Michaelmas Term 2022 at Ustinov College has seen an exciting range of activities taking place including scholarly, social, cultural and community events.

It brought a new cohort of enthusiastic Ustinovians to Durham and with the arrival of a new term came a new GCR Executive as well as a new Global Citizenship Programme team. The GCR have seen several successful formal dinners, as well as ever popular quiz nights, live mic nights and parties in College. The GCR welfare team has been working across a number of campaigns and have run several welfare focussed activities in College; the GCR Executive have also been busy preparing for the arrival of newly elected trustees to their GCR trustee board. Our Global Citizenship Programme have hosted a number of events, including a SUCCESS event focusing on personal branding, and a Café Politique / UIF collaboration on children’s rights, including an art focused family friendly session that saw over 60 attendees! Our newly formed North East Local History team also presented a two part series of sessions focusing on Durham Miners Association and the history of coal mining in County Durham. More exciting GCR activities, including a Lunar New Year formal, a Valentine’s Day formal and a Castle Formal will take place across Epiphany term up to Easter. The Global Citizenship Programme will also be hosting a variety of activities across our programme, including upcoming talks on archaeological treasures found at sites including sections of the River Wear, and Binchester Roman Fort.

Ustinov sports teams continue to thrive – as an example, our Ustinov Women’s football team have qualified for the Floodlit Cup semi-finals this term following last year’s league win, and our Ultimate Frisbee team, and Mixed Volleyball squad have all received new kits to support them as they progress through their respective seasons. As a College, we are delighted to see sporting participation and achievement becoming ever more visible across our College community.

January brought congregations and we were delighted to join newly graduating students as they joined our ever-growing alumni community! The ceremonies at the Cathedral were as busy as always and it was a great opportunity to celebrate achievements and wish them well!

We are always keen to hear from alumni and to welcome you to College activities and events, either in person or virtually - many of our events run in a hybrid format. Please do look out for promotional material relating to upcoming GCP events across our Instagram and Twitter pages. We would also love to receive contributions to our termly ‘Ustinovian’ magazine or ‘Pantomath’, our scholarly journal. Please do email us at ustinov.alumni@durham.ac.uk if you would be interested in finding out more about how you can stay engaged with College life; we look forward to hearing from you!