Newcastle Airport Transfers
Pre-booked airport shuttle taxi cab and minibus service 

About Durham University

The Founding of Durham University
Durham has been at the fore of European scholarship for hundreds of years. Long before the University was founded in 1832, the scholarly monastic community gave Durham an unrivalled reputation for learning.

Durham College, Oxford (later Trinity College) was founded in the 13th century, and plans for a college in Durham were drawn up by Henry VIII in the 16th century, and again in 17th century by Oliver Cromwell.But, after several earlier abortive attempts, a university was officially established in 1832 by the Bishop of Durham, William Van Mildert.

Apart from formal education in several disciplines, the establishment of a university in Durham brought well-educated youth to the city. The presence of a student body contributed to the city's vitality, bringing, among other things, humour and cheer, still present today.

The humour of the nineteenth-century student body has been preserved in the work of Edward Bradley, who, under the pen-name of Cuthbert Bede, captured student life in words and images.

Durham University is a globally outstanding centre of teaching and research based in historic Durham City in the UK.

We are a collegiate university committed to inspiring our people to do outstanding things at Durham and in the world.

We conduct boundary-breaking research that improves lives globally and we are ranked as a world top 100 university with an international reputation in research and education (QS World University Rankings 2022).

We are a member of the Russell Group of leading research-intensive UK universities and we are consistently ranked as a top 10 university in national league tables (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide, Guardian University Guide and The Complete University Guide).

Durham University (legally the University of Durham)[6] is a collegiate public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charter in 1837. It was the first recognised university to open in England for more than 600 years, after Oxford and Cambridge, and is thus the third-oldest university in England.[7] As a collegiate university, its main functions are divided between the academic departments of the university and its 17 colleges. In general, the departments perform research and provide teaching to students, while the colleges are responsible for their domestic arrangements and welfare.

The university is a member of the Russell Group of British research universities[8] and is also affiliated with the regional N8 Research Partnership and international university groups including the Matariki Network of Universities and the Coimbra Group. The university estate includes 83 listed buildings, ranging from the 11th-century Durham Castle to the 1960s brutalist students' union. The university also owns and manages the Durham World Heritage Site in partnership with Durham Cathedral. The university's ownership of the world heritage site includes Durham Castle, Palace Green and the surrounding buildings including the historic Cosin's Library.[9]

Current and emeritus academics as of 2018 included 15 Fellows of the Royal Society, 18 Fellows of the British Academy, 16 Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences, 5 Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 3 Fellows of the Royal Society of Arts, 2 Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering and 2 Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences.[10] Durham graduates have long used the Latin post-nominal letters Dunelm after their degree, from Dunelmensis (of, belonging to, or from Durham).[11]

Among British universities, it had the tenth highest average UCAS Tariff for new entrants in 2021[12] and the third lowest proportion of state-school educated students starting courses in 2016, at 62.9 per cent (fifth lowest compared to its benchmark).[13]

History
Main article: History of Durham University
Origins

William van Mildert, Bishop of Durham and one of the founders of the university
Between around 1286 and 1291 the Benedictine monks of Durham established a hall at Oxford University to provide them with a seat of learning. In 1381 this received an endowment from Thomas Hatfield, Bishop of Durham, becoming Durham College. Durham College was surrendered to the Crown in 1545 following the Reformation. The strong tradition of theological teaching in Durham gave rise to various attempts to form a university within the city itself, notably under King Henry VIII and then under Oliver Cromwell, who issued letters patent and nominated a proctor and fellows for the establishment of a college in 1657.[14] However, a proposal to allow the college to confer degrees met with opposition from Oxford and Cambridge universities, and the whole scheme was abandoned at the restoration of the monarchy in 1660.[15] Consequently, it was not until 1832 when Parliament, at the instigation of Archdeacon Charles Thorp and with the support of the Bishop of Durham, William van Mildert, passed "an Act to enable the Dean and Chapter of Durham Cathedral to appropriate part of the property of their church to the establishment of a University in connection therewith" (2 & 3 Will. 4. c. 19) that the university came into being. The act received royal assent from King William IV on 4 July 1832.

