Support your College
Over the years gifts from our alumni and friends have made an enormous difference to our community – from unlocking opportunities for those otherwise unable to attain them to encouraging academic and personal growth through our award and bursaries scheme. Your continued support is also helping to ensure that the beautiful Durham Castle, which we are proud to call home, is able to inspire the next generation of students and visitors.
Preserving our Heritage
Durham Castle is a unique and complex treasure trove of history, architecture and education. We are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Grade I listed building, accredited Museum, and working College with 100 student residents, which makes us truly unique. Our Castle holds a focal point on the iconic Durham skyline and yet belongs to everyone: from the 4000 schoolchildren who visit every year, to our 30,000 visitors on tours and visit days, to the 1800 members of University College who call the Castle home.
This year Durham Castle celebrates its 950th birthday. Since 1072, the Castle experienced many Reawakenings: in terms of its buildings, its purpose and its community. From fortress to Palace to College, this remarkable part of northeast England’s history provided successful defence and safe haven, hospitality and inspiration, and robust educational grounding. We need your help to ensure that our home and the more than 5,000 artefacts it protects are resilient enough to withstand the passage of time and can be enjoyed by the generations of students and visitors to come.
Find out more about Fellows’ Garden and North Terrace Projects here.
Support North Terrace Restoration
Opportunities Fund
We hope that you enjoyed your time at Castle – whether it was just a few months as part of a DU fellowship or as a student for a year, three years or even longer pursuing your university degree.
Being a member of the College gives staff and students access to opportunities to learn and develop, the tools to make a positive impact on our community, and a chance to gain important skills in a supportive and respectful environment.
We know that for some of our students it can be hard to access these opportunities or to join professional networks. Thus, we have introduced the Castle Opportunities Fund.
The Castle Opportunities Fund plays an important role in supporting students by enabling them to pursue internship possibilities, attend academic conferences, take part in charitable activities, travel for academic pursuits, set up modest businesses or non-profits and more.
By supporting the Fund you help us ensure that our students feel empowered to participate in College life and are able to access the career and academic enrichment opportunities available, both in College and more broadly.
Support the Castle Opportunities Fund
Hardship
We all know that personal, career and/or family circumstances can change. Over the past couple of years we received a number of enquiries from students who reported financial hardship either because of the strains that the pandemic put on their own finances or their families.
We believe that money should not be a barrier to accessing world class education and the co-curricular activities Castle has to offer.
Together we can make sure that our community feels supported and all our students can reach their full potential, irrespective of their financial situation.
How you can give
University College is very fortunate to have its own independent charitable fund, the University College Durham Trust (Registered Charity no. 1151821).
There are a number of ways you can support the Trust, including regular or one-off online donations.
If you have any questions about giving to University College, please contact us and we will be happy to help.