Frequently Asked Questions

The Student Recruitment and Admissions Office is responsible for managing the admissions process within Durham University for full and part time undergraduate courses. Academic Departments are responsible for considering each application and making offers and passing successful applications to one of the sixteen colleges for consideration, whilst the Student Recruitment and Admissions Office ensures that this process occurs as fairly and as transparently as possible and that decisions are communicated to UCAS within agreed deadlines.

The questions below have all been asked by our applicants or their parents at one time or another, and are intended to provide further information regarding the application process, some of our requirements, our collegiate system, the University and life as a student.

If you find that your query is not addressed or if you have any specific questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Student Recruitment and Admissions Team directly. Our email address is admissions@durham.ac.uk.

List of FAQs

What do I need to include in my personal statement?

We believe this is a crucial part of the UCAS application. Many of our departments do not hold interviews and our Admissions Selectors rely on the information given in the personal statement to differentiate between strong applicants who hold similar qualifications, have similar predictions and a strong reference, when deciding whether to make an offer. It is your opportunity to tell us why you are applying, why you have chosen your programme of study, what you have done to demonstrate that you are committed to the subject and what makes you an interesting individual who would fit into life at Durham. The personal statement is your opportunity to personalise your application and it is very important that you take time to prepare it well. We provide further advice on what our selectors look for in your personal statement. It is worth noting that the personal statement must be written by you and not copied from another source. Plagiarism software is becoming increasingly sophisticated at detecting work that is not original, and we will take any incidents of plagiarism very seriously.

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