Student In: Site

Getting ready for Royalty

Preparations are under way for the visit to Durham and Stockton of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh as part of the jubilee celebrations tomorrow. The DSU President, Emily Fieran-Reed, is honoured to have been invited to be part of the team accompanying the Queen on her visit. Preparations have been under way for a number of weeks to ensure that everything goes perfectly for the Queen and Prince Philip as well as the many students who will turn out to catch a glimpse of them.

Sir Peter Ustinov Today marks the tenth Anniversary of Sir Peter Ustinov's installation as Chancellor of the University. Sir Peter, world famous actor, novelist, playwright and director, enthrals Durham students and their parents every year with his sparkling speeches at graduation. The DSU President is looking forward to celebrating his contribution to the university with senior management and those in the local community who have seen the good work of Sir Peter. DSU will also be writing to the chancellor to thank him personally for his support of students, most notably in his efforts to save the Russian Department when it was threatened with closure by the University.

campus challenge Durham University has a proud history of success in the Jeremy Paxman-hosted game show University Challenge. Last weekend saw the semi-finals and finals of Durham's own league take place at Dunelm House. The inter-Collegiate Challenge is a year-long selection process for the team to represent Durham on the popular television programme. Colleges compete within themselves to find the best team of four students to represent them. The next stage involves a series of competitions which see the colleges competing against each other. The semi-finals sees the four best teams fighting it out to become supreme winner after this testing process. Saturday's match involved Graduate Society, Grey, Van Mildert and St John's Colleges. In a well played match, Grey beat Gradsoc at the last minute, when they had been leading all the way. In the St John's versus Van Mildert game, it was a close match with ferocious cheering from the audience for both sides as the time began to run out, but eventually Van Mildert pipped St John's to the post, going through to the finals. After an impressive and fast-paced final, Grey took overall victory and were presented the shield by DSU President Emily Fieran-Reed, who congratulated them on their seemingly boundless knowledge. Christopher Joby is leading the team who will fight it out with universities around the country on television later this year.

closure climbdown DSU won a huge victory last week when the threats of departmental closures at Durham, which had made national news, were ruled out by the vice-chancellor once and for all. For several months, DSU has been pressing the university to rule out the departmental closures which so worried the university's current and prospective students and staff. The university employs many local residents and a high proportion of its students are taken from the local area. It is a victory for all these people and for ensuring that the North-East retains the reputation that having such a high-ranking university brings.