Student life

At Durham University we want you to be able to excel academically but we recognise that academic success is only half the story.

To help you really make the most of your experience with us and develop a broad range of skills to equip you for your future career and life, we provide a huge variety of extra-curricular activities in both Durham City and Queen's Campus. We encourage you to get involved, either through your college or at University-level, in whatever you are interested in so that you can develop skills and experiences far beyond the walls of the lecture theatres.

There are endless opportunities and activities for getting involved. Whether you want to volunteer for charity work, stage a play, sing in a choir, or captain a college sports team, you will find many opportunities for joining in, mixing with different people and simply trying something new. By trying out new activities you might even find that you develop a passion for something you had never even considered before! And if joining a club or society at University-level seems a bit daunting, you can get involved in many of the activities in the smaller setting of your college instead.

Durham Student's Union

Your Durham Students’ Union (DSU) supports over 150 different societies and clubs, which are as varied as the Chocolate Society, the Freefall Society and the Eurovision Society as well as the more regular clubs and societies in sports, music, theatre, outreach and voluntary work. And if there isn't something that you're interested in then you can always start a new society!

Durham Students' Union (DSU) is the University's central Student Union under the 1994 Education Act and is the representative body for all the students of the University.

All students are automatically a member of DSU unless they choose to opt out of Union membership. Opting out is a right which all students have under the 1994 Education Act and students who exercise this right should not be unfairly disadvantaged with regard to the provision of services or otherwise by reason of their having opted out. Information about the implications of opting out and the process to follow is available on the DSU website.