BROADCASTER Jeremy Vine will help host the UK’s first collegiate universities conference in the region next week (November 18-22).

The BBC presenter, a Durham University graduate, will chair a panel discussion at the summit, to be held in Durham from November 18 to 22.

Representatives will attend from five continents and universities include Yale and Cambridge.

Mr Vine said: “My years at Hatfield College, Durham were some of the happiest of my whole life, not just because I discovered The Smiths when I was there but also because of the quality of friends and the confidence to be who I wanted to be.

“How lucky I was to be in a place of such beauty and intelligence. Without the confidence the college environment gave me I wouldn’t have been able to use a telephone, let alone have a radio show.”

There are around 80 collegiate universities worldwide. Durham University consists of 16 colleges.