Durham is the top university in the north east according to the Sunday Times Good University Guide 2018

The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2018 revealed that Durham is the top university in the north east with a national ranking of fifth best university in the country.

Turns out we're actually pretty good.

As a Russell Group member since 2012, Durham places a heavy emphasis on research, and in 2018 80 per cent of the research submitted to the Research Excellence Framework was considered world-class or internationally excellent.

Alongside this, Durham places within the top 100 universities in the QS and Times Higher Education world rankings. It doesn't get much better than that.

With regards to graduate pay, Durham graduates are the fourth equally highest paid out of all UK universities and within sixth months of graduating have a median salary of £25,000. Looks like the six hours of anthropology a week are going to pay off.

Although Durham dropped a place in this years rankings (still top 5), down from fourth place last year, there remain six applications for each place available at the university, showing a high demand to study at arguably the best uni there is. The fact that Durham also has the seventh highest entry standards in the UK, reflects its national and global position in the rankings.

As one of the oldest universities in the UK and also a relatively small one (with around 17,000 students) Durham is looking to expand by 40 per cent within the next 10 years. This is due to start with the building of a new teaching and learning centre near the Bill Bryson library.

Schemes to target the inclusion of more students attending Durham from the north-east are in place currently, with a large proportion of undergraduates coming from independent schools countrywide. Aside from Durham, only St Andrews and Oxford accept more students from independent schools, hence schemes to approach people with different backgrounds.