Durham University

Durham University is a collegiate public university in Durham, in northeast England. It was founded by Act of Parliament in 1832 and granted a royal charter in 1837, becoming the third university in England after Oxford and Cambridge. Teaching is organized by department, while 17 colleges provide residence, welfare, and student community. University College occupies Durham Castle, within the city's cathedral-and-castle World Heritage Site.

Four faculties cover arts and humanities, business, science, and social sciences and health. The university is known for history, English, theology, archaeology, law, physics, and chemistry, and for Durham University Business School. Graduate students also use the Institute of Advanced Study, the Durham Energy Institute, and departmental laboratories in a compact city with strong library holdings in theology and medieval studies.

About 22,000 students enroll, with postgraduates around a quarter of the total. International students make up about a third of the student body and come from more than 130 countries. Alumni include politician Mo Mowlam, journalist Sir Harold Evans, and opera singer Sir Thomas Allen.

Graduate degrees include the M.A., M.Sc., M.B.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D.; Durham does not use the DPhil title. Research students have a departmental supervisor and remain members of a college. The year follows the UK three-term pattern, with support from doctoral training partnerships and university studentships. Graduate life is concentrated in a small historic city where colleges supply rooms, dining, and a ready social structure.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, Durham University lists 170 graduate programs across 39 subjects: 118 master's programs and 43 doctoral programs, with the widest choice in business & management, finance & financial economics and languages & linguistics. Durham University holds rank 140 in the GSN Overall University Ranking.