University of Exeter
The University of Exeter is a research university in the West Country of England, with its main campus in Exeter, Devon. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School of Mines were established in 1838, 1855, 1863, and 1888 respectively. These institutions later formed the University of Exeter after receiving its royal charter in 1955. In post-nominals, the University of Exeter is abbreviated as Exon., and is the suffix given to honorary and academic degrees from the university.
The university has four campuses: Streatham and St Luke's ; and Truro and Penryn. The university is primarily located in the city of Exeter, where it is the principal higher education institution. Streatham is the largest campus containing many of the university's administrative buildings. The Penryn campus is maintained in conjunction with Falmouth University under the Combined Universities in Cornwall initiative. The Exeter Streatham Campus Library holds more than 1.2 million physical library resources, including historical journals and special collections. The annual income of the institution for 2024-25 was £680.7 million of which £136.9 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £678.9 million.
It was one of the pre-World War II local university colleges granted university status in the 1950s, as part of the second wave of civic universities. In 2012, Exeter joined the Russell Group of research-intensive UK universities. It is also a member of Universities UK, the European University Association, and the Association of Commonwealth Universities and an accredited institution of the Association of MBAs.
History
The university's origins can be traced back to three separate educational institutions that existed in the city of Exeter and in Cornwall in the middle of the 19th century.University College of the South West of England
To celebrate the educational and scientific work of Prince Albert, and inspired by the Great Exhibition of 1851, Exeter School of Art in 1855 and the Exeter School of Science in 1863 were founded. In 1868, the Schools of Art and Science relocated to Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Queen Street, Exeter, and, with support from the University of Cambridge, became the Exeter Technical and University Extension College in 1893.In 1900 its official title was changed to the Royal Albert Memorial College and the college moved to Bradninch Place in Gandy Street. The college was again renamed to the University College of the South West of England in 1922 after the college was incorporated under the Companies Act and included on the list of institutions eligible to receive funds from the then University Grants Committee. As was customary for new university institutions in England in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the college prepared students for external degrees of the University of London.
Alderman W. H. Reed, a former mayor of Exeter, donated Streatham Hall on the Streatham Estate to the new University College in 1922. Streatham Hall was renamed to Reed Hall after its benefactor. At the same time, the first principal of the University College, later Sir Hector Hetherington, persuaded the Council of the college to buy a major portion of the Streatham Estate. A slow move to the