The Durham Student shows the real Durham

6 October 2022

Student news

An image showing a camera taking a photograph of the cathedral

If you’re thinking about applying to study Durham, who better to tell you what it’s all about than students who are already here? A brand new team of student content creators is sharing exciting insights into what it’s really like to live and study in Durham.

Supported by the Student Recruitment Marketing Team, the team of 13 students collectively manage ‘The Durham Student’ across Instagram, Tik Tok, YouTube and the popular Student Blog, as well as providing expert student advice to prospective students on The Student Room. They work to create a wide variety of creative content, covering all aspects of student life at Durham, from special events to the everyday.

The content produced by The Durham Student team has quickly developed a large following of prospective students and their parents. With over 17,000 followers on Instagram and over 56,000 video views on Tik Tok in the last month alone, the Durham Student channels are proving to be a highly impactful and a valuable tool for sharing the exceptional student experience here at Durham.

The Durham Student Instagram

The team was expanded in 2021 with the launch of the Tik Tok profile, and went on to win Team of the Year in the Student Employee of the Year awards following great success in their first few months. The team is now expanding again, with recruitment for 4 additional students to join The Durham Student taking place later this term. The aim is to show an even wider breadth of student experiences from a range of colleges and departments and including a mix of international, UK and local voices. Plans are also underway to expand The Durham Student presence to Pinterest, sharing information with new and prospective students in new and innovative ways.

Highlights on The Durham Student over the past few months have included coverage of key events such as Freshers Week, Matriculation, Congregation, Year of the Tiger celebrations and Diwali, as well as city and university tours, study tips, coffee breaks and college life.

The Durham Student TikTok

Feedback from prospective students has been extremely positive, with the team uniquely situated to answer questions and offer insights into all areas of Durham student life in creative and innovative ways. Next month, the team will undertake training with the British Film Institute to improve their practical filming and editing skills as well as learning interview techniques and new skills to make their content even more impactful.

The roles sit within the Marketing team and provide excellent skills development and training opportunities for current students, helping them build their professional and creative skills for their future careers. Former members of the Durham Student team have recently gone on to achieve great success with graduate roles at Johnson & Johnson and Durham Students’ Union, while another has gone on to study for a PhD at Cambridge. We look forward to seeing what’s next for this team of highly motivated and imaginative student creators.