Volunteering is an important part of student life here at Durham, with over 3,000 registered student volunteers. We also have more than 90 registered student-led projects, community partners, Colleges and departments providing over 100 opportunities for people to get involved with. 

During National Student Volunteering Week (13-19 February), we celebrated our inspiring volunteering culture with workshops, taster sessions and volunteering activities, giving students the chance to develop new skills while making a positive impact in the community. 

Students had the opportunity to take part in a beach clean, volunteer at a foodbank, or experience what it’s like to join as a regular volunteer on one of our student projects through a series of taster sessions.  

Workshops took place throughout the week, including the ‘volunteering for employability’ session with our careers team, which focused on helping students understand how volunteering can support their career path and help them build a CV.  

To find out about volunteering here at Durham, we spoke with Georgia Donohue, in our Student Volunteering and Outreach team, who said: 

Volunteering at Durham is unique. We offer such a wide range of opportunities to get involved in - whether you want ad-hoc, one-off sessions or regular-commitment volunteering. Our main themes are social inclusion, environment, culture, education and sport, so there really is something for everyone.

Durham students recently welcome local groups of Beavers, Cubs and Brownies to the Department of Chemistry

It’s not just students engaging with volunteering projects on campus and throughout our community. There are lots of opportunities for staff to get involved and meet new people from across the University, too.  

Durham operates an employer-supported volunteering scheme, which enables colleagues to volunteer for up to five days (35 hours) per year during worktime, with opportunities ranging from individual placements to departmental team challenges. 

If you have an idea of a volunteering project or activity that you don’t see available on our intranet site, get in touch with our volunteering team to see how we can support the development of a new project or community partnership! 

Find out more 

• Read all about how a team of students recently welcomed local groups of Beavers, Cubs and Brownies to the Department of Chemistry as part of the ChemSG scheme.  
• Find student volunteering opportunities.
• Explore our staff volunteering platform. 
• Get in touch with our staff or student volunteering teams.