The church university, 1832–1909

An examination taking place in Cosin's Library, 1842

Durham Castle (gatehouse pictured) houses University College, making it one of the oldest buildings currently being used to house a university in the world[16][17]
The university opened on 28 October 1833. In 1834 all but two of the bishops of the Church of England confirmed that they would accept holders of Durham degrees for ordination. In 1835 a fundamental statute was passed by the Dean and Chapter, as governors of the university, setting up Convocation and laying down that Durham degrees would only be open to members of the Church of England. Regulations for degrees were finalised in 1836 and the university was incorporated by royal charter granted by William IV on 1 June 1837 as the "Warden, Masters and Scholars of the University of Durham", with the first students graduating a week later.[15] Accommodation was provided in the Archdeacon's Inn (now Cosin's Hall) from 1833 to 1837. On the accession of Queen Victoria an order of the Queen-in-Council was issued granting the use of Durham Castle (previously a palace of the Bishop of Durham) to the university.[15]

In 1846, Bishop Hatfield's Hall (later to become Hatfield College) was founded, providing the opportunity for students to obtain affordable lodgings with fully catered communal eating, a revolutionary idea at the time, endorsed by a Royal Commission in 1862 and later spread to other universities. Those attending University College were expected to bring a servant with them to deal with cooking, cleaning and so on. The level of applications to Bishop Hatfield's Hall led to a second hall along similar lines, Bishop Cosin's Hall, being founded in 1851, although this only survived until 1864. Elsewhere, the university expanded from Durham into Newcastle in 1852 when the medical school there (established in 1834) became a college of the university.[15] This was joined in 1871 by the College of Physical Sciences (renamed the College of Science in 1884 and again renamed Armstrong College in 1904). St Cuthbert's Society was founded in 1888 for non-collegiate, mostly mature, male students as a non-residential society run by the students themselves. Two teacher-training colleges – St Hild's for women, established in 1858, and The College of the Venerable Bede for men, established in 1839,[15] also existed in the city and these merged to form the mixed College of St Hild and St Bede in 1975. From 1896 these were associated with the university and graduates of St Hild's were the first female graduates from Durham in 1898.

During its expansion phase the university also became the first English university to establish relationships with overseas institutions;[18] firstly in 1875 with Codrington College, Barbados, and secondly in early 1876 with Fourah Bay College, Sierra Leone.[19] Under the arrangements the two colleges became affiliated colleges of the university with their students sitting examinations for and receiving Durham degrees.[19][20] The landmark event was not met with universal applause, with the London Times stating "it would not be much longer before the University of Durham was affiliated to the Zoo".[21] After nearly a century of affiliation and with the prevailing winds of decolonisation, Fourah Bay became independent of the university in 1968 to form part of the University of Sierra Leone[22] while Codrington College became affiliated to the University of the West Indies in 1965.[23]

The first debating society in Durham was founded in 1835, but may have closed by 1839. The Durham University Union was established in 1842, and revived and moved to Palace Green in 1872–3 as the Durham Union Society.[24][25] Notable past presidents of the Durham Union have included Richard Dannatt, Sir Edward Leigh, and Crispin Blunt.[26][27][28]

The Durham Colleges Students Representative Council (SRC) was founded around 1900 after the model of the College of Medicine SRC (in Newcastle). The Durham University SRC was formed in 1907 with representatives from the Durham Colleges, the College of Medicine, and Armstrong College (also in Newcastle). In 1963, after the creation of Newcastle University, the Durham Colleges SRC became the Durham University SRC, and was renamed as the Durham Students' Union in 1970.[29]

Until the mid 19th century, University of Durham degrees were subject to a religion test and could only be taken by members of the established church. Medical degrees in Newcastle were exempt from this requirement from the start of the affiliation of the medical school, but in Durham it lasted until the revision of the statutes in 1865.[30] Despite the opening of degrees, staff and members of Convocation were still required to be members of the Church of England until the Universities Tests Act 1871. However, "dissenters" were able to attend Durham and then sit the examinations for degrees of the University of London, which were not subject to any religious test.[31] Following the grant of a supplemental charter in 1895 allowing women to receive degrees of the university, the Women's Hostel (St Mary's College from 1919) was founded in 1899.[32]

The federal university, 1909–1963

Durham University College of Medicine, Newcastle, now the Sutherland Building of Northumbria University

