Durham University is a public collegiate research university in Durham, North East England, founded in 1832 as England's third-oldest university after Oxford and Cambridge.
£31,000
3 years
English
September
Durham, United Kingdom
Public
Durham University is a public collegiate research university in Durham, North East England, founded in 1832 as England's third-oldest university after Oxford and Cambridge. A Russell Group member with 17 residential colleges, it ranked joint 94th in the QS World University Rankings 2026 and teaches around 21,000 students, over a third international, across Computer Science, Durham Law School and the triple-accredited Durham University Business School.
Durham's 17 colleges, split across the Bailey peninsula and the Durham Hill/Queen's Campus areas, each provide a dining hall, bar, junior common room and pastoral tutors alongside central university teaching. Nine colleges are catered and six self-catered, with two offering both. Team Durham runs over 60 sports clubs, one of the UK's largest university sport programmes, and the Bill Bryson Library anchors the Science Site shared by Computer Science, Engineering and the Business School.
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Practical information about day-to-day life while pursuing this program at Durham University in Durham, the country. This covers the campus environment, accommodation, daily living and available safety and student-support services.
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Durham's 17 colleges, split across the Bailey peninsula and the Durham Hill/Queen's Campus areas, each provide a dining hall, bar, junior common room and pastoral tutors alongside central university teaching. Nine colleges are catered and six self-catered, with two offering both. Team Durham runs over 60 sports clubs, one of the UK's largest university sport programmes, and the Bill Bryson Library anchors the Science Site shared by Computer Science, Engineering and the Business School.
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All 17 colleges provide undergraduate accommodation, nine catered and six self-catered (two offer both). For 2026/27, a standard self-catered college room with shared bathroom is £7,217 for the 39-week contract; a catered standard room is £10,431 and a catered en-suite room is £11,687, with catering charged separately at £107 per week for 21 meals. Postgraduate residence charges follow a separate published scale by room type and college. Off-campus private renting is also common from second year, particularly around the Viaduct, Gilesgate and Claypath areas.
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Catered colleges provide 21 meals a week (breakfast, lunch, dinner) at a published unit cost of £5.10 per meal for 2026/27, with dietary, allergen and religious requirements handled by individual college catering teams on request. Self-catered colleges and off-campus housing rely on Durham's Market Place shops, Tesco, Sainsbury's and Durham Indoor Market, plus South Asian grocers along North Road, for home cooking; confirm current options directly with your college and city outlets before arrival.
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Durham is a compact cathedral city with a lower reported crime profile than many larger UK university cities, though normal urban precautions apply, particularly around Viaduct-area nightlife at weekends. The university's Student Immigration and Funding Service and college-based welfare teams are the first points of contact for safety and support concerns, alongside a campus security presence and emergency contacts published through each college. New international students get a dedicated Welcome and Orientation Week, and the Student Immigration and Funding Service is the university's sole authorised source of visa advice, covering CAS issuance, Student visa applications and post-arrival registration. Each college provides academic and pastoral tutors, and university-wide services cover counselling, disability support and the Careers & Enterprise team for job-search guidance.
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