Colleges of Durham University

The Colleges of Durham University are residential colleges that are the primary source of accommodation and support services for undergraduates and postgraduates at Durham University, as well as providing a focus for social, cultural and sporting life for their members, and offering bursaries and scholarships to students. They also provide funding and/or accommodation for some of the research posts in the University. All students at the University are required to be members of one of the colleges.
Durham University has 17 colleges, of which University College is the oldest, founded in 1832. The newest college is South, founded in 2020. The last single-sex college, St Mary's, became mixed in 2005 with the admittance of male undergraduates. One college, Ustinov, admits only postgraduates.

Colleges

Durham operates a collegiate structure similar to that of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge, in that all colleges at Durham, being constituent colleges of a "recognised body", are "listed bodies" in the Education Order 2013 made under the Education Reform Act 1988. The "recognised body" in this case is Durham University.
Though most of the Durham colleges are governed and owned directly by the University itself, and so do not enjoy the independence of colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, the status of the Durham colleges is similar to those in Oxford and Cambridge, setting Durham colleges apart from those at the universities of Kent, Lancaster, and York. However, unlike at Oxford and Cambridge, there is no formal teaching at most Durham colleges. The colleges dominate the residential, social, sporting, and pastoral functions within the university, and there is heavy student involvement in their operation.
Formal dinners are held at many colleges; gowns are often worn to these events. 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 and the newer colleges of the Hill.

Types of college

The university is collegiate in structure. There are two different sorts of college: maintained colleges and societies, and recognised colleges. There were previously also licensed halls of residence, and affiliated colleges.

Maintained colleges are governed directly by, and are financially dependent on, the university. Their principals are appointed by the university council and their staff are employed by the university.
Recognised colleges are 'recognised' as colleges of the University but are incorporated as separate institutions. They are governed, financed and managed independently of the university and are educational charities in their own right. However, as a condition of their ongoing recognition by the university, the university council must approve the appointment of their principals and be notified of changes to their constitutions.
Licensed halls of residence were, unlike recognised colleges, not recognised as colleges of the university, and their principals were only ex officio members of senate if the hall had 25 or more matriculated students in residence. Under the former statute 14, council might recognise any college within County Durham as a licensed hall of residence; Ushaw College and [|Neville's Cross College] were both licensed halls of residence of the university. The regulations as to the approval of principals and changes to their constitutions applied to licensed halls in the same way as to recognised colleges.
Affiliated colleges were treated under the former statute 39, rather than under the former statutes 14 & 15 like the other colleges. This stated that council might, on the recommendation of Senate, recognise any college as an affiliated college. Previous affiliated colleges included Codrington College in Barbados, Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone, and Sunderland Technical College. Affiliated colleges were not generally considered part of the collegiate structure of the university.

The university validates degrees at other colleges not recognised under any of the above categories. Current arrangements include the validation of the Church of England's Common Award at a number of theological colleges. The Royal Academy of Dance also used to teach courses leading to degrees validated by Durham.

Hill and Bailey

Most colleges can be classified into two groups: Bailey colleges, located on Durham's peninsula around Durham Cathedral, and Hill colleges on Elvet Hill on the other side of the river.
The five Bailey colleges are located in historic buildings on The Bailey, the peninsula around the castle and cathedral that forms the historic centre of Durham. They include most of the older colleges of the university.
The Hill colleges are located in purpose-built buildings on Elvet Hill to the south of the city, close to the Mountjoy site which houses most of the university's departments and central facilities. The first hill college was St Mary's, which moved in 1952 from the Bailey. All new colleges founded in Durham since then have been on Elvet Hill, and as of 2020 it houses eight colleges, with two more under construction.
Two colleges do not fit into this grouping: the College of St Hild and St Bede, formed in 1975 as a merger of two Victorian teacher training colleges, is located along with the Education Department on Gilesgate, on the opposite side of Durham from Elvet Hill. Ustinov College, the university's sole postgraduate-only college, is based at Sheraton Park on the same side of the city as Elvet Hill but further from the city centre, which was formerly the home of Neville's Cross College.
Some colleges also have accommodation in other parts of the city, most notably St Cuthbert's Society, which has its headquarters on the Bailey but its largest accommodation blocks at the end of Old Elvet, across the river from St Hild and St Bede.

Planned colleges

The university announced in 2017 its intention to build four to six new colleges by 2027.
The first of these, South College, opened in 2020 on the Mount Oswald site, alongside a new home for John Snow College which relocated from Queen's Campus in 2018.
In 2023, the university announced that it planned to work with the owners of Rushford Court, a private hall of residence, to equip the site with college facilities, to serve as a temporary home for the College of St Hild and St Bede during renovation of its own site, then to become the university's eighteenth college once Hild Bede returned to its own buildings. In May 2024, the university also announced the building of Durham's 19th college, scheduled to start in 2025 neighbouring Hild Bede.

