Each of our departments or schools offers undergraduate degrees. To investigate the courses in detail it is best to visit each dedicated department or school website. A summary of the undergraduate courses is presented below listed by department.     

Single Honours Degree Programmes

We offer a range of flexible and challenging courses designed with the twenty-first-century student in mind. We have three Single Honours courses, which have a common first year intended to emphasise the unity of the subject. The core of the Classics course is language, although how much language is studied and at what level depends upon the individual student. The course caters for those entering with A-levels in Greek and/or Latin, but it is also open to those who wish to study  one or both of these languages from beginners' level.

In the Ancient History and Classical Past courses, language is optional. The core of the Ancient History course is political history, which looks not only at what happened, but why it happened and how we are in a position to know about and to judge the events in question.  The core of the Classical Past is the cultural and intellectual history of Greece and Rome, with special emphasis on the theme of memory and the way in which the Greeks and the Romans regarded their own past.

• Ancient History
• Classical Past
• Classics

Joint Honours Degree Programmes 

We also participate in offering two joint degrees: Ancient History and Archaeology and Ancient, Medieval and Modern History. These cater for students who wish to combine Ancient History with a related subject. Students who wish to combine study of the classical world with other subjects will find opportunities to do so under the Combined Honours programme.

• Ancient History and Archaeology
• Ancient, Medieval and Modern History

Click on the course in which you are interested to see the programme structure. Please note that this information may change as courses develop and you should therefore treat it as a guide to the typical pattern of the programme rather than a definitive statement of what you will study.

*This degree can also be taken on a part-time basis

Contact Admissions Secretary, T 0191 334 2576. Please see Department of English Studies homepage for further information.

History at Durham provides you with the opportunity to build your own degree within a carefully thought out framework delivered by experts in their fields. Currently, there is one single honours degree and three joint honours degrees with Ancient History, English and Modern European Languages.

We believe that if you take a single honours degree in History you should be familiar with the major chronological periods - Medieval, Early Modern, Late Modern - and with both the British and the European experience. You should also be able to reflect on the ways in which historians have approached their study of the past. For Joint Honours and Combined Honours students these requirements are relaxed, as you achieve range by studying more than one subject.

The modules available in History in the first or preliminary year introduce students to the great variety of ways in which the past can be studied. They extend in chronology from AD 300 to the present, and cover political, religious, cultural, social, economic, diplomatic, imperial and intellectual history. Overall, over the three (four for those with a language) years of a History degree in Durham - single or joint - you will be offered the opportunity of experiencing different periods and themes and of studying at different levels, both general and specialist, and of undertaking work on a subject of your own choice through a dissertation. It is this total package that constitutes a History degree at Durham, not any particular component.

The degree programme at Durham involves six modules per annum, or their equivalent (eg 3 double modules). This structure provides you with the opportunity to take modules outside your main department, so that in a single honours History degree you can include subjects offered by other departments, such as Ancient History, the history of music or of medicine. You can also take modules in traditional disciplines such as a modern European language or non-school subjects such as Anthropology. You have to pass all the six modules in the first year, including those taken outside the department, in order to progress to the second year of study. In the second and third year, you will again take six modules (or equivalent) in each year and the class of your degree is determined by the marks awarded for these 12 modules.

Click here for information on course content.

This section of the site provides detailed information about the course of study leading to a degree in Modern Languages at Durham University. It tells you which languages you can study, how you can combine them to make up a degree programme, and what modules are available in each language.

Durham offers you a uniquely flexible course in languages:

• You will be able to study one, two or three languages out of the six major languages that we offer
• You have the opportunity to begin a new language in the first year
• You will be able to change your combination of languages and the amount of time that you spend on each of them as you proceed from year to year.
• Within the language programmes there is a wide range of topics for you to choose from. You can, for example, organise your studies so as to concentrate primarily on improving your language skills across three languages, or you can make choices that will enable you to explore the literature and culture of one country in great detail
• Whichever pathway you choose, you will gain expertise in a wide range of skills: writing and speaking, intercultural mediation, research procedures, processing and presenting information, and many more
• You will have considerable freedom in deciding how to spend your year abroad, providing that you spend some time in a suitable country for each of the languages you intend to study in your final year
• Graduates from the School are among the most employable in the UK and they go on to very interesting and responsible positions in a range of careers

The School also offers degree programmes in the following related subjects:

• BA in Chinese Studies over four years, including a Year Abroad studying in China
• BA in Modern Languages and History, a joint honours programme taught in collaboration with the Department of History
• BA in Combined Honours in Arts and Social Sciences, in collaboration with a range of Departments across the University

There will certainly be questions you will want to ask. Please take advantage of Open Days and opportunities to visit the School, or contact us direct.

The School of Modern Languages and Cultures

The School comprises the following departments:

• Arabic
• French
• German
• Italian
• Russian
• Hispanic Studies

The School is one of the largest sections of the University. There are 35 full-time academic staff, about 32 language assistants and part-time teachers, and 7 support staff. In total at any one time there are approximately 1000 students taking courses in the School, about 600 of them studying for the BA in Modern Languages.

