News

University plans a 16th college in expansion of student accommodation

(26 November 2002)

The University of Durham is preparing to build a new college in the city as part of its plans to increase student accommodation.

It is currently working on proposals, endorsed today by the University's Senate, to add more than 600 study-bedrooms to its total stock, including a new undergraduate college and extra rooms for postgraduates.

It follows the creation of two colleges at the University's Queen's Campus, Stockton last year and is the first new college in the city of Durham since 1972.

The expansion, to be undertaken as a Public Private Partnership, is designed to cope with the University's marked success in attracting more students over the past decade. Numbers have risen by 26 per cent to around 10,000 in Durham since 1994, with only a small increase in residential places. As a distinctive feature, all rooms will be let on a self-catering basis, which offers new students an alternative to the full-board arrangements at traditional Durham colleges.

The new college will be built on the Howlands site, off South Road, close to the existing Collingwood College (opened 1972) and Van Mildert College (1965). The site already has full planning permission for about 800 bed spaces, of which only 191 have so far been built and are used by postgraduate students.

As part of the overall accommodation plan, the University will knock down old 1960s postgraduate residential blocks at Parson's Field, near the Racecourse sportsground, and replace them with new facilities for 350 students - an increase of 60.

Under the proposal, a developer will build and manage the accommodation, but the University will establish a team of college staff and student officers to run the social, welfare and community aspects of college life along similar lines to the rest of the Durham system. Invitations to negotiate for the contract have now been sent out so that construction can begin next summer, and the first students move into the new College in October 2004.

Vice-Chancellor Sir Kenneth Calman said: "This is a milestone development for the University. Together with our two colleges at Queen's Campus, this represents the largest boost to student accommodation in the university for 40 years." (PR1063)