College architecture

The colleges built on Elvet Hill each have their own distinctive architecture. The first college built in the area, St Mary's in 1952, was designed by Vincent Harris and has been described as both neo-Georgian and domestic-classical. It set a "colleges-in-a-green-landscape" tone that was followed by the other hill colleges, even while their architectural styles varied widely. The next, Grey College was designed by T. Worthington of Thomas Worthington and Sons. It was built of brick in a domestic Georgian style, and has been called the most architecturally disappointing of the post-war colleges, looking like "a mature suburban housing estate". After this, the remainder of the postwar colleges were built in a variety of modernist styles.
The architect for the concrete St Aidan's College was Sir Basil Spence; the original design called for the brutalist dining hall to be balanced by a chapel, but this was never built. Van Mildert College by Middleton, Fletcher and Partners follows a "conventional modern idiom" with a formal layout around the lake, serrated blocks and cloistered walks. Collingwood College was designed in a functionalist style in brown brick by Sir Richard Sheppard, and shows similarities to his more famous work at Churchill College, Cambridge, but with less ambition and expense. Another, very different, example of functionalist architecture is found at Trevelyan College, where its hexagonal forms, designed by Stillman and Eastwick-Field, won a Civic Trust Award in 1968.
Away from the hill, Hild Bede has a variety of different architectural styles on the Leazes Road site. These include the neo Tudor buildings of Bede College, originally built in 1838, and the former model school, the gothic revival St Hild building from 1858, and the grade II listed art deco Chapel of the Venerable Bede from 1939 by Seely & Paget. Rushford Court, the former County Hospital, is also neo Tudor, built in 1850 to resemble an Elizabethan house.

List of colleges

Since 2018, when university teaching at the university's campus in Stockton-on-Tees finished, all colleges have been located in Durham city.
The student numbers in the table below are up to date for the 2010/11 year.
''U = Undergraduates, P = Postgraduates, F = Female, M = Male''

College arms and colours

Each college and societies of the university has its own arms, although in some cases, these were assumed, and later confirmed by the College of Arms. From its foundation until 1954, Hatfield College have its arms assumed from that of Thomas Hatfield, and its display, including the use of Bishop Hatfield's shield, was both inappropriate and illegal. Consequently, it sought a grant of its own from the College of Arms, which was approved. The blazons below are taken from Durham University Statutes and Regulations.
Each college also has its own colours used on items such as scarves and rowing blades.

College	Arms	Blazon	Scarf	Blades
Collingwood College		Argent a Chevron between three Stags' Heads erased Sable a Bordure Gules charged with eight Crosses of St Cuthbert of the field.
Grey College		Gules a Scaling Ladder in bend Argent between two St Cuthbert's Crosses proper.
Hatfield College		Azure a Chevron Or between three Lions rampant Argent a Bordure Ermine.
John Snow College		Argent a Cross formy quadrate azure, a chief azure thereon a Yorkshire rose argent between two lions rampant Or.
Josephine Butler College		Gules on a chevron Or charged with a Cross formy, with cotises invected, between in chief two lions Argent and in base an open book charged with two covered cups.
South College		Purpure between an Owl Close Guardant and a Cross Formy Quadrate both Argent a pile inverted conjoined with an orle of the second charged with a Torch enflamed of the first.		White with a violet, grey and teal stripe
St Aidan's College		Per chevron Argent and Sable in chief two ancient Northumbrian Crosses Gules in base two Keys in saltire wards upwards of the first.
St Chad's College		Vert a Cross potent quadrate Or in chief a Durham Mitre of the last between two Lions rampant Argent.
St Cuthbert's Society		Vert a representation of St Cuthbert's Cross proper a Bordure Argent.
College of St Hild and St Bede		Argent on a Chevron Purpure three Ammonites of the first in base a Cross paty quadrate Gules a Chief Azure thereon between two Lions rampant Or a pale of the last charged with a Cross patonce also Azure.
St John's College		Quarterly Argent and Azure in the first and fourth a Cross Formy Quadrate Gules in the second an Eagle wings elevated and inverted Or in the third a Lion rampant Crowned with an Ancient Crown of the last all within a Bordure quarterly of the second and Gold.
St Mary's College		Argent a Cross Formy Quadrate Gules a Chief Azure thereon a Durham Mitre Or between two Lilies proper.
Stephenson College		Argent a chevron between two fleurs-de-lis in chief and a cross fleurettée in gules a chief gules theoreon three lions rampant argent.
Trevelyan College		Gules issuant from Water in base barry wavy of four Argent and Azure a Demi-Horse forcene Or in chief three Saint Cuthbert's crosses Argent.
University College		Azure a Cross patonce Or between four Lions rampant Argent on a Chief of the last a Cross of St Cuthbert Sable between two Durham Mitres Gules.
Ustinov College		Ermine a Cross formy quadrate Gules on a Chief indented Sable between three Lions rampant Argent two Lozenges Or.
Van Mildert College		Gules two Scythe blades in saltire in chief the Cross of St Cuthbert Argent.