Learning and teaching

Read for a degree at Durham University and you'll have the opportunity to be among the best staff and students in your chosen subject - whether that's in arts and humanities, sciences, social sciences or health. With 25 departments and more than 200 undergraduate study programmes, our teaching and research are admired both nationally and internationally.

As one of the UK's leading institutions and a top 100 university in the world, research-led teaching is at the core of Durham University. It shapes and inspires our approach to the content of our programmes, the academic staff that we appoint, and how we teach. Our distinctive approach to research-led teaching ensures that our programmes are up to date and intellectually stimulating and our students become an integral part of academic communities of practice. It also helps explain why Durham is ranked 15th globally for the quality and demand of our graduates.

Our most recent Quality Assurance Agency audit specifically commended 'the University's comprehensive approach to defining and developing research-led teaching' and the 'deliberate coordination of academic and pastoral support for students'.

Teaching by experts

One of the aspects which makes Durham different is our approach to teaching and research, and the intrinsic link between the two.

• Around 90% of our staff are carrying out research that is of international significance.
• Our research-led approach to teaching ensures that your academic studies are up to date, modern and stimulating. You'll have access to some of the world's finest academic minds and be taught by leaders in their fields.
• Our academic and college staff work together to ensure that 97% of students successfully complete their degree - the UK's third highest completion rate!

Highly rated

The teaching in all of our departments has been approved by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), which assesses academic standards and quality in every English university. The most recent QAA audit concluded that ‘broad confidence can be placed in the soundness of the University's current and likely future management of the quality of its academic programmes and the academic standards of its awards'.