|
The strong tradition of theological teaching in Durham gave rise various attempts to form a university there, notably under King Henry VIII and Oliver Cromwell, who issued letters patent and nominated a proctor and fellows for the establishment of a college in 1657.[16] However, there was deep concern expressed by Oxford and Cambridge that the awarding of degree powers could hinder their position.[17] Indeed were it not for the "sheltered" position of Oxbridge, the university system in the UK would perhaps look very different today. 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" to fund a new university, that the university actually came into being. The act received Royal Assent from King William IV and became law on 4 July 1832. The university's Royal Charter was granted on 1 June 1837 by King William IV, with the first students graduating a week later.[17] Accommodation was provided in the Archdeacon's Inn 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 the bishop's palace) as a college of the university.[17] 19th century An examination taking place in Cosin's Library, 1842 In 1846, Bishop Hatfield's Hall (later to become Hatfield College) was founded, providing for the opportunity for students to obtain affordable lodgings with fully catered communal eating. Those attending University College were expected to bring a servant with them to deal with cooking, cleaning and so on. Elsewhere, the university expanded from Durham into Newcastle in 1852 when the medical school there (established in 1834) became a college of the University.[17] 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 to cater for non-resident students in Durham (although now mainly caters for resident students), while two teacher-training colleges – St Hild's for women, established in 1858, and The College of the Venerable Bede for men, established in 1839,[17] also existed in the city. These merged to form a mixed college (the 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. In 1842, the Durham Union Society was set up as a forum for debates, the first of which took place in the reading rooms in Hatfield Hall. It also served as the students' union (hence the name) until Durham Colleges Students' Representative Council was founded in 1899, thus separating into two independent bodies, the DSU and DUS (it was later renamed Durham Students' Union in 1963).[citation needed] For most of the 19th century, University of Durham degrees were subject to a religion test and could only be taken by members of the established church. This situation lasted until the Universities Tests Act 1871. However, "dissenters" were able to attend Durham and then receive degrees of the University of London, which were not subject to any religious test, on completing their course.[18] 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.[citation needed] 20th century 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, 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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] (The legacy of this lives on, in that the de facto head of the university is still called "The Vice-Chancellor and Warden".).[19] St John's College was founded in 1909 After World War II, the Durham division expanded rapidly. St Aidan's Society (St Aidan's College from 1965) was founded in 1947 to cater for non-resident women and the decision was made to expand onto Elvet Hill, vastly expanding the existing pure science provision in Durham, and adding applied science and engineering.[citation needed] In 1947, the foundation stones for the new St Mary's College building on Elvet Hill were laid by the Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II).[citation needed] The new building opened in 1952, and is said to be the last government funded university building to have been built in stone.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] By this time, the Elvet Hill site was well established, with the first of the new colleges, Grey College (named after the second Earl Grey, who was the Prime Minister when the university was founded) being founded in 1959. 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).[citation needed] The lawn at St Mary's College, one of the first Elvet Hill colleges 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. By 1990, the last male-only college became mixed, leaving St Mary's as the last single-sex college.[citation needed] Queen's Campus, Stockton In 1992, 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. This 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 Durham took full control of the new college in 1994.[clarification needed] A programme of integration with Durham began, however the college was renamed University College, Stockton (UCS) in 1992 – a college of the University of Durham. Further integration led to the campus being renamed the University of Durham, Stockton Campus (UDSC) in 1998, removing teaching responsibilities from the College. 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 (which operates in association with the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) took in its first students – the first medics to join Durham since 1963. In 2002, her golden jubilee year, the Queen granted the title "Queen's Campus" to the Stockton site.