go to meals etc with.

@Era all Colleges offer good opportunities for socialising. Hill colleges are further out of town (but still walking distance), Bailey colleges more in the centre of things. The vast majority of students have to move out into private accom from second year onwards. DS went for Josephine Butler as he is not a party animal, wanted space around him and loves walking. Bailey tends to have older accomodation with some sharing.
Other posters may be able to advise further as to what individual colleges can offer, as I only know about JoBo except in the broadest terms.