Top 10 things on a Durham student’s Christmas wish list

As Christmas fast approaches, there is an anticipation towards what students will receive. However, there are a few things, whether achievable or not, which most Durham students all wish they could have. Here are the top ten things we believe that Durham students would actually want to find under their tree.

10. JCR levy and discounts

Whilst many students opted to buy this upon arrival in first year, the JCR levy and its discounts do make college events much cheaper. However, with the price of both the levy and events varying between colleges, gaining this has been more accessible to some more than others. After a term of having to pay full price for formals and winter balls, those without the levy are suddenly dreaming about those cheaper prices and longing for the lesser fares of different colleges.

9. Formal and ball tickets

Speaking of balls and formals, while prices vary from college-to-college, I’m sure most students are worrying over the dent taken out of their bank accounts from the Winter ball. While Mary’s events are often cheaper, other colleges have to splurge slightly more in order to hire out venues and transport to make these events possible and create spaces for students that want to go.

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Looking under the tree and finding free tickets to the Summer ball or an upcoming society ball would thus be a great relief to the bank accounts of many students and release financial stress for these experiences. Choosing memories over material goods is also a more enriching gift, and with balls being a unique part of the Durham student experience, Christmas would be so much more enjoyable knowing you won’t suffer from FOMO later on in the year, and that you can anticipate a three-course meal that you don’t have to cook yourself or clean up afterwards.

8. A teleportation device up and down South Road

Speaking for all the other first years in Hill colleges, it is a nightmare taking 30 minutes to walk up and down the hill just to get to lectures, or to grab some bread and milk from Tesco Express. While this hasn’t been invented yet, waking up on Christmas morning to find such a miracle would bring tears to the eyes of many students knowing how much time and energy they could save with something to magically get them up and down the hill with ease.

Being able to teleport up-and-down the hills would create so much more motivation for students to actually attend their lectures, and lugging shopping back to self-catered colleges and accommodation would be so much easier and save time for us to actually study. Whilst snow in Durham is beautiful, the ice on the pavements are not, and owning such a device would enable students to get around without looking like Bambi on ice!

7. Books!

While the student experience is full of socials and formal events, we forget that we are also here to study and earn a degree. As an English literature student, books are naturally at the top of my list! (The reading list is not for the weak). However, regardless of your degree, there is a certain physical and mental ease in knowing that the one book you need is right next to you. There’s no trekking to the Billy B just to find out that someone else has taken out the only copy in there and you have to move on with your research with this gap.

Owning the book just means you have access to it whenever and wherever you mean. And, you can write, annotate and scribble all over it with notes and analysis guilt-free! If this wasn’t enough, it also fills up your bookshelf, making you look more intellectual and well-read than what you actually are, but who cares as long as it makes your room aesthetic.

6. Unchecked attendance

Most people I’ve spoken to after first term have missed many lectures, a few tutorials or seminars, or have had an angry email asking about their many absences. Wouldn’t it be a dream if these warnings just magically disappeared? Having an optional attendance to tutorials and seminars would enable students to recover from freshers flu and have autonomy over their time stress-free. This would make students’ time more flexible and they can fit studying and social events around their sleep schedule, when they are most productive, and their preferred times to go out.

5. Deadline extensions

With the build-up of stress from the end of Michaelmas term from formative and summative deadlines, an extension of these, or at least spreading them across the term, would light up the face of any Durham student. With some subjects extending deadlines into the winter holidays, more and more students are suddenly wishing for more time so they can relax and enjoy some time off after an intensive first term this year.

However, the criteria for actually acquiring these can sometimes feel unrealistic and impossible, especially when there is a perfectionist need to research and write your essays/questions correctly and with effective amounts of research and evidence going into an answer. The luxury of having more time (or even more words) to do this correctly, and balance this with a social life and enjoyment of the holidays would be a comfort to all Durham students.

4. Actually finding a space within the Billy B

I’m sure most of us have been in the position where we have gone into the Billy B just after a lecture or tutorial wanting to get some work done. You walk in motivated to be productive and get that assignment completed, or start research on a question. You then walk around the different floors of the Billy B just to find that most of the seats are taken.

Unless you walk in at 8am (which, lets face it, you won’t considering you struggle to reach your 9ams) or wait until 8pm at night for a late study session, the chances of you getting a good seat with plenty of space is minimal. Mostly, the only seats left are those that share a desk with someone else, which makes you feel self-conscious towards how you’re working, and you feel awkward from not wanting to impose the space of the other person by sitting next to them. What a Christmas miracle it would be to find the perfect seat to lock-in in comfort!

3. Guaranteed housing for next year

The Durham Student experience canonically involves having house viewings cancelled last minute, prices going up each week, living with people you met in freshers, and going through a mad scramble to avoid living in areas miles away from town and lectures. Wouldn’t life be so much simpler if Christmas just guaranteed the perfect house, the perfect flatmates, in an area five minutes away from the Billy B?

Instead, many students will be going through the mad scramble for a house in January, and groups are formed quickly without too much thought. Whether this will create drama next year is a different subject, but the majority of students would be able to sleep easily on Christmas after finding out that all the admin stress of living has disappeared.

2. College bar gift cards

With many society events and nights out involving college bar crawls, I’m sure most students would appreciate gift cards to college bars. The college bars are a key part of Durham’s student experience, having different locations with subsidised drinks that students can explore and socialise within.

However, while the drinks are subsidised, the cost of going on these crawls adds up. Receiving a gift card would be appreciated by any student, whether they want to explore a bar they’ve not been to yet, or want to try a slightly more expensive college drink, they will bring memories (or not) and enjoyment on a night out.

1. A picture with John Klute

The one thing that the majority of Durham students that go to clubs desire is a picture with the one and only John Klute. After any night out, friends flock to each other to boast and show-off the picture they’ve taken with Durham’s legend, leaving others to question how they managed to capture such a moment and how they can gain one themselves.

Having the gift of being able to capture this would be the make-or-break of the student experience in Durham, with everyone wanting to tell others at home about their meeting with John Klute.

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