Thursday June 6th began and ended as glorious a warm and sunny day as Wednesday. But by Sunday the weather had reverted to its recent summer norm, wet and cold. Thus the four days encapsulated my present life as it has become.
On Thursday morning I took the Park and Ride from just off the AIM on the 690 road from Sunderland into the City of Durham. A field has been converted into two huge car parks just off the junction roundabout and where there has been built an attractive waiting area and automatic ticket. There is a single Decker bus every ten minutes taking the short circular route into the city stopping close by the paying multi-storey car park which has been used since it was built for visit to the city, although during those early years in the 1990‘s when Durham played cricket at Durham Riverside I usually managed to park within the grounds or along at the Rugby ground within view of the infamous Durham jail, now considerably extended to cope with the overall rise of the prison population.
There is now a congestion charge to enter the area of the Market Square and continue up to the Cathedral where there is also the former castle and the university Library. The park and ride ticket, usually £1.70 but free for concessions can also be used on a second single Decker bus to take one up the narrow winding road to the Cathedral, with shops, inns and restaurants and rooms used for university and student activities. Durham University is Colligate but with the 14 colleges spread in the city and to the southern parklands, and at Stockton where there are two colleges.
It will be fifty years since first going to the adult Education college situated at Oxford and with special links to the university and undergraduate life. Given my life immediately prior to arrival I was ill equipped to make best use of the experience in terms of the academic and social life available as then I did not understand the nature of my learning difficulties and knowledge retention. In fairness I did throw myself wholeheartedly into the experience which at times was overwhelming, at others lonely, challenging throughout as I took to notion of academic truth with great enthusiasm and then to the potential power of social case work for making fundamental changes to the lives of individuals. It remains a regret that I did not have the normal route of sixth form and undergraduate experience before jumping into the deep end of a course where all but five others of course students were first and second class honours graduates.
I am guessing that the Durham undergraduate experience is close to that at Oxford and Cambridge and other colligate universities where the student is able to participate in several levels of academic and social experience. The individual college is a total life system during term time, with the appointment of a college tutor to see them through their individual courses as well as the tutorial system, seminars and lecture system provided by the University through its faculties and departments. The college provides accommodation and food and college facilities such as a gym and bar common room, sporting teams, musical and dramatic and other social and interest activities depending on the culture and bias of the college and its size. Each college has its own budget and staff
However the undergraduate has also to be registered with a department of which there over a score within three faculties, at Oxford they are called Schools. These provide the structure, teaching and study framework as well as assessment and examination process in the chosen subject. The University is a large organisation with 15000 students of which a fifth come from overseas, and 3500 are undertaking post graduate work. There are over 3000 staff with some 40 separate administrative and organisational staffed functions, an annual budget of £160 million to cover its functions which as had been mentioned emphasised are separate from those of the individual colleges.
In addition to social and sporting activities provided by individual colleges there are a large number of university wide sporting and social activities which each having officers and a committee usually made up of representatives of the individual colleges. There is also a student union which offers information and support services as well as social. In addition some students like to participate in the life of the local community whether it is to attend a church or faith group, hang out a local bar or nightclub, undertake voluntary work, or join a political or other social group. It is easy for some who become sidetracked away from their studies although much depends on why they have come to university and if they know in advance what their occupational activity is going to be afterwards. Looking through the on line features of the university and its colleges I noted that one is now offering two scholarships for ex service men and women.
I must do some work comparing student life today and fifty years ago and whether anything has changed other than costs and student loans. My two years at Ruskin were fully paid by Surrey County Council as was the 12 month Child Care Course at Birmingham University by the Home Office, although the grant meant I was on survival rations during practical work placements outside of term time with the consequence that I was able to start work without inherited debts. To day around £8000 is required to cover tuition and live in cost during term time although there is overprovision for the provision of accommodation without food at other times.
The focus of my visit was the great Cathedral about which I wrote at length after making the first visit after several years last twelve months ago. The Cathedral is one of the most welcoming along with Beverley and Southwell Minsters and I am always affected by the sense of history, spirituality and repose. I had forgotten where the audio visual commentary is located and was just as impressed and moved. Later in the space between the Gala Theatre and cinema there is the sculpture of the monks carrying the remains of St Cuthbert after they fled Lindisfarne from the rampaging Nords and eventually settled for 100 years at Chester Le Street after going as far as the Cumbrian coast to the west. I enjoyed a four seasons pizza at an Italian restaurant just over the Elvet Bridge before making my way to Marks and Spencer’s in the hope there were some summer trousers in my size. There were not.
I then walked over the Framwelgate Bridge where the two course lunch at the Cafe Rouge was prices at close on £11, two to three pounds more than London Victoria or the Metro centre at Gateshead. Further along towards the bus station there is a Wetherspoons and a Yates Lodge both offering meal deal at a fraction. I debated taking the bus to Sunderland and then the fast service back to Shields, but it was such a fine day and feeling relaxed I mistakenly settled for the bus to South Shields, which took all of 90 minutes, thirty to reach Chester Le Street, 30 to reach Washington bus station and another 30 to Shields.
I have only taken this bus route once before and could not remember the detour just outside of Durham, close to the village of Pity Me where a new shopping development has been created with the usual mix of stores restaurants, including giant Sainsbury’s supermarket, a Frankie and Benny’s and McDonalds. In Washington the bus takes a detour to the huge government office complex and to the Nissan car plant.
