I actually loved my time in Durham so much. Durham helped me grow not only academically due to the challenging nature and high quality overall of teaching, but also as a well-rounded person because there were many different societies that I could participate in. There are a myriad array of college (intramural) sports – I joined football, basketball and badminton – as well as musical societies – I joined a band and gospel choir – not to mention societies for international students, theatre (both onstage and backstage), cooking, crafting…you name it, Durham likely has a society for it.

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from my course, as I’d never studied Anthropology before (having done a bit of archaeology as part of my Classical Civilisations A-level). I was very pleased to find that it combines a lot of what I enjoyed from my A-levels (History, Geography, Biology and Classics), and also offered good practical experience, especially the opportunity to go on a three-week dig at the end of the year. In first year, Joint Honours Anth and Arch students have four core modules (2 in each department) that cover the basics, and we have 2 electives. I chose a medical anthropology module and a module on Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Indus Civilisation. Both were fascinating and the teaching quality superb; the tutorials in the medical anthropology module were extremely useful for consolidating the content covered in lectures.

In second and third year, the module choices grow more niche and we had increasing freedom to choose modules as we decide which areas we particularly enjoyed researching and learning about. In both second and third year there was again excellent practical work opportunities, particularly in the archaeology modules I chose – Developing Archaeological Research and Advanced Professional Training. In DAR I gained practical experience with human DNA and materials analysis (which were the areas I chose among a great variety), and in APT I had the amazing opportunity to go to Vienna with one of our bioarchaeologists and catalogue some ancient skeletons.

Overall the teaching was high-quality, though for some modules I felt like I would have benefitted from more contact hours in form of tutorials. However, it is often not difficult to find lecturers during their contact hours, though it is best to go with prepared questions (especially if it’s a complicated topic) because otherwise you might leave just as confused as you went in. The reading lists were always helpful, though for certain Term 2 modules I would have preferred they be released slightly earlier, perhaps over Christmas, so I could try and get some reading done then, rather than squash it all in during a very busy second term.

Another great thing about Durham is that college often have trusts and awards that can help you fund projects, volunteering, sports etc. so you don’t have to give up on an incredible opportunity because you might not be able to completely self-fund it.