Durham University: Durham in world top 30 most international universities

Ranked 26th, the league table recognises Durham as one of the world’s best based on our high proportion of international students and staff, our collaborations with universities across the globe and our strong international reputation.

We offices in India and China, actively recruit students in over 70 countries and we’re very proud to have staff and students from more than 150 countries, creating an outward-looking, globally-minded and inclusive University.

To support this, we’re delighted to offer a range of new International Scholarships to students from Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Vietnam, looking to start their undergraduate or taught postgraduate studies in 2022.

Global research

Our research spans the globe with partnerships, collaborations and projects on every continent.

Combined with our all-round student experience, this makes our graduates among the most highly sought-after in the world.

We believe international collaborations are vital in enhancing global knowledge for the benefit of societies across the world.

As part of this, our researchers, working with groups including the United Nations, have developed a new model to simulate the spread of Covid-19, which has helped curb the spread of the virus in the world’s largest refugee settlement.

Our Zurbarán Centre is establishing the University and Durham as an international Centre for the study of Spanish and Latin American art.

We’ve revolutionised research into infant sleep safety around the world and helped reduce rates of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

And our work on Islamic finance’s contribution to economic development and the role it can play in sustainable development has resulted in recommendations that have been used to inform draft Islamic finance policy.

With the Chinese Academy of Sciences we have established the highly successful Knowledge Across Borders webinar series, exploring some of the most pressing issues facing society today.

Our students are also doing inspiring things, like Jeremiah Thoronka, a postgraduate Anthropology student, who was the first winner of a new $100,000 prize after he invented a device that uses kinetic energy from traffic and pedestrians to generate clean power.

International reputation

Durham is recognised as one of the world’s leading universities as shown by our World Top 100 position in the QS World University Rankings 2022, where we are ranked 82nd.

Sixteen Durham subjects are in in the World Top 100 of the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2021, including eight in the top 50. Two subjects are in the top 10 – Archaeology (fourth), Theology and Religion (fifth).

And in the THE’s Global Impact Rankings 2021 we’re ranked 87th in the world for our overall contribution to UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The rankings also place Durham in the top 100 in nine of the individual league tables for the 17 UN SDGs.