Student life is overall quite good with university pushing extra curricular societies and personal development. The divide in students between state schools and private schools is incredibly apparent and the university isn't great at overcoming this divide, in fact it seems to be widening since the start of the pandemic.

The Physics department have been quite good at overcoming the challenges posing with the pandemic, with getting back to in person laboratories and lectures as soon as possible. The staff are approachable and great at teaching the required content too.

The small city of Durham is great, with places easily accessible by walking, however because of this, the city also has an excessive amount of students which the university only intends of increasing without plans to expand living areas etc, which will become difficult for students and locals alike. Diversity is something both the University and the city struggles with.

Some facilities are shared between too many students which makes space and usage of communal areas difficult.

My advice: study hard and never let everything until the deadline as you will be struggling a lot to finish your work and it will be a waste of time and very stressful. From my experience I can tell that this uni has good expectations from students and the exams are really hard. Be sure you come prepared