students do not receive education from their college. Graduate students at Cambridge and Oxford have to name two college choices on their application, which goes to the department/faculty, and if the university accepts them, it guarantees that the applicant will have a college membership, although not necessarily at the favoured college(s). Durham University Durham University is also collegiate in nature, and its colleges hold the same legal status of 'listed bodies' as the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge. Durham's colleges are (with two exceptions) owned by the university. They are explicitly defined in the university's statutes, meaning that permission of the Privy Council is needed to create (or abolish) colleges. At the time of Durham's foundation, Oxford and Cambridge were the only two universities in England, thus Durham, following their example, pursued a collegiate model from the start. Two important innovations were, however, made that were later taken up for the colleges of the plate glass universities (below) and the residential colleges of US universities: the colleges at Durham were (starting with the original University College) owned by the university rather than being independent like Oxbridge colleges; and the teaching was done centrally rather than in the colleges, with the colleges being residential and responsible for student discipline, as had originally been the case at Oxford and Cambridge. The Durham model has been described as "a far better model for people at other institutions to look to, than are the independent colleges of Oxford and Cambridge". This model was challenged by the admission to the university as teaching colleges of the College of Medicine and Armstrong College in Newcastle (now Newcastle University) in the latter half of the 19th century, and more recently of University College, Stockton (since divided into two non-teaching colleges with teaching organised separately). Hild Bede also surrendered its teacher training duties to the university on becoming a maintained college in 1979. Generally, Durham colleges are not now financially independent, exceptions being the recognised colleges of St Chad's and St John's, and Ushaw College, a licensed hall of residence. While university teaching is not carried out in the colleges, St John's College has teaching in Cranmer Hall, a Church of England theological college; St Chad's College also trained Anglican priests until the 1970s and Ushaw College was a Catholic seminary until 2011. Although the colleges do not have any teaching duties as part of the university, they