St Chad's College, one of the two independent colleges
The Newcastle division of the university, which comprised both Armstrong College (named after Lord Armstrong) and Durham University College of Medicine, quickly grew to outnumber the Durham colleges, despite the addition of two independent Anglican foundations: St Chad's College (1904) and St John's College (1909). A parliamentary bill proposed in 1907 would have fixed the seat of the university in Durham for only ten years, allowing the Senate to choose to move to Newcastle after this. This was blocked by a local MP[who?], with the support of graduates of the Durham colleges, until the bill was modified to establish a federal university with its seat fixed in Durham. This reform also removed the university from the authority of the Dean and Chapter of Durham Cathedral, who had been the governors of the university since its foundation.[33] Thirty years after this, the Royal Commission of 1937 recommended changes in the constitution of the federal university, resulting in the merger of the two Newcastle colleges in the Newcastle Division to form King's College. The Vice-Chancellorship alternated between the Warden of the Durham Division and the Rector of the Newcastle Division.[34] (The legacy of this lives on, in that the de facto head of the university is still called "The Vice-Chancellor and Warden".)[note 1]

After World War II, the Durham division expanded rapidly. St Aidan's Society (St Aidan's College from 1961) was founded in 1947 to cater for non-resident women and the decision was made to expand further on Elvet Hill (where the science site had been established in the 1920s), relocating St Mary's College, building new men's colleges, vastly expanding the existing pure science provision in Durham, and adding applied science (1960) and engineering (1965).[35]

In 1947, the foundation stones for the new St Mary's College building on Elvet Hill were laid by Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II).[36] The new building opened in 1952. In the same year, tensions surfaced again over the Durham-Newcastle divide, with a proposal to change the name of the university to the "University of Durham and Newcastle". This motion was defeated in Convocation (the assembly of members of the university) by 135 votes to 129.[37] Eleven years later, with the Universities of Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne Act 1963, King's College became the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, leaving Durham University based solely in its home city.[38]

The modern university, 1963–1999

The lawn at St Mary's College, the first of the Hill colleges
By the time of the separation from Newcastle the Elvet Hill site was well established; with the first of the new colleges being founded in 1959, Grey College, named after the second Earl Grey who was the Prime Minister when the university was founded. Expansion up Elvet Hill continued, with Van Mildert College and the Durham Business School (1965), Trevelyan College (1966), and Collingwood College (1972) all being added to the university, along with a Botanic Garden (1970).[39][40]

These were not the only developments in the university, however. The Graduate Society, catering for postgraduate students, was founded in 1965 (renamed Ustinov College in 2003) and the (now closed) Roman Catholic seminary of Ushaw College, which had been in Durham since 1808, was licensed as a hall of residence in 1968. In 1988 Hatfield, the last men's college, became mixed; followed by the women's college of Trevelyan in 1992, leaving the original women's college of St Mary's as the last single-sex college.[41]

In 1989 the university started its fund-raising and alumni office, with a virtual community for alumni[42] and several large gifts made to the university, including for the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, the Department of Physics and the Wolfson Research Institute.

Development in Stockton, 1992–1999

Ebsworth Building, Queen's Campus, Stockton
In 1991, a joint venture between the university and the University of Teesside saw the Joint University College on Teesside of the Universities of Durham and Teesside (JUCOT) established at Thornaby-on-Tees in the borough of Stockton-on-Tees and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, 30 miles (48 km) to the south of Durham. It opened under the name of University College Stockton (UCS) in 1992.

UCS was initially intended to grant joint degrees validated by both institutions (BAs and BScs). However, Teesside, which had only become a university in 1992, had difficulties in taking on its responsibilities for the college and withdrew in 1994, Durham taking over full responsibility for UCS and the degrees to be awarded there.

A programme of integration with Durham began, with the Privy Council approving changes in Durham's statutes to make UCS a college of the University of Durham. Further integration of the Stockton development with the university led to the formation of the University of Durham, Stockton Campus (UDSC) in 1998 and the separation of teaching responsibilities from UCS.

