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Welcome and Orientation 2024
Students walking with Durham Cathedral in the background

Communicating with you

During your time at Durham, you’ll receive communications – including news, emails and more – from various areas of the University and on a wide range of topics. This is especially the case with Durham being a collegiate University. 

We know that this can sometimes seem a bit overwhelming but making sure you’re up to date with the latest on what’s happening is really important for your studies, wellbeing and for helping you to make the most of your time here. 

The following is a guide to the different types of things you’ll receive – as well as how you can let us know what you’re thinking. 

Central Services  

The central University will contact you about a range of topics relating to what’s going on within the wider University community. This can include:  

  • Important updates on topics such as examinations, building closures, safety concerns etc.  
  • News and events from across the University.  
  • University-wide campaigns on student support, health and wellbeing, cyber security etc.   
  • How you can share your feedback with us (including surveys such as the National Student Survey) 

Below is a run-down of the different ways central University services, and other areas of the University, will use to contact you. 

Many of these channels are run by the Internal Communications team. If you’ve got any questions, please get in touch with the team by emailing internal.communications@durham.ac.uk or by visiting the Internal Communication SharePoint site. 

Weekly Newsletter (and blog)  

  • Every Friday, you’ll receive a weekly newsletter containing news, events and opportunities from across the University, including important need-to-know information. This will come from the Internal Communications team. 
  • It’s by and for our University community, which means that any student or member of staff can submit an item to be included – for both the student and staff versions of the newsletter. 

SharePoint  

  • SharePoint is our internal website and contains information, news and updates for students and staff. 
  • Your department and College will most likely have their own sites, and our central SharePoint (also known as an intranet) homepage is the DU Hub (though most of the news on here is aimed at staff members). 
  • A lot of the communications you’ll get via other means – such as by email or in the Weekly Newsletter – will link back to SharePoint for more detailed information. 
  • You’ll sometimes need to use two-factor authentication via the Microsoft Authenticator app to access SharePoint. For more information on this added layer of security, go to My Digital Durham.  

University website   

  • The University’s external website is mainly aimed at people outside the University, including prospective students.  
  • It’s mainly used to promote the work done by staff and students to a wider audience and isn’t generally used to share internal information. 
  • On the website you’ll find information such as the degrees available at Durham, how our College system works and the dates for Congregation (graduation) ceremonies.   

Email  

  • Along with the Weekly Newsletter, you’ll also receive separate emails about important topics including exams and assessments, how to access support services, any potential disruption on campus – anything that might impact you directly. You can’t unsubscribe from these emails.  
  • Sending emails to ‘all students’ is limited and must go through an approval process. This is to try and reduce the amount of mass emails you receive, keeping it to topics we think you most need to know about.   
  • Emails such as this, coming from the central University, will often appear from Internal Communications, Executive Communications or specific teams like Student Registry. 

Digital Screens and printed material  

  • Around campus, you’ll see digital screens showing information on various topics relating to students and staff. 
  • You’ll also see flyers and posters. If you want to display one, please speak to the relevant building management first to gain permission. 

Social media   

  • The University has several official social media accounts. We do often use it to reach students with important messages – mainly using Instagram, those there’s also content on there for our external audience. 
  • Your Colleges, JCR/MCRs, Departments, societies and teams will often have social media accounts that they’ll use too.  
  • You may also see content on social media, and elsewhere, from ‘The Durham Student’. These are our student content creators who show what life is like at Durham. They share some great content which you might find interesting, as well as things aimed more at prospective students. We regularly recruit students to work for The Durham Student, so if you've got an eye for what makes great, engaging content and want to share your student stories, we'd love to hear from you.   

Colleges 

Your college and common rooms will also communicate with you about matters relating to college life. You can expect your college or common room to get in touch about: 

  • College specific news or events. 
  • Opportunities to get involved in societies, clubs etc. 
  • Health and wellbeing support information. 
  • Important information regarding buildings, catering etc. 

Some of the ways they will contact you are as follows and may vary depending on each individual college:  

  • Email 
  • Newsletters 
  • Physical materials on notice boards etc.  
  • Social media 
  • Face-to-face meetings

Departments  

You can expect your faculty or department to get in touch about:   

  • Important updates regarding your course or modules.  
  • Exams and assessment information.  
  • Updates from your Head of Department on topics relating to the full department.  
  • Opportunities to get involved in departmental events.  
  • Development opportunities such as skills workshops or part-time jobs.   

Similar to Colleges, the methods that faculties and departments use to communicate with you will vary but you can expect to hear from them via:   

  • Email  
  • Newsletters  
  • Physical materials on notice boards etc.  
  • Social media  
  • Blackboard/banner platforms - this will be a key channel for anything related to your studies including information on individual modules, exam or assessment results etc.  

Our communication commitments  

We have a responsibility to ensure you have all the information you need to complete your studies and make the most of your time at Durham. It’s also essential that you keep informed of essential updates and information.  

Our commitment to you  

We will collaborate with our students, listening to your voice to ensure that it guides our communications and engagement activities. We will communicate with you in a professional way through channels accessible to you.  

Your commitment as a student  

Keep up-to-date with essential University communications and engage in feedback mechanisms that seek to evaluate your experience across student life. This includes expressing your views to student representatives so that they can represent you effectively.