St Mary's College

Accommodation

A St Mary's bedroom

The College provides accommodation for women and men undergraduates, some on mixed corridors, some on segregated corridors. Most of the bathrooms and toilets are segregated. All undergraduate students are required to live in College during their first year. Accommodation in College is guaranteed for two years, though a small number of students live in College for all three years of their degree course, including some international students.

A St Mary's landing

At any one time about half our student members live in College full-board accommodation, the others live in privately rented accommodation in Durham City. A typical breakdown of those students living in College shows 315 full-time undergraduates and 28 full-time postgraduates (2009/10 figures).

There is a scrupulously fair Room Ballot which is conducted by the Vice-President of the Junior Common Room (JCR) in close liaison with the Vice-Principal & Senior Tutor, Dr Gillian Boughton. First year students change rooms every term. The Room Ballot ensures that those first years who share a room in their first term have a first choice of a single room or more control over where they live in their second and third terms.

Room Exchange Scheme with Teikyo University

St Mary's is one of two Durham Colleges that operate a room exchange scheme with the branch campus of Teikyo University (Japan); there are two contemporary halls of study bedrooms adjoining the St Mary's College site. This scheme provides an option which is open to all St Mary's students of any year while they are resident in College. It provides an opportunity to live with Japanese students who typically spend one year of study at the Teikyo University campus in Durham. For those students who are in the scheme, meals are still taken in St Mary's.

Licence Agreement

All students living in College - undergraduates and postgraduates - are required to sign an Licence Agreement before they enter College at the start of the academic year (October).

In keeping with University Policy, smoking is not allowed in any of St Mary's College buildings. This includes all entrances at the front and rear of the buildings and any steps leading to entrances. Three designated smoking areas are provided across the College. These are the benches on the lawn near the cloisters, behind the kitchen area near the West Court car park, and the bench at the North East of the Williamson building near to the College tennis court.