21st century

School of Government and International Affairs
In 2001, two new colleges, John Snow and George Stephenson (after the physician and the engineer) were established at Stockton, replacing UCS, and the new medical school (operating in association with the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) accepted its first students. In 2002, her golden jubilee year, the Queen granted the title "Queen's Campus" to the Stockton site.[43] By 2005, Queen's Campus, Stockton, accounted for around 18 per cent of the total university student population.[44]

In 2005, the university unveiled a re-branded logotype and introduced the trading name of Durham University, although the legal name of the institution remained the University of Durham and the official coat of arms was unchanged.[6] The same year, St Mary's College had its first mixed undergraduate intake.[45][46] In October 2006, Josephine Butler College opened its doors to students as Durham's newest college – the first purpose-built self-catering college for students within Durham. This was the first new college to open in Durham itself since the creation of Collingwood in the 1970s.[47]

In May 2010, Durham joined the Matariki Network of Universities (MNU) together with Dartmouth College (US), Queen's University (Canada), University of Otago (New Zealand), University of Tübingen (Germany), University of Western Australia and Uppsala University (Sweden).[48] In 2012, Durham (along with York, Exeter and Queen Mary, University of London) joined the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities.[49]

Between 2010 and 2012 the university was criticised for accepting funds from controversial sources, including the government of Iran, the US State Department, the prime minister of Kuwait, and British American Tobacco.[50][51][52][53]

Closure of Queen's Campus and expansion in Durham

The Ogden Centre for Fundamental Physics, next to the Department of Physics
The university announced in 2016 that it would relocate the colleges and academic activities currently at the Queen's Campus to Durham City from 2017;[54][55] with the School of Medicine, Pharmacy and Health being transferred to Newcastle University.[56][57][58] The Queen's Campus became an International Study Centre to prepare overseas students to study at Durham, run by Study Group.[59]

In March 2017 Lord Rees opened the Ogden Centre for Fundamental Physics, designed by Daniel Libeskind.[60] The new building, named after alumnus Peter Ogden, provides extra laboratories and office space for 140 staff.[61] In May 2017 the university announced a new ten-year strategy that proposed investing £700m in improving the campus, creating 300 new academic posts, increasing the size of the university to 21,500 students while attracting more international students, and expanding the business school and the departments of law, politics, English and history to reach "critical research mass".[62][63]

In 2018 the university announced that a consortium led by Interserve would design, build and operate two colleges at Mount Oswald (new buildings for John Snow College and one new college) for £105 million.[64][65] The project company (in which the university has a 15 per cent stake) is financing the construction via a £90 million 46-year bond issue.[66] Separately, the university announced that it had raised £225 million to fund its estate masterplan through the private sale of long-term bonds to British and US investors.[67] In 2021 it was reported that there was a culture of sexism and bullying at Durham, and that the university had been reluctant to address structural problems, thereby enabling this culture to develop relatively unchallenged.[68][69][70]

Campus
Durham University owns a 257 ha (640-acre) estate[5] of which 251 ha (620 acres) is in Durham. This contains part of the Durham Castle and Cathedral UNESCO World Heritage Site[71] and multiple other heritage assets including three ancient monuments (the Maiden Castle Iron Age promontory fort,[72] Cosin's Library[73] and Divinity House[74]), four grade I listed buildings (including Kingsgate Bridge,[75] the Exchequer Building on Palace Green,[76] the gatehouse,[77] keep,[78] north range[79] and west range[80] of Durham Castle, and multiple listings covering surviving sections of the castle walls around the north of the castle[81][82][83] and along the top of the river bank behind Hatfield College[84] and St Cuthbert's Society[85][86]) and 79 grade II or II* listed buildings.[87][88] As of 2023, the estate in Durham includes 112 ha (280 acres) of woodland scrub (with 46 ha (110 acres) of woodland designated as Areas of High Landscape Value, including the 32.4 ha (80 acres) of Great High Wood, Hollingside Wood and Blaid's Wood additionally designated as Ancient Semi-Natural Woodlands, Sites of Nature Conservation Importance and Sites of Ecological Value[89][90]), 53 ha (130 acres) of farming and grazing land, and 27 ha (67 acres) of amenity grassland, alongside 51.4 ha (127 acres) of built environment.[91] The estate also includes the Queen's Campus in Stockton-on-Tees.

