Over 90% of undergraduate students take part in sport

Durham has been named Times and Sunday Times Sports University of the Year 2015 in recognition of “outstanding performance in both the research and teaching of sport and for student and community participation in sport at all levels.”

The University counts international sporting starts among its alumni, including the cricketers Andrew Strauss and Nasser Hussain, and the Olympic gold medallist rower Sophie Hosking.

Team Durham has 52 university clubs and has been ranked second in the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Championship league table for the third year in succession.

Durham’s 16 colleges have more than 500 teams across 18 different sports, and over 90 per cent of students play sport, giving the university one of the highest participation rates in the UK.

The University also boasts 40 sport outreach programmes – involving 200 student volunteers – and a ten-year partnership with Sport in Action Zambia will be celebrated in 2015.

Quentin Sloper, Head of Sport, Music and Drama, said: “The learning environment at Durham is truly distinctive and very few universities combine academic and sporting excellence more seamlessly, successfully and consistently.

“We know, from experience, that what takes place outside of the classroom is as valuable to our students’ development as what happens inside the lecture theatre, laboratory and seminar room.”