Welcome to The University of Exeter

About Us

Exeter is one of the UK’s most popular and successful universities with campuses in Exeter, Devon, and near Falmouth in Cornwall. Students and staff enjoy some of the finest campus environments in the UK. The South West counties of Devon and Cornwall boast an unrivalled mix of city life, countryside and coastline. 

Exeter is ranked 17th out of more than 100 UK universities in a trio of league tables – the Times, the Sunday Times and the Good University Guide published in the Daily Telegraph. The University scores highly for student satisfaction, completion rates, and for students achieving good honours degrees (Firsts or 2:1s). It is currently University of the Year 2007/08 as voted by the Times Higher Educational Supplement.

A research-led institution, Exeter maintains the traditional British university values of scholarship and high quality teaching, alongside new technology and innovation. 
Under the leadership of Professor Steve Smith, who was appointed Vice-Chancellor in 2002, the University has invested heavily in new academic appointments and facilities. The University is near to completing a £140 million investment programme and has plans to spend a further £277 million on facilities over the next decade.

The University traces its origins to the middle of the 19th Century and has gone through several stages of development. The Royal Albert Memorial College was opened in 1900.  A University College of the South West was established in 1922 and full university status granted in 1955.  The St Luke’s campus began life in 1854 as a theological college and developed into teacher education before becoming part of the University in 1978.

Exeter has 14,000 students of whom 3,500 are postgraduates. The Peninsula Medical School, a partnership between the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth and NHS, was opened in 2002 and its first students graduated this year. A new £28 million Peninsula Dental School opened in October 2007 – the first new dental school in the UK for 40 years. The £100 million Cornwall Campus opened in 2004 and offers environmental programmes, law and the arts.
Exeter’s sports facilities and performance are among the best in the country. Internationally, Exeter has links with 150 universities around the world and in 2007 it opened an office in Dubai.

The University offers an exceptionally wide range of opportunities for its students to develop through both academic and management training, one of the UK’s largest student volunteering programmes, pre-teacher training and a world-wide network of study abroad opportunities. 

Research excellence

The University invested £34 million in research last year and the value of new grant awards rose by 43 per cent. Great attention has been paid to recruiting and developing world class research teams and more than 185 new academic staff have been appointed in the last 18 months, including some 25 new professors in disciplines as diverse as Arab and Islamic Studies, Psychology, Bioscience, Engineering, Geography and Modern Languages. Our Cornwall Campus, which opened in October 2004, has attracted top-flight academic staff, including five Royal Society and two NERC Natural Environment Research Council) Research Fellows. There is over £3.5 million of specialist research equipment on campus, including facilities such as Camborne School of Mines’ world-class analytical mineralogical suite, and facilities in the Centre for Conservation and Ecology which is home to one of the UK’s leading groups of conservation and ecology researchers. The opening of Phase 2 of the Campus in September 2007 saw further excellent appointments in history, politics and law.

In the last (2001) Research Assessment Exercise, ninety-eight per cent of subject areas were rated 4, 5 or 5* (of national or international standing), including all those offered at undergraduate and taught postgraduate level. A further reflection of the growing stature and reputation of research at Exeter is the appointment of 13 of our academic staff as panel members in the forthcoming 2008 RAE. A growing number of Exeter’s professorial staff are Fellows of the British Academy or the Royal Society, the premier distinction for UK scholars in the humanities and social sciences and the sciences respectively.

Exeter is leading a groundbreaking £14m research partnership of South West universities, including Bristol and Bath, to boost research in areas of economic importance to the region, through the creation of 130 PhD studentships, supported by 20 new Research Fellows and the establishment of a South West Postgraduate Training Network.  Exeter continues to receive significant funding from the Research Councils. It is in the top 12 UK universities for receipt of research awards from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and in the top 15 for awards from the Economic and Social Research Council.  

Teaching excellence

The University offers a high quality student experience, thanks to its emphasis on strong academic support, student employability and personal development, and on continuously improving the academic and social environment.  Exeter is among the best universities in the UK for student satisfaction according to the National Student Survey: for three years running, we have been ranked in the top 10 in the Times Higher satisfaction league table, which is based on ratings across all six aspects of teaching quality. In the latest 2007 survey Exeter is 4th in the list of traditional universities and 7th overall.
Exeter is also in the top 10 for student retention with just 3% of full-time first year undergraduates not continuing their studies. The high quality student experience is reflected in a loyal and committed band of alumni currently some 58.000 strong, many of whom continue to help the development of the current generation of students.

Amongst traditional research-led universities, Exeter offers an exceptionally wide range of opportunities for its students to develop personally and professionally, from management training to business placements, one of the UK’s largest student volunteering and pre-teacher training programmes to a world-wide network of study abroad opportunities. 

 

The University’s Work with Business

Staff in all disciplines are encouraged to build partnerships with external organisations to enhance and support their teaching and research and to act entrepreneurially in order to develop commercially relevant intellectual property, consultancy and professional development services. Income from business and other sources has increased to £20 million and each year over 1,000 projects are undertaken.

The University’s Innovation Centre is home to a number of high technology businesses and provides a dedicated support team helping academic staff and students to link their knowledge and experience to communities of practice and the business world. Phase 2 of the Innovation Centre was completed in 2007 bringing total investment to nearly £10 million. The University is working with a range of partners to build a science park for Exeter which is due to open in 2011.

The University’s campuses

The University has three campuses, two in Exeter and one in Cornwall. 

• Exeter. The Streatham campus, the University’s largest site in Exeter, is built around a country estate overlooking the city and is readily acknowledged as one of the most beautiful in the country.  A Registered Botanic Garden, the Streatham campus was described by The Times as the ‘best-gardened campus in Britain’ and by The Independent as having a ‘sublime’ setting.
  The St Luke’s campus is just over a mile away across the city and is 10 minutes’ walk from the city centre.  Students of Education and Exercise and Sport Sciences study here, and it is also the Exeter base of the Peninsula Medical School.

• Cornwall. The University’s third campus near Falmouth in Cornwall (officially known as Tremough) opened in September 2004.  This stunning new £100m campus, which is shared with University College Falmouth, offers the very latest in academic, research and residential facilities, designed to meet the expectations of students and staff in the 21st century.  This investment is part of the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC), a multi-million pound EU-funded partnership initiative aimed at expanding higher education opportunities in Cornwall and bringing about a sustainable step change in the development of the Cornish economy.