One of the major public attractions in Durham City is the 10 ha (25-acre) Botanic Gardens, established (on the current site) in 1970, with over 80,000 visitors annually.[92] As of 2021, the university estate contains over 380 buildings with a floor area of 424,600 square metres (4,570,000 sq ft), including 189,400 square metres (2,039,000 sq ft) of residential area in 170 residential buildings (not including the independent St Chad's and St John's colleges, which are not owned by the university).[5] The insurance reinstatement value was estimated as close to £850 million in 2014.[93]

Durham City

Hatfield College, one of the five colleges along the Bailey
Durham City is the main location of the university and contains all of the colleges along with most of the academic departments. The Durham City estate is spread across several different sites.

The Bailey and Palace Green form the historic centre of the university and contain five colleges as well as the departments of music and of theology and religion, the Institute of Advanced Study, Palace Green Library ( housing the university's special collections), the archaeological museum, and the Durham Union Society. The Bailey is linked to Dunelm House, home of Durham Students Union in New Elvet, by the university's Kingsgate Bridge.


Old Elvet is the home of a number of departments
The Old and New Elvet areas contain a number of departments in Humanities and Social Sciences including Philosophy, and Sociology. The Leazes Road site on the north bank of the Wear, opposite the university's Racecourse playing fields and Old Elvet, is home to the School of Education and Hild Bede College. Old Elvet was previously the site of the university's administration in Old Shire Hall; since September 2012, the administration has been based in the Palatine Centre on the Mountjoy site.[94]

Mountjoy

The Palatine Centre on the Mountjoy Campus, home of the university's administration
The Mountjoy site (formerly the Science site) south of New Elvet contains the vast majority of departments and large lecture theatres such as Appleby, Scarborough, James Duff, Heywood and more recently the Calman Learning Centre (opened 2007)[95] and the Lower Mountjoy Teaching and Learning Centre (opened 2019),[96] along with the main Bill Bryson library.[97]

Elvet Hill

Sheraton Park, site of a former teacher training college and home to Ustinov College since 2017
Elvet Hill, south of the Mountjoy site, has ten of the colleges as well as the Botanic Garden and the Vice-Chancellor's residence in Hollingside House. It is also home to the Business School and the department of Government and International Affairs, as well as the Teikyo University of Japan in Durham and the Oriental Museum.

As part of the transfer of colleges from the Queen's Campus in 2017, a number of colleges changed location. Stephenson College moved to the site at Howlands Farm (also on Elvet Hill) previously occupied by Ustinov College. Ustinov itself moved to a new site at Sheraton Park in Neville's Cross from the 2017/18 academic year. For a transition period, John Snow and Stephenson were both located at Howlands Farm during the 2018/19 academic year.[98][99]

Mount Oswald

South (left) and John Snow (right) colleges on the Mount Oswald site
Two new colleges opened in 2020 at the site of the former Mount Oswald golf course on Elvet Hill. John Snow moved into one of these colleges, with the other forming the new South College, the university's 17th college. The new colleges at Mount Oswald have around 500 self-catered rooms each. As of 2016, when bids were solicited for the construction, the first 700 rooms were hoped to be available for the 2019/20 academic year and the remaining 300 by the 2021/22 academic year.[100] Construction began in September 2018, with "Hub building" expected to be ready for 2019/20 but the first students not expected to move into the new accommodation until the 2020/21 academic year.[101] John Snow college moved out of Howlands in 2019/20, and was located for one year at Rushford Court (the former County Hospital, now owned by Unite Students) in the viaduct area of the city before moving to Mount Oswald for 2020/21.[102]

Development plans
The university published a strategy document in 2017 setting out (among other things) a roadmap for development of the estate over the period to 2027, including the development of a new home for the business school at Elvet Waterside (Old Elvet), to open in 2021, the redevelopment of the arts and humanities facilities at Elvet Riverside (New Elvet), opening from 2022, the construction of four to six new colleges, and the continued development of the Mountjoy site.[98][103]

The plans for New Elvet were contingent on the university being granted a "Certificate of Immunity from Listing" for the current student union building, Dunelm House, which would allow it to be demolished. However, following a recommendation of listing by Historic England, multiple appeals and a multi-year campaign by the Twentieth Century Society against government decisions in 2016 and 2017 not to list the building, Dunelm House was given a Grade II listing in 2021.[63][104][105][106][107][108][109]