[citation needed] By 2005, Queen's Campus, Stockton, accounted for around 18% of the total university student population.[20] This is likely to increase in coming years thanks to future expansion plans. In 2007 the campus cafeteria, "The Waterside Room", was renovated and now serves as the campus student bar. In addition to this facility both colleges at the campus benefit from their own college bars, managed centrally however and not by their JCR. 2005 to present School of Government and International Affairs In 2005, the university unveiled a re-branded logotype and introduced the trading name of Durham University. However, the official name of the institution remains the University of Durham and the official coat of arms is unchanged.[3] In the last half of the 20th century, the number of students at the university has grown considerably, and continues to grow with the addition of Queen's Campus, Stockton. The more recent rises are in line with government policy of increasing access to higher education. In 1989 the university started its fund-raising and alumni office, with a virtual community for alumni[21] 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. In 2005, St Mary's College had its first mixed undergraduate intake.[citation needed] In October 2006, Josephine Butler College, a long-standing development, opened its doors to students as Durham's newest college - the only purpose-built self-catering college for students within Durham. This was the first new college to open in Durham itself since the 1970s, at the creation of Collingwood.[citation needed] The university's Department of Theology is partly housed in buildings on Dun Cow Lane In July 2009, Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister, announced a strategic partnership with Durham University, following Yale University and the National University of Singapore, to create a global network of twelve leading research universities for delivering his Faith and Globalization Initiative in association with Tony Blair Faith Foundation.[22] The relationship with the Blair Foundation was terminated at the university's request in 2012.[citation needed] In May 2010, Durham joined the Matariki Network of Universities (MNU) together with Dartmouth College (USA), Queen's University (Canada), University of Otago (New Zealand), University of Tübingen (Germany), University of Western Australia (Australia) and Uppsala University (Sweden).[23] In 2011, the University of Durham's ethical reputation was called into question by the revelation that a donation of £125,000 had been accepted from British American Tobacco despite the involvement of members of the university's department of anthropology, School of Applied Social Sciences and medical school in the tobacco control field. Criticised as being of dubious financial necessity and showing insensitivity to the surrounding population (Durham being in the North East, one of England's worst-afflicted regions as regards smoking-related ill health),[24] the controversy led to direct appeals to the then Chancellor Bill Bryson - to whose scheme for educating female Afghan students the donation had been made. The tobacco industry donation was not repaid. Campus Durham University owns a 227.8 hectare (ha) estate which includes part of a UNESCO world heritage site,[25] one ancient monument, five grade-one listed buildings and 68 grade two-listed buildings along with 44.9 ha of woodland.[26] The estate is divided across two separate locations: Durham City and Queen's Campus, Stockton. The two locations are connected via a free bus service that runs frequently throughout the week. One of the major public attractions in Durham City is the 7.3 ha Botanic Gardens, established in 1970, with over 78,000 visitors (2007/08).[27][28] Durham City The former home of the University's administration, Old Shire Hall Durham City is the main location of the university and contains 14 of the 16 colleges along with most of the academic departments. The Durham City estate is spread across several different sites. The Science site contains the vast majority of departments and large lecture theatres such as Appleby, Scarborough, James Duff, Heywood and more recently the Calman Learning Centre, along with the Bill Bryson library.[29] Mountjoy contains the Psychology and Biological & Biomedical schools, along with various research centres. The Old and New Elvet areas contains a number of departments in Humanities and Social Sciences including Philosophy, and Sociology. It was previously the site of the University's administration in Old Shire Hall, which has been housed in the new £48m Palatine Centre on Stockton Road from September 2012.[citation needed] Queen's Campus Queen's Campus was established in 1992 and is located in the town of Thornaby-on-Tees some 30 miles away from Durham City.[30] The Campus is home to around 2,000 full-time students, two residential colleges (John Snow and Stephenson Colleges) and the Wolfson Research Institute.[31] Currently a number of subjects can be studied at Queen's Campus: Medicine (shared with Newcastle University), Biomedical Sciences, Accounting, Business and Finance, Applied Psychology, Primary education and Human Sciences.