Skip to main content
University Strategy
Students walking on a cobbled street

Estates and Accommodation

The Computer Sciences and Mathematical Science building at night

Our focus is to provide safe and inspiring living and work spaces to enable our staff and students to flourish and achieve their best. Our buildings will minimise adverse impacts on the environment.

We will deliver high-quality new and refurbished academic buildings that provide world-class environments for delivering education and research.
University Strategy
2017-2027

What we are already doing well:

  • We have opened a new £42m Mathematical Sciences and Computer Science building providing a world-class research facility. 
  • Our new £40m state-of-the-art Teaching and Learning Centre has increased teaching space with new technologies. 
  • The £31.8m redevelopment of Maiden Castle, our Sports and Wellbeing Park, greatly improves our wider student experience offering.
  • We have opened South College and have relocated John Snow and Stephenson Colleges from Queen’s Campus.
  • We have repurposed Queen’s Campus into our International Study Centre offering International Foundation Year and pre-Masters study opportunities. 
  • We have relocated Ustinov College to Sheraton Park, providing high-quality, managed student accommodation.   
  • We have purchased a new signature building in Durham city centre. The Waterside will be home for our Business School.
  • We have refurbished our space for Psychology.  
  • We have purchased Boldon House, just outside Durham city centre, to develop a modern office space for some of our professional services staff. 
  • We are implementing a project to upgrade our existing buildings to new Building Management System software and hardware. 

We will: 

  • Establish the Waterside as our Business School by the 2024/25 academic year. 
  • Develop a vision for a new cultural quarter on the old Durham swimming baths site.  
  • Develop a new research and laboratory facility at our Upper Mountjoy site for interdisciplinary science. This will provide a new infrastructure for the experimental sciences that will facilitate enhanced research performance. 
  • Continue to refurbish student accommodation in our Colleges to house more of our students (40-45 per cent) in University-managed accommodation. 
  • Review the options for the development of the Leazes Road site.
  • Support our strategy for widening participation by offering accommodation at a greater range of prices.
  • Preserve our heritage, ensuring our estate developments are aligned with world heritage requirements using grants and donor contributions where possible.  
  • Develop our newly-purchased Boldon House, just outside Durham city centre, as a professional services hub. This will support new and flexible ways of working in a modern, sustainable office space.
  • Deliver on the first phase of our new Net Zero strategy.