Proposals for a £75 million new business school on Elvet Waterside were submitted for planning permission in 2019.[110] However, this had not been granted by 2022.[111] The university instead decided to purchase the Waterside Building, Durham County Council's newly-built headquarters at the Sands, north of the city centre, after the new county leadership (following the 2021 elections) decided to sell it. The purchase went though for £84 million in late 2022.[112][113]

The university's Estate Masterplan for 2017–2027 identified the area around Howlands Farm, the Leazes Road site (Hild Bede College), and the current Business School site as possible locations for new accommodation development (i.e. new colleges).[114] In preparation for redevelopment, a number of departments and facilities were relocated from Leazes Road in 2022, including the Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences,[115] the Institute of Medical Humanities,[116] and the School of Education.[117] Some accommodation at Hild Bede College was also relocated, but plans to close all of the accommodation at the main Hild Bede site were dropped due to high demand for university accommodation.[118]

Accommodation at the main Hild Bede site will continue to be used through 2023–24, with full refurbishment planned to begin in summer 2024. The college will then relocate temporarily to Rushford Court (previously used by John Snow college while the development of their Mount Oswald site was in progress[119]). The university are currently working with Unite Students (the owners of Rushford Court) to develop the facilities normally provided at a college. In the longer term, Rushford Court is planned to become Durham's 18th college.[120][121] The redevelopment of the Leazes Road site is planned to include not only the refurbishment of Hild Bede but also the construction of Durham's 19th college. UPP were announced in May 2024 as the preferred bidders to deliver the refurbishment and the new college under a design, build, fund and operate model.[122][123]

Ushaw College
Ushaw College, 5 miles west of Durham, is a former Catholic seminary that is a licensed hall of residence of the university. It hosts parts of the Business School and of the Centre for Catholic Studies, with the university having committed to leasing the East Wing until 2027 and to establishing a residential research library at Ushaw.[124] It formerly housed some students from Josephine Butler College, but since summer 2015 the only students at Ushaw are business marketing students.[125] In 2017 the university's Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring, part of the School of Education, moved to Ushaw College and has remained there since its sale to Cambridge University in 2019.[126][127]

Queen's Campus
Main article: Queen's Campus, Durham University

Wolfson Research Institute at the Queen's Campus
Queen's Campus in the borough of Stockton-on-Tees (Thornaby, North Yorkshire) some 30 miles from Durham City. Until 2017–18, the campus was home to around 2,000 full-time students in two colleges (John Snow and Stephenson Colleges) and the Wolfson Research Institute.[128] A bus connects Queen's Campus to Durham City, with a one-way journey usually taking 45 minutes.[129]

The colleges and academic departments were relocated to Durham City (or transferred to Newcastle University in the case of the School of Medicine, Pharmacy and Health) between 2017 and 2018, and the Queen's Campus became an International Study Centre (ISC), run by Study Group. This prepares non-EU foreign students to enter degree courses at the university, with the first students having started in September 2017.[59][98] The ISC has taken over the former college accommodation on the campus, with the former Stephenson College buildings becoming Endeavour Court and the former John Snow College buildings becoming Infinity House. The ISC also continues to use the privately owned Rialto Court accommodation, which was previously used by the Queen's Campus colleges.[130] The university had said, as part of its 2017–2027 masterplan, that it is continuing to explore other options for the use of the Queen's Campus and will be developing a separate masterplan for the campus.[114]

The Wolfson Research Institute was established at the Queen's Campus in 2001 to conduct and facilitate interdisciplinary research in health and wellbeing.[131]

Libraries

The original university library, now known as the Palace Green Library (centre), and the School of Music (left)
The Durham University Library system holds over 1.5 million printed items.[132] The library was founded in January 1833 at Palace Green with a 160-volume donation by the Bishop of Durham, William Van Mildert.[132] The library operates four branches: Bill Bryson Library (the main library), Queen's Campus Library, Durham University Business School Library and the Palace Green Library, which holds the special and heritage collections.[133]

In 2005, designated status was granted by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council to two of the special collections: Bishop Cosin's Library on Palace Green (an endowed public library dating from 1669 of which the university is the trustee), which contains medieval manuscripts and over 5,000 printed books, many early, and the Sudan Archive, described by the university as "the pre-eminent archive on the Sudan outside Khartoum".[134] Since the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council was abolished in 2012, the designation scheme has been managed by Arts Council England; the two special collections remain Designated as of July 2016, along with the Durham University Oriental Museum's Egyptian and Chinese collections.[135]