[32] In 2007 the university purchased a 4-acre (16,000 m2) site on the North bank of Stockton and has plans to develop the academic structure at Queens and the possibility of a new college.[33][needs update] A bus line connects Queen's Campus to Durham City and a one-way journey usually takes 45 minutes.[30] Libraries The original university library is now known as the Palace Green Library The Durham University Library system holds over 1.5 million printed items.[34] The library was founded in January 1833 at Palace Green by a 160-volume donation by the then Bishop of Durham, William Van Mildert.[34] The library operates four branches: Bill Bryson Library (the main library), Education Library, Queen's Campus Library and the Palace Green Library which holds the special and heritage collections. The Bishop Cosin's Library contains medieval manuscripts and over 5,000 printed books, many early,[35] and the Sudan Archive ("the pre-eminent archive on the Sudan outside Khartoum"[35]) of the central library were granted Designation Status in 2005 by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.[35] In 2012 the University was part of a partnership with the British Library and Durham Cathedral to purchase Europe's oldest intact book, the St Cuthbert Gospel, for the nation for £9 million. It is planned to be on display in the Palace Green Library for a period from July 2013.[36] 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.[37] 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. Museums Durham University Museum of Archaeology The university manages a number of museums. Built in the 1960s the University's Oriental Museum grew predominantly from the acquisitions of the University's former School of Oriental Studies[38] 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.[38] 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 1/3 of the collection relating to China.[38][39] The national importance of the Chinese and Egyptian collections can been seen in the Designated Status from the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council achieved in 2008.[39][40][41] The Old Fulling Mill is the University's Museum of Archaeology. The museum was opened in 1833 being the second University museum in England to allow admittance to the general public.[42] The museum focuses on the heritage of the North East of England with collections spanning the prehistoric, to Ancient Greek and Roman to the Anglo Saxon periods, although the key collection is that of the Medieval & Post Medieval period.[43] Organisation and administration Academic year The academic year at Durham is divided into three terms: Michaelmas term, which lasts 10 weeks from October to December; Epiphany term, which lasts nine weeks from January to March; and Easter term, which lasts nine weeks from April to June. Within Michaelmas term, the academic week begins on a Thursday with lectures starting on the first Thursday of October and ending on a Wednesday. All other terms begin their academic week on a Monday. Internally the weeks are classed as "Durham Weeks" with the first week of Michaelmas starting at week 1.[citation needed] Students at the University are also expected to "Keep Term", whereby students must fulfil their academic requirements at the University. As such Heads of Departments must be satisfied that each student has attended all necessary tutorials, seminars and practical work throughout the term and vacation period.[44] Colleges Main article: Colleges of the University of Durham A view of the main building and lake at Van Mildert College in 1995 Durham operates a collegiate structure similar to that of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge, in that all the colleges at Durham are "listed bodies" under the Education Reform Act, 1988, "recognised by the UK authorities as being able to offer courses leading to a degree of a recognised body" (the "recognised body" being, in this case, the federal University).[45] Though most of the Durham colleges are governed and owned directly by the University itself, the status of the Durham colleges is similar to those and the constituent institutions of the University of Wales, setting Durham colleges apart from those at the universities of Kent, Lancaster, and York. However, unlike at Oxford, Cambridge, Wales, and London, there is no formal teaching at most Durham colleges (although St John's, St Chad's and Ushaw College have their own academic and research staff and offer college-based programmes in conjunction with the University). The colleges dominate the residential, social, sporting, and pastoral functions within the university, and there is heavy student involvement in their operation. Formal dinners (known as "formals") are held at nearly every college; gowns, the exact design of which varies depending on the college, are worn to these events at most colleges (the notable exceptions in Durham City are Van Mildert, Collingwood and Hild Bede).[citation needed] There is a great deal of intercollegiate rivalry, particularly in rowing and other sporting activities. There is also rivalry between the older colleges of the Bailey.