The Allocation Process - Postgraduates

2025 Entry

Once you have accepted an academic offer from Durham, you then have the opportunity to rank three colleges in order of preference for consideration. 

Your college preferences and college allocation have no reflection on your academic application to Durham.

Full Time: September Start Date

Steps to Take

• Accept your academic offer from Durham
• Receive communication with a link to the College Membership Application
• Rank your three college preferences
• State Yes or No if you are interested in accommodation offered by the University

Your college preferences are considered as part of the allocation process. We do our best to try and allocate you a place in your preferred college, although this cannot be guaranteed. 

If you accept your academic offer to study at Durham after the allocation process has begun, you will have a deadline to submit your preferences via the College Membership Application.

The allocation process takes into account:

• Your ranked college preferences
• The number of students from each department
• Level (Taught or Research)
• Fee status (Home and International)

These factors are considered to finalise a college allocation. For details on how we allocate students to colleges see here.

Full Time: November - July Start Date

If you have accepted your offer to study at Durham you will be contacted to rank three college preferences prior to the start date of your academic programme. 

The allocation process is the same as full time September postgraduate applicants. Please refer to the Steps to Take section above for further details.

You will have a deadline to submit your preferences via the College Membership Application.

Part Time and Distance Learning Postgraduates

Once you have accepted an offer to study at Durham, all part time (PT) and distance learning (DL) students are automatically allocated to a college for membership. This is determined by your programme of study linked to one of our six designated colleges that provide membership to PT/DL students. These colleges are: 

• John Snow College
• Trevelyan College
• Hatfield College
• St Mary’s College
• Van Mildert College
• St Aidan’s College 

Theology PT/DL students are automatically allocated to St John’s College.