St Cuthbert Gospel, an 8th-century gospel book
In 2012 the university, together with the British Library and Durham Cathedral, purchased Europe's oldest intact book, the St Cuthbert Gospel, for the nation for £9 million. It is displayed equally in London and Durham, being shown at the university's Palace Green Library for the first time as part of the Lindisfarne Gospels Durham exhibition in 2013.[136][137][138]

In addition to the central library system, each College maintains its own library and reading rooms such as the Bettenson, Brewis, Williams and Fenton Libraries of St Chad's College, which contain over 38,000 volumes.[139] Many departments also maintain a library in addition to the subject collections in the central and college libraries. Readers are also entitled to use the theology library housed by Durham Cathedral in its cloister.

In February 2017, the university announced a £2 million investment to establish a residential research library at Ushaw College. This would be the first residential research library at a UK university, and would offer researchers access to the collections of Ushaw College and Durham Cathedral as well as the university's special collections at the Palace Green Library. It is planned that visiting researchers would also participate in the public engagement programme at Ushaw.[124]

Museums

The Old Fulling Mill, original home of the Durham University Museum in 1833, on the bank of the River Wear below Durham Cathedral
The university's Museums, Galleries and Exhibitions manages three museums open to the public, all accredited by Arts Council England through the UK Museum Accreditation Scheme, as well as two non-public collections. Total holdings are over 100,000 pieces.[140][141]

Built in the 1960s, the Durham University Oriental Museum grew predominantly from the acquisitions of the university's former School of Oriental Studies.[142] Initially housed across the university and used as a teaching collection, the size of the collection led to the building of the current museum to house the material.[142] The collection to date contains over 30,000 objects from Asian art to antiquities, covering the Orient and Levant to the Far East and the Indian Sub-continent, with over a third of the collection relating to China.[142][143] The Chinese and Egyptian collections were granted Designated Status as collections of national importance by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council in 2008.[143][144][145]

The Durham University Museum of Archaeology moved to Palace Green in 2014, having previously been housed in the Old Fulling Mill on the banks of the Wear. The museum was opened in 1833, being the second university museum in England to allow admittance to the general public.[146] The museum focuses on the heritage of North East England and includes national and international collections spanning the Prehistoric, Ancient Greek, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Medieval and Post Medieval periods.[147]

Durham Castle Museum has around 5,000 pieces from the history of the castle, including suits of armour, tapestries, silverware and art.[148]

In addition to the three public museums, the university also holds a biosciences collection[149] and an art collection.[150]

Chapels, prayer rooms and other faith resources
There are Anglican chapels at many of the colleges, including the 11th century Norman Chapel in University College[151] and the art deco chapel in Hild Bede College.[152] There are also multi-faith rooms at St Aidan's College,[153] Trevelyan College,[154] and in the hub building shared by John Snow and South colleges.[155] Muslim prayer rooms are located in Old Elvet and at Grey College.[156] There is a kosher kitchen in St Aidan's College which supports Jewish Sabbath meals and other festivals.[153]

Environmental initiatives

A path through the Great High Wood, an ancient woodland on the university campus
Durham has committed to reaching Net Zero by 2035 and to achieving a net biodiversity gain on campus by 2032.[157] The university joined the Hedgehog Friendly Campus campaign in 2020, receiving silver accreditation in 2021/22 and gold accreditation in 2022/23,[158] before becoming one of only six universities with the highest level platinum accreditation in 2024.[159] It was a founding member of the Nature Positive Universities Alliance in 2022.[160] Actions taken to enhance biodiversity have included converting 9 hectares (22 acres) of lawns to grassland and enriching 4 hectares (10 acres) of land in the botanic garden to increase wildflower diversity.[159]

The green initiatives at the university and its rise in two years from 96th (3rd class) to 30th in the People and Planet University League (between 2019 and 2021) have been noted in the national press.[161] In the 2023/24 table, it is ranked 26th (1st class).[162] Internationally, the university was ranked 19th globally for sustainability in the QS World University Rankings: Sustainability 2024[163] and joint 36th globally in the 2024 Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals.[164]

​