[citation needed] The colleges are: Durham - Collingwood arms.png Collingwood College Durham - Grey arms.png Grey College Durham - Hatfield arms.png Hatfield College Durham - John Snow arms.png John Snow College Josephine Butler College Crest.png Josephine Butler College Durham - St Aidan's arms.png St Aidan's College Durham - St Chads arms.png St Chad's College Durham - St Cuthberts arms.png St Cuthbert's Society Durham - St Hild and Bede arms.png College of St Hild and St Bede Durham - St Johns arms.png St John's College Durham - St Marys arms.png St Mary's College Durham - George Stephenson arms.png Stephenson College Durham - Trevelyan arms.png Trevelyan College Durham - University College arms.png University College Durham - Ustinov arms.png Ustinov College Van Mildert Coll Durham shield.svg Van Mildert College Governance Main articles: List of Chancellors of the University of Durham and List of Vice-Chancellor & Wardens of the University of Durham Archdeacon Charles Thorp, founder and first Warden of Durham The University holds the powers to award degrees under the Royal Charter of 1837, extended to include the power to award degrees to women under the Supplementary Charter of 1895. However, the rules governing how the University is constituted are to be found in the Statutes put in place by the Universities of Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne Act, 1963, and subsequently amended by the Privy Council. The Statutes provide that: "The University shall be governed by a Visitor, Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Convocation, Council, Senate, and Boards of Studies."[citation needed] The Visitor for the University of Durham is the Bishop of Durham. The Visitor is the final arbiter of any dispute within the University, except in those areas where legislation has removed this to the law courts or other ombudsmen, or in matters internal to the two non-maintained colleges (St Chad's College and St John's College), each of which has its own Visitor. Student complaints and appeals were heard by the Visitor until the Higher Education Act 2004 came into force.[46] All student complaints are now heard by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education. The chancellor of the university is Sir Thomas Allen, who succeeded Bill Bryson in January 2012.[13] The current Vice-Chancellor is Chris Higgins, who is due to retire in September 2014.[47] The office of Chancellor, which is held for five years and renewable, is mainly ceremonial, while the Vice-Chancellor is de facto the principal academic and administrative officer. The university's graduation ceremonies take place in Durham Cathedral with receptions on Palace Green Convocation is the assembly of members of the University. It consists of the Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, and Pro-Vice-Chancellors, all graduates, the teaching staff (lecturers, senior lecturers, readers, and professors), and the heads of colleges and licensed halls of residence. It must meet once each year in order to hear the Vice-Chancellor's Address and to debate any business relating to the University. Further meetings can be called if representation is made by a minimum of 50 members. Its powers are limited to appointing the Chancellor (and even then, only on the nomination of Council and Senate) and the making of representations to the University on any business debated.[citation needed] Council is the executive body of the University. In addition to representatives from the University it includes 12 lay members (not being teachers or salaried staff in the University or any of its colleges), the Dean of Durham and the President of Durham Students' Union. Its powers include establishing and maintaining colleges, and recognising non-maintained colleges and licensed halls of residence. Senate is the supreme governing body of the University in academic matters. It nominates the Vice-Chancellor and Pro-Vice-Chancellors to Council, and recommends the establishment of Faculties and Boards of Studies. It is Senate that grants degrees, and has the authority to revoke them. It also regulates the use of academic dress of the university.[citation needed] Schools and faculties The teaching departments of the University are divided into three faculties: Science, Arts and Humanities, and Social Sciences and Health. Each faculty is headed by a Pro-Vice-Chancellor and one or more Deputies. These, along with the heads of the departments in the faculty and the Vice-Chancellor, make up the Faculty Board for that faculty. Each department also has a Board of Studies consisting of the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of their faculty, the teaching staff of the department, and student representatives.[citation needed] Natural Sciences is one of the largest degree programmes offered by the university.[citation needed] Faculty of Social Science & Health Department of Anthropology School of Applied Social Sciences Department of Archaeology Durham University Business School (Including the Economic, Finance and Business Departments) School of Education Department of Geography School of Government and International Affairs (Including the Politics Department and the Institute for Middle East and Islamic Studies) School of Medicine, Pharmacy and Health Durham Law School Faculty of Arts and Humanities Department of Classics & Ancient History Department of English Department of History School of Modern Languages and Cultures (Includes Arabic, French, German, Italian, Russian and Hispanic Studies Departments) Department of Music Department of Philosophy Department of Theology and Religion English Language Centre Faculty of Science School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences Department of Chemistry Department of Earth Sciences School of Engineering and Computing Sciences Department of Mathematical Science Department of Physics Department of Psychology Academic profile Admissions Cosin's Hall, home to the Institute of Advanced Study The average UCAS point score for each student was 490.8 points (2009/10)[48] which placed Durham University seventh in the country in terms of entrants' points in 2014.[49] Durham's student body consists of 11,409 undergraduates and 4,098 graduate students (2007/08).[50] Durham's demographic consists of 85.7% arriving from a middle and higher classes background which is the 5th highest result in the UK.[51] 47.27% of the undergraduate student body for 2007/2008 arrived from either a grammar school or independent school[52] 12.24% of full-time students are of ethnic minorities[53] and 51.32% are female.[54] For the undergraduate class of 2007, Durham received 29,712 applications,[55] of which 36.8% were from Independent schools[56] and 9.2% from ethnic minorities,[57] overall 32% of applicants were successful in receiving an offer of admissions.[55] Durham requires students applying for degrees in Law to sit the LNAT admission test[58] and the UKCAT for the MBBS in Medicine.[59] Durham also runs the Durham Gifted and Talented Summer School at Van Mildert College[60] and takes part in the Duke University TIP Summer Studies Programme as part of its widening access policy.[61] Since 1992 the university has also run a widening access programme, originally called the Centre for Lifelong Learning. The centre is now called the Foundation Centre, which delivers courses at both Durham City and Queens campus, Stockton on Tees. The centre provides access to Durham degrees for mature students who show academic promise but do not hold the traditional entry requirements and international students who require an extra year of study to bring them up to the standard expected. The Centre runs a range of courses which cover specific academic disciplines and key skills, in the year 2010–11 195 students were enrolled onto the programme.[citation needed] Research The University is part of the Russell Group, Virgo Consortium and the N8 Group of Universities. According to the latest Leiden Ranking 2011/2012 that measures the scientific performance of 500 major universities worldwide, Durham is placed among top 42 universities in the world in terms of impact of its scientific research (2005–2009).[62] Furthermore, Durham's Physics Department's research into Space Science and Astrophysics was rated as number one in Europe and fourth in the world by Thomson Reuters from its Essential Science Indicators (1998–2008).[63] Research institutes at the university include the Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World, the Durham Energy Institute, the Institute for Hazard and Risk Research, the Institute of Advanced Study, the International Boundaries Research Unit and the Institute for Computational Cosmology. Following the national Research Assessment Exercise (RAE 2008) by the UK government, The Times, Guardian and The Independent ranked Durham as joint-thirteenth by grade point average and twelfth by quality index across the thirty units of assessment it submitted.[64][65] The RAE results also rank Durham as the UK's top university with Archaeology, Geography, Theology & Divinity being ranked as first.[66] Over 60.9% of research was given a 4* (world leading) or 3* (internationally excellent) grading and 91.6% falling within the 4*, 3* and 2* (international quality) bands.[64] Additionally, Durham ranked 3rd amongst the members of the 1994 Group as one of the most research intensive Universities (when taking into account both the quality and volume of research activity at 4* and 3* grades).[67] Centre for Iranian Studies The Centre for Iranian Studies was founded in 1999 as a subsidiary research body of the Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Durham University.[68] In 2010 it was noted that the centre had commenced an official relationship with the Iranian government, using a "memorandum of understanding" to collaborate on exchange of faculty members and experts, joint research projects, activities and experiences, conferences, scientific meetings, educational workshops and joint book projects.[69] Rankings and reputation Rankings ARWU[70] (2013, world) 201-300 QS[71] (2013/14, world) 90 THE[72] (2013/14, world) 80 Complete[73] (2015, national) 5 The Guardian[74] (2015, national) 8 Times/Sunday Times[75] (2014, national) 6 According to the latest rankings of universities in the United Kingdom many courses of Durham University are among the best in the country with Education Studies, Engineering and History in particular being number 1 in the UK.