Higher Education Section | East Durham College

We work closely with the University of Sunderland and Teesside University to offer several degree-level programmes.

Many of the programmes are foundation level courses where you complete 1-2 years of study with East Durham College before choosing or not to complete a final year at the university which runs the degree programme.

University of Sunderland Partnership

The following programmes are offered by East Durham College working in partnership with the University of Sunderland. The award that you will receive will be from the University of Sunderland. The courses are run and taught at the College's Peterlee Campus.

Our Foundation Degrees are university-level qualifications in their own right, equivalent to the first two years of an Honours degree. And the great news is that once you’ve got a Foundation Degree, it’s possible to ‘top up’ your qualification to a full Honours degree. This usually involves an extra year studying full-time (or the part-time equivalent) at the University of Sunderland.

East Durham College's Houghall Campus is working in partnership with the University of Sunderland to provide a new FdSc and BSc top up in Animal Management which started start running in September 2023. You study at Houghall, in Durham, and the award you will receive is from the University of Sunderland. Once you have successfully passed the Foundation degree (FdSc) you have the option to top up the Foundation degree to a full honours degree again studying at our Houghall campus in Durham.

If you have any queries about the FdSc Animal Management course , please contact the HE Animal Care Manager:

Rebecca Sweet (Higher Education Course Leader) MSc, BSc (Hons) rebecca.sweet@eastdurham.ac.uk

For more information on the University of Sunderland, please click here to visit the University of Sunderland website >>

Teesside University Partnership

For those passionate about animal welfare and studying an Animal Science degree, the College has a partnership with Teesside University on their Animal Science & Welfare Degree.

The degree course takes place primarily at Teesside University's Middlesbrough campus, with further study at East Durham College's Houghall Campus in Durham. The Houghall Farm site, set on a stunning 476-acre estate, minutes from Durham city centre, is a fantastic place to work with animals. A purpose-built small animal care centre was has several specialist facilities including a snake house, lizard house, tortoise house, aquatics, small mammals house and an aviary. There is also a commercial dog grooming studio, 22-bay dog kennel and a dog agility and walking area. The site is also home to horse riding stables, an arena and commercial pig and cattle facilities.

There are two routes available for this course, check out the details on their website:

Higher Education Engineering

East Durham College also offers a Level 4 HNC qualification in Engineering, taught at The Technical Academy in Peterlee. Please click the below link for more details: