Tell me about Durham

[Durhamm]

DD has Durham on her list of potential unis but she has never been, can't make the open day and it's a long way for us to visit.

She is looking at one of the joint hons degrees via nat sci.

As far as I can see, lots of people like it for the college system and the formals, but DD isn't bothered one way or the other about those. So what else is good / bad about Durham? A family member went there and didn't have a great experience but we'd like a second opinion and I know there are many Durhamites here.

She wants self catering accommodation, great teaching, to be challenged academically, a diverse and interesting bunch of people to meet, lots of fun things to do when not studying. She is not particularly into team sports, but likes music, going to gigs, cycling, green spaces. Space generally would be good - she found Bristol a bit crowded and much preferred the vibe of the campuses at Birmingham and Nottingham.

Please tell me everything you know, good or bad! Does Durham have lots of other positives apart from the college system, living in a castle and the formals?

Interesting! DS rejected Exeter as well - ‘not different enough from home’ apparently. He says that his North-Eastern friends in particular all say they wouldn’t have gone to Durham because of its southern bias and a ( possibly wrongly) perceived ‘anti-northern’ feeling. This was rife when I went to Oxford many years ago and I can well believe it still exists in some quarters.

Mine turned down his Durham offer which I was upset about as I loved the town and collegiate system but now I see that it was absolutely the right decision for him. He chose two big city universities for his firm and insurance instead, and city living (gigs etc) really suits him. Plus, like St Andrews, Durham actually places pretty low on international rankings - not something we paid any attention to when choosing, but it's becoming more relevant as he's now thinking of doing his next step abroad. His uni is in the top 10 worldwide, Durham is no 78 and St Andrews 95.

It was pretty fucking horrendous for it when I went there in the late 90s. Castle as a student with a NE accent was a bloody horrendous crash course in the British class system of the time. I'd hope that the uni have got a handle on that crap by now but at the time I was there it was fucking endemic among some of the bloody lecturing staff!

Pros:
It's compact, you'll run into people you know everywhere, it is stunningly beautiful with its cobbled streets and of course the Castle and cathedral etc. College system means you've got that smaller layer of not getting "lost" in the new mash of freshers (and lots of college bars = lots of potential for college bar crawls). 2

Cons:
It's compact, you'll run into people you're avoiding everywhere, cobbles + alcohol = busted ankles and it is fucking hilly as fuck (Pro of this - I dropped 2 dress sizes in my freshers term from all the sodding hills).

That's interesting @Mytholmroyd
Actually pastoral care was the one aspect of Durham life that my relative was positive about, she was very well looked after.

If your DD places priority on a 'diverse and interesting bunch of people to meet' there might be better places than Durham. The students in Durham seem on the whole to be a much narrower range of 'types' than at other universities. Less ethnically diverse, less diversity in terms of class background and incredibly conservative (by student standards) in terms of how they present (no grungy, wacky creative fashion wandering around the town).

This is compounded by the smallness of the town itself. In some respects the smallness is lovely. But in others, dull. Culturally rather restricted (unless you are big on cathedrals and early British Christianity).

(The 'collegiate system' is relatively notional compared with Oxford and Cambridge. The colleges are basically just halls of residence, though I suppose they do also gather some degree of social meaning for students.)

I think that is a sweeping generalisation @GoodOldEmmaNess and certainly not the case in my department. We do a lot of work in the middle east, N Africa, China etc and have students, staff and collaborators from there as well as many other countries. I gave a lecture/workshop a couple weeks ago to a visiting group of staff and students from Iraq for example with a post doc interpreting.

And ditto the college system - in my dealings with the tutors in the colleges I always find them to be engaged and proactive in their pastoral care. It nothing like the anonymous halls of residence my three university educated kids experienced.

I do feel that parents these days try too much to steer their dc towards or away from certain universities because of their own perceptions, or things they have read from a limited selection of people on MN and the like.

Well ideally there wouldn't be any steering but I think gathering info about a uni is a good idea if you can't get there yourself. Better than applying or not with no firsthand info anyway. I find that MN is a really useful hive mind for uni information.

DD was quite put off by our family member's story and I was actually expecting a lot more positive experiences on here as a balance. I didn't want her to discount a good course based on one person's impression. But it has been a more mixed response than I thought.

@Durhamm i’d suggest the thread has provided a lot of opinion but is a bit light on genuine and objectively informed information.

interesting nonetheless- there are a whole series of “another path” threads on the board that could be worth a peruse. The balance of opinion on those likely tilts the other way.

I can completely understand that. But you’d need to get views from many other sources too to get a balance, including student forums. And unfortunately there is a tendency for people (including students) to state negatives more than positives.

Is it not possible for her to visit? She doesn’t have to go on an open day.

I've lived in Durham all of my life, not the city centre but a village on the outskirts which some on here have called deprived. I can honestly say that there are quite a few villages surrounding the main city which are NOT deprived at all and are great places to live. The city centre however doesn't have much going for it now as the shops are closing and the university is taking over more of the historical buildings and turning them into accommodation or flattening them completely. Its a shame as the city is so beautiful but is also far too small for more and more students. It becomes gridlocked quite fast especially on weekends. I guess like many places it is what you make it, study hard and find a good group of friends and you're set :)

Coffeewithcheese, I visited a friend there a few times years ago and agree it was absolutely like that back then.

Clearly it is still very different to a lot of universities and not the most diverse but it has moved on from being so dominated by rah types.

The colleges seem half way between a hall of residence and an Oxbridge college to me. Definitely much more to them than a normal hall - sports, societies, staff team you get to know etc. Also the student stays part of their college for their whole time there and can attend socials, pay for meals in catered colleges, play sports still etc.
There was nothing more than a bar and a couple of occasional socials at the halls I stayed in years ago. Maybe that too is different now.

Durham is definitely not for everyone and is quirky and the older colleges seem a bit "boarding school" but for some people it can be amazing.

OP there are more positive threads about Durham - there's an ongoing one for Durham students' parents on here and everyone's kids seem very happy.

I find all this rather depressing and a lot of stereotyping going on… my DD is none of what is described in terms of the rah types referred to and loved Durham from minute stepped in- she has visited a number of times to make sure her first instinct was right. I’m sure it’s not for everyone but I think you have to visit and get a proper sense of it and make own decision. I find some of the comments here so loaded that they are really unhelpful.. I’ve let my DD make her own decision and happy for her she got the grades and is off and I’m sure as she has chosen and been clear she will make the most of it.

That's fine - but again, don't tell people who went there and lived it that their experience is some kind of invented fantasy because 4 years of my life definitely weren't (or I'd have invented being on a beach winning the lotto rather than sliding on my arse going down a hill on icy cobbles).

Durham Uni is ridiculously snobby if you’re in one of the halls in the town centre - Castle and Hatfield, for example. Pick your college carefully, it really makes a huge difference.

i’d suggest the thread has provided a lot of opinion but is a bit light on genuine and objectively informed information.

Yes, opinion was what I was after - I think people who have studied there, or visited, or have DC studying there are worth listening to, so thank you all for sharing your experiences and impressions.

Is it not possible for her to visit? She doesn’t have to go on an open day.

She could but it would involve at least one overnight, so quite costly in terms of both time and money. I think while Durham obviously really suits some people, DD's instinct that it's not quite right for her is probably sound.

Sorry I meant to say the PP who actually lives in Durham also made some interesting points!

We visited with yr 12 dd in June. Also reservations but will probably make list. She wants law. We were very impressed by law and year abroad. Plus for dd was she could also take a politics module as part of straight law degree.
She wants self catering so would have to pick carefully.
It was obvious large percentage looking around were private school which was a negative to my dc. It really stood out for this - we did 5 uni visits pretty much back to back and Durham stuck out so its not assumptions it’s what we saw and heard. Also reservations re small size of city.
It’s an easy to get to location for us so pro for that.

I went to Durham doing NatSci from a working class, Midlands background and absolutely loved it, choosing to stay there for my postgrad too. The small city where you could walk everywhere really worked for me, the flexible course was great and I met some lovely, amazing people, including my now DH and some of my closest friends. I'm really surprised by the overall negative responses on this thread as previous threads have had a much more mixed response, with some negative but also a lot of positive experiences. I found the colleges to be an awful lot more than halls of residence. I agree that the housing situation after first year isn't ideal, but as others have said if you're prepared to go a little further out then there are far more options.

My only knowledge is someone I worked with a few years ago, she didn't buy a drink for 3 years because the other students had much more money.

I have to say , although I think it's a looker, and my dad went there (twice) the majority of people I know (both during my own experience and more recently in my DS's friends network) who have dropped out of university went to Durham. By majority, I mean all but three of 10 people (the other two unis were Aberystwyth and Keele and one from my own, York, because everyone was godless...).

This may or may not be a plus but Durham also has one of the highest marriage rates. Including myself and my group of friends (bar one who already had a girlfriend).

I think you either love or hate it. I still get a weird feeling when I first see the castle and cathedral from the train. It's a beautiful city and I loved the colleges. But if you want a bustling, cosmopolitan city like Bristol, Durham will seem very quiet and boring.

Well there were some stats published yesterday/day before about drop out rates and Durham was something like the third or fourth lowest! So whilst anecdotally that may be the case in your circle, it's actually not representative.

Ds visited and really liked Durham, I particularly did too. Walking around, walking over the bridges. Lovely. Do green and pretty. The drive up from Surrey is a killer, but we stayed overnight. He only turned it down because the course wasn't quite right. Liked the colleges, the hill, it did feel quite small though.

No, I know this and I also know that unis with lower entry requirements attract more mature students and people from a more diverse range of backgrounds who are more likely to dropout than people who are younger, more supported and more affluent.

But all the people I know who dropped out did drop out because of feeling bullied or othered, or not being able to afford the accommodation, and it's quite a lot of people.

There has been a lot of stuff online from a group within Durham about the bullying of Northern students and the sexual harassment 'games' played with young women identified as working class. There aren't too many other unis you will ear this about. The sociology department at Durham (regarded as outliers) did an expose and investigation too.

However, if DS had applied to Durham, I would have been happy : certainly wouldn't have had any qualms for him. He didn't because he thought it was a wasted application as its requirements were higher than Cambridge.