We would like to wish all those preparing for and celebrating the arrival of the Year of the Tiger a very happy and healthy New Year. We are delighted that this year we will be able to enjoy a range of exciting celebrations taking place across the University and City.
Many of our college communities and student groups will be planning their own festivities over the next couple of weeks.
Saturday 5 February will see a host of traditional events and activities across Durham City, including a spectacular lion dance procession. Other activities will include costume displays, food tasting, Tai Chi demonstrations, crafts, and children’s story telling. University students will be offering Mandarin sessions, and visitors will be able to get hands on with some Chinese objects from the University’s Oriental Museum.
The Durham City celebrations have been brought together through the Durham Global Alliance, a partnership of local stakeholders, including the University, who work together to promote and develop international opportunities for young people.
Events such as these demonstrate the region’s commitment to culture, affirming County Durham’s place as one of eight locations to have been longlisted for UK City of Culture 2025.
A range of New Year celebrations are also taking place at our Oriental Museum, which will be hosting a beautiful lantern festival at a special one-off late-night opening on 15 February.
A series of live-streamed sessions will be delivered from the Oriental Museum galleries throughout the festival period aimed at primary schools across the country.
Families can access a range of online resources to enjoy at home, including crafts, recipes and stories.
Visitors to the Oriental Museum can also enjoy the recent exhibition on Monogatari: the art of storytelling in Japanese woodblock prints, which is part of a decade-long joint research relationship between Durham and the National Museum of Japanese History.
Our research spans the globe, including some significant recent collaborations and projects in China.
Durham researchers are working alongside colleagues from the University of York and Tshinghua University in China on a new sugar-containing polymer that could one day help repair artificial joint implants like hip replacements.
Meanwhile, researchers in our Department of Earth Sciences working with counterparts in Yunnan University in China recently discovered that a ‘hermit crab’ lifestyle was invented by ancient penis worms first, rather than by hermit crabs.
We are proud to be a global University, with staff and students from over 150 countries. We were recently placed 26th in the Times Higher Education (THE) International Universities ranking 2022.
As a global university we have many exciting international partnerships. Our partnership with the Chinese Academy of Sciences has already given rise to a successful webinar series entitled Knowledge Across Borders. The series covers subjects from palaeontology to astronomy, reflecting our joint commitment to stimulating new, creative and critical thinking.
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