Van Mildert College

Van Mildert College (colloquially known as Van Mil or Mildert) is one of the 17 constituent colleges of Durham University. The college was founded in 1965 and takes its name from William Van Mildert, the last Prince-Bishop to rule the County Palatine of Durham and a leading figure in the university's foundation. Originally an all-male college, Van Mildert admitted female undergraduates for the first time in 1972, making it the first Durham college to become mixed. The college occupies grounds of 8 acres (3 hectares) alongside South Road and Mill Hill Lane, about 1 mile (2 kilometres) south of the university town, and is centred on a small lake. Designed by Middleton, Fletcher & Partners, the college was built in a modernist and egalitarian architectural style that aimed to house the sudden influx of students in the early 1960s. The college is notable for its lake, named Lake Mildert, and its Ann Dobson Dining Hall which is the largest student dining hall in Durham. The college is the third largest collegiate body in the university by total numbers of affiliated students, just behind University College, and is reputed for its community feel and relative informality compared with other Durham colleges. Almost half of home students admitted are from grammar school and it is one of the 7 colleges of Durham that does not require its students to don their gown, though the traditional Durham custom of formal dining are still performed and taken pride of. Among Van Mildert's notable alumni are former Minister of State for Women The Baroness Morgan of Huyton, World Record triple jump Olympic champion Jonathan Edwards, the cosmologist and Templeton Prize winner John D. Barrow, English judge of the UK Supreme Court Lord Hughes of Ombersley, and Turkish Prince Naz Osmanoglu.