[76][77] Durham is in the Top 3 Universities (including History, Education Studies and Engineering) for Archaeology, Anthropology, Chemistry, Economics, French, Geography, Iberian Languages, Italian, Performing Arts, Philosophy, Physics & Astronomy, Sports Science, Subjects Applied to Medicine, Theology & Religious Studies; Durham is in the Top 5 Universities (including former mentioned subjects) for Biological Sciences, English, Geology, German, Classics & Ancient History, Law, Mathematics, Middle Eastern & African Studies, Politics, Russian & East European Languages, Social Work, Sociology; Durham is in the Top 10 Universities (including former mentioned subjects) for Accounting & Finance, Asian Studies, Business Studies, Human & Social Geography, Linguistics, Music, Psychology. World rankings of universities have placed Durham as follows: The Times Higher Education World University Rankings place Durham 80 in the world in 2013. The QS World University Rankings place Durham 90 in the world in 2013. The Global University Ranking places Durham 70–71 in the world in 2009. The Academic Ranking of World Universities places Durham 201–300th in the world in 2013. The CWTS Leiden Ranking places Durham 63 in the world in 2013.[78] In April 2009 Durham University Business School joined a group of academic institutions worldwide which are accredited by the three major bodies – AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS.[79] In 2013, the MBA programme was ranked 72nd in the world by the Economist[80] along with the Masters in Finance and Management programmes being ranked 31st and 50th respectively by the Financial Times Masters Rankings.[81] Further, the Durham Global MBA was placed number 7 by the 2012/2013 QS Distance Online MBA Rankings [82] while the Executive MBA being ranked 49th in the world by the 2013 Economist EMBA Ranking.[82] Durham was ranked 11th overall in the Sunday Times University Guide's cumulative table over 10 years of study (1997–2007),[83] along with being a member of the 'Sutton 13' of top ranked Universities in the UK.[84] Durham is also one of the few to have won University Challenge more than once (1977 and 2000).[85] Durham is also ranked as the safest University in England with lowest crime across all universities.[86] Durham University was placed in the top 25 universities globally for employer reputation in a survey of 5,000 blue-chip companies around the world with regard to the quality of, and international demand for, its graduates.[87] Durham University (officially known as The University of Durham)[3] is a collegiate research university in Durham, North East England. It was founded by Act of Parliament in 1832 and granted a Royal Charter in 1837. It was one of the first universities to commence tuition in England for more than 600 years and has claim to be the third oldest university in England.[4][5] Durham University has a unique estate, which includes 63 listed buildings, ranging from the 11th-century Castle to a 1930s Art Deco Chapel. The university also owns and manages the World Heritage Site in partnership with Durham Cathedral. The university's ownership of the World Heritage Site includes Durham Castle (which is a residence for students who are members of University College), Palace Green, and the surrounding buildings including the historic Cosin's Library. As a collegiate university, its main functions are divided between the academic departments of the university and 16 colleges. In general, the departments perform research and provide lectures to students, while the colleges are responsible for the domestic arrangements and welfare of undergraduate students, graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and some university staff. The university is currently ranked 5th or 6th by all the latest league tables of the British universities.[6] "Long established as the leading alternative to Oxford and Cambridge", the university attracts "a largely middle class student body" according to The Times's Good University Guide.[7] Durham has the second highest proportion of privately educated students as well as the best quality of student life in the country according to the Lloyds Bank rankings.[8][9] The university was named Sunday Times University of the Year in 2005, having previously been shortlisted for the award in 2004.[10] Current academics include 15 Fellows of the Royal Society, 18 Fellows of the British Academy, 16 Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences, 2 Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering and 2 Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences.[11] The university is a member of the Russell Group of UK universities[12] after previously being a member of the 1994 Group. Durham is also affiliated with several university groups including the N8 Research Partnership and the Matariki Network of Universities. The chancellor of the university is Sir Thomas Allen, who succeeded Bill Bryson in January 2012.[13] The post-nominal letters of graduates have Dunelm (the Latin abbreviation for Durham) attached to indicate the university. |
About us|Jobs|Help|Disclaimer|Advertising services|Contact us|Sign in|Website map|Search|
GMT+8, 2015-9-11 21:04 , Processed in 0.139540 second(s), 16 queries .