The School is located in Elvet Riverside, a group of modern university buildings situated on the bank of the River Wear between the ancient Elvet Bridge and the new Kingsgate footbridge, and within easy walking distance of the Colleges, the Cathedral and the Market Place. All lectures, classes and tutorials take place in Elvet Riverside, which also houses language laboratories, computer classrooms and a large study area. There are satellite and video facilities for viewing and recording television programmes in all the major languages taught in the School.

The University's English Language Centre, which has computer, video and audio resources to support the Modern Languages courses, as well as facilities for learning other languages, is housed in the same building, and Modern Languages students have privileged access to all its facilities.

All the language departments in the School have their own student societies, which arrange excursions, invite speakers, produce plays, show films, hold parties and run other social events. There are also many college and university clubs and societies catering for all kinds of interests. Durham itself is a small cathedral city, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne with the shopping centres, cinemas, theatres, discos and other facilities of a large urban centre is less than twenty minutes away by train.

How to apply for entry to Durham University

Durham is a collegiate university, which means that in order to enter the University you have to be offered both an academic place by the relevant Department(s) and a residential place by a College. Some students live in lodgings in later years; but their first year is usually spent in residence.

For further information on Colleges, see the University Prospectus. You may specify a choice of college on your UCAS form (although you should note we cannot guarantee that this will be the college that will make the offer), or you can leave it to the Admissions Tutor to direct your application to a college for you. All colleges take students in Modern Languages. Most offers are made without interview and the applicant is then invited to come to Durham to visit the Departments and the College at an Open Day.

As one of the leading centres for the study of music in Britain we have an international reputation for the quality of our teaching. Our department attracts talented and highly motivated students from all over the UK and abroad, who make up our friendly and vibrant undergraduate community. Students engage in a wide variety of practical music making both in their degree course and outside, in ensembles ranging from orchestras, chamber groups and choirs to a Javanese gamelan and Korean percussion group.

Music at Durham covers everything from the music of the great composers to contemporary music and Indian ragas, studied from the perspectives of history, theory, aesthetics and ethnography as well as through composition and performance. Our BA combines a focus on core skills with the chance to choose between diverse specialisms in years two and three. A completely redesigned curriculum, to be introduced from October 2012, builds on our traditional strengths with an even greater emphasis on fostering independent and creative thinking, and on developing the skills that will give you a unique advantage in your future employment.

We aim:

• to deepen your knowledge of music from different cultures and historical periods
• to foster disciplined and critical thinking and to develop valuable skills in defining and solving problems, in working both independently and with colleagues, and in written and oral communication
• to provide you with opportunities to explore different aspects of music (including musicology, performance and composition) in depth, to prepare you to more specialist higher-level study.

Please click on one of these links for more information about:

• The different types of degree you can take with Music
• Programme structure and course content
• Departmental facilities and support
• Entry requirements
• Durham University's Supported Progression scheme (Music will join this scheme in September 2011)
• Fees and funding
• How to apply
• Open days
• Extracurricular musical activities
• Durham Cathedral and Organ scholarships
• Undergraduate scholarships

This most ancient and fascinating of intellectual disciplines is fundamental to our understanding of what it is to be human.

Philosophy is an ancient discipline which studies the most fundamental questions that arise in all areas of human concern, from religion and politics, to morality and the sciences.

In studying philosophy at Durham, you will learn as much about how to think about difficult questions, as you will learn about the answers that can be given to them. You will be equipped for life with an ability to detect bad argument, whether in politics, in the media, or in discussion with the people you live and work with, and an ability to produce better arguments of your own.

Click on the course in which you are interested to see the programme structure. Please note that this information may change as courses develop and you should therefore treat it as a guide to the typical pattern of the programme rather than a definitive statement of what you will study.

Contact Dr Andy Hamilton, Admissions Tutor at philosophy.department@durham.ac.uk
Department of Philosophy home page

Durham's Department of Theology and Religion offers undergraduate teaching of the highest quality in the fields of Biblical studies, historical and systematic theology, Jewish studies and the study of religion. Biblical and ancient languages are offered at all levels. The undergraduate curriculum is organised to give students a strong and broad foundation, but also the flexibility to specialise in their own areas of interest. All staff are leaders in their respective fields of research, and students are introduced to cutting-edge ideas within the context of their studies.

• Undergraduate Handbook 2012-13 (.pdf) (last modified: 27 September 2012)

B.A. Theology and Philosophy

This is a joint honours degree in Theology and Philosophy, achieved over three years. Students take modules run by the Theology and Philosophy Departments.
Standard Offer: AAA

Those with particular interests in philosophy of religion and ethics should consider applying for a single honours degree in Theology and Religion whilst those interested in a wider range of areas in philosophy should consider a joint honours degree. (The Department's list of modules shows how much is available in Philosophy of Religion and Ethics within the single honours Degree.)

B.A. Theology (European Studies)

This is a single honours degree in Theology, over four years. One year (usually the third year) is spent in one of our partner universities, currently Helsinki (Finland), Iasi (Romania), Oslo (Norway), University of Iceland (Reykjavik), Tübingen (Germany) and Uppsala (Sweden).
Standard Offer: AAB