On Thursday morning I took the Park and Ride from just off the AIM on the 690 road from Sunderland into the City of Durham. A field has been converted into two huge car parks just off the junction roundabout and where there has been built an attractive waiting area and automatic ticket. There is a single Decker bus every ten minutes taking the short circular route into the city stopping close by the paying multi-storey car park which has been used since it was built for visit to the city, although during those early years in the 1990‘s when Durham played cricket at Durham Riverside I usually managed to park within the grounds or along at the Rugby ground within view of the infamous Durham jail, now considerably extended to cope with the overall rise of the prison population.
There is now a congestion charge to enter the area of the Market Square and continue up to the Cathedral where there is also the former castle and the university Library. The park and ride ticket, usually £1.70 but free for concessions can also be used on a second single Decker bus to take one up the narrow winding road to the Cathedral, with shops, inns and restaurants and rooms used for university and student activities. Durham University is Colligate but with the 14 colleges spread in the city and to the southern parklands, and at Stockton where there are two colleges.
It will be fifty years since first going to the adult Education college situated at Oxford and with special links to the university and undergraduate life. Given my life immediately prior to arrival I was ill equipped to make best use of the experience in terms of the academic and social life available as then I did not understand the nature of my learning difficulties and knowledge retention. In fairness I did throw myself wholeheartedly into the experience which at times was overwhelming, at others lonely, challenging throughout as I took to notion of academic truth with great enthusiasm and then to the potential power of social case work for making fundamental changes to the lives of individuals. It remains a regret that I did not have the normal route of sixth form and undergraduate experience before jumping into the deep end of a course where all but five others of course students were first and second class honours graduates.
I am guessing that the Durham undergraduate experience is close to that at Oxford and Cambridge and other colligate universities where the student is able to participate in several levels of academic and social experience. The individual college is a total life system during term time, with the appointment of a college tutor to see them through their individual courses as well as the tutorial system, seminars and lecture system provided by the University through its faculties and departments. The college provides accommodation and food and college facilities such as a gym and bar common room, sporting teams, musical and dramatic and other social and interest activities depending on the culture and bias of the college and its size. Each college has its own budget and staff
However the undergraduate has also to be registered with a department of which there over a score within three faculties, at Oxford they are called Schools. These provide the structure, teaching and study framework as well as assessment and examination process in the chosen subject. The University is a large organisation with 15000 students of which a fifth come from overseas, and 3500 are undertaking post graduate work. There are over 3000 staff with some 40 separate administrative and organisational staffed functions, an annual budget of £160 million to cover its functions which as had been mentioned emphasised are separate from those of the individual colleges.
In addition to social and sporting activities provided by individual colleges there are a large number of university wide sporting and social activities which each having officers and a committee usually made up of representatives of the individual colleges. There is also a student union which offers information and support services as well as social. In addition some students like to participate in the life of the local community whether it is to attend a church or faith group, hang out a local bar or nightclub, undertake voluntary work, or join a political or other social group. It is easy for some who become sidetracked away from their studies although much depends on why they have come to university and if they know in advance what their occupational activity is going to be afterwards. Looking through the on line features of the university and its colleges I noted that one is now offering two scholarships for ex service men and women.
I must do some work comparing student life today and fifty years ago and whether anything has changed other than costs and student loans. My two years at Ruskin were fully paid by Surrey County Council as was the 12 month Child Care Course at Birmingham University by the Home Office, although the grant meant I was on survival rations during practical work placements outside of term time with the consequence that I was able to start work without inherited debts. To day around £8000 is required to cover tuition and live in cost during term time although there is overprovision for the provision of accommodation without food at other times.
The focus of my visit was the great Cathedral about which I wrote at length after making the first visit after several years last twelve months ago. The Cathedral is one of the most welcoming along with Beverley and Southwell Minsters and I am always affected by the sense of history, spirituality and repose. I had forgotten where the audio visual commentary is located and was just as impressed and moved. Later in the space between the Gala Theatre and cinema there is the sculpture of the monks carrying the remains of St Cuthbert after they fled Lindisfarne from the rampaging Nords and eventually settled for 100 years at Chester Le Street after going as far as the Cumbrian coast to the west. I enjoyed a four seasons pizza at an Italian restaurant just over the Elvet Bridge before making my way to Marks and Spencer’s in the hope there were some summer trousers in my size. There were not.
I then walked over the Framwelgate Bridge where the two course lunch at the Cafe Rouge was prices at close on £11, two to three pounds more than London Victoria or the Metro centre at Gateshead. Further along towards the bus station there is a Wetherspoons and a Yates Lodge both offering meal deal at a fraction. I debated taking the bus to Sunderland and then the fast service back to Shields, but it was such a fine day and feeling relaxed I mistakenly settled for the bus to South Shields, which took all of 90 minutes, thirty to reach Chester Le Street, 30 to reach Washington bus station and another 30 to Shields.
I have only taken this bus route once before and could not remember the detour just outside of Durham, close to the village of Pity Me where a new shopping development has been created with the usual mix of stores restaurants, including giant Sainsbury’s supermarket, a Frankie and Benny’s and McDonalds. In Washington the bus takes a detour to the huge government office complex and to the Nissan car plant.
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