Durham University

📚 Courses & programs at Durham University

Durham University is best known for Business, Economics, Sciences. Popular programs for international students include:

• MSc Computer Science
• MSc Data Science
• MSc Finance
• MBA
• MSc Economics

Class profile: Moderately selective.

✅ Entry requirements

💰 Fees & cost of studying

Plan your budget for tuition + living + health insurance + the visa fee. Compare funding with the free scholarship finder.

📝 Step-by-step admission process

1. Pick one-year master's programs
2. Meet IELTS (6.5–7.5) & 2:1/First equivalent
3. Write personal statement + 1–2 references
4. Apply directly on university portal (rolling)
5. Receive offer (conditional/unconditional)
6. Pay deposit → CAS → Student visa

📄 Documents checklist

• Academic transcripts
• Personal Statement
• 1–2 References
• CV
• IELTS UKVI
• Passport
• Financial proof (CAS)
• Degree certificate

🛂 Student visa & post-study work · UK

• Student visa: Student visa (Tier 4)
• Work while studying: 20 hrs/week during term
• Post-study work: Graduate Route: 2 years (3 for PhD)

📅 Intakes & deadlines

All figures are indicative and change year to year — always confirm on the official site (durham.ac.uk) before applying.

How Durham University compares in UK

The figures on this page mean little on their own. Set against the 31 other UK universities in our dataset, they say something more useful about where an application to Durham University is likely to be won or lost.

• Selectivity. An indicative acceptance rate of about 40% against a median of 52% across the 31 other UK universities in our dataset. 6 of them are harder to get into than Durham University. It sits on the more selective side of its national peer group, so meeting the published minimums is the floor rather than the goal.
• Rank in context. QS #78, against a peer median of #108; 11 UK universities rank above it here. Rank is worth exactly this much and no more — it is driven by institution-wide research output and reputation surveys, not by the department you would actually join, so treat it as a coarse filter and judge the programme on its own page.
• English bar. IELTS 6.5 against a peer median of 6.5. That is exactly the national norm, so a score built for this application should travel across your whole shortlist. Equivalents: TOEFL 85, PTE 58.

Programme areas: MSc Computer Science · MSc Data Science · MSc Finance · MBA · MSc Economics. Entry requirements are set per programme, not per university, so the figures above are the institutional baseline — a competitive department inside an accessible university can run far tighter than the headline rate suggests.

Practical order of work for Durham University: clear the English requirement first, because it gates everything and is the only part of the application you fully control; then confirm which of the Sep intakes you are targeting, since the typical deadline is Rolling and funding decisions usually close before admission decisions; then build the application around one specific programme rather than the institution. Budget the application fee of $50–100 per programme, and living costs of £12,000–15,000/yr (£13,347 for visa) on top of tuition of £28k/yr.

Figures here are indicative and compiled for comparison. Acceptance rates in particular are institution-level estimates and move year to year — confirm anything you are deciding on against the university's official pages.