Employability, enterprise and skills

Durham is ranked a world top 20 university by leading recruiters for the quality of our graduates in the 2012 QS World University League Rankings. Durham degrees open doors: 87% of our graduates secured employment within six months of graduating and many of the remaining 13% took time out to travel.

These impressive statistics result from Durham's worldwide academic reputation. They also show the effectiveness of our unique college structure.

What you achieve academically and experience as a person whilst at Durham will say a lot about you in the future. One of the main reasons for our system of colleges and college mentors is to equip our students with adaptable and marketable workplace skills.

The opportunities we provide to become involved in committees, clubs and societies and to be active in voluntary or paid work experience will help you develop an enviable set of professional techniques enabling you to be more successful in the graduate job market. Your Durham University experiences will help you build up skills in teamworking, problem-solving, communication, negotiation and leadership. These are all qualities highly valued by regional, national and international employers who know that a degree combined with a unique Durham life experience is just what they need from graduates that they recruit.

As a student and whilst I was learning the retail trade, I was grateful to find people who were good enough to freely offer advice and support. I can’t pay most of them back now, so I’m glad to be able to ‘pay forward’ by making my experience available to current students via the schemes run by the University and colleges like Grey.

Steve Gregory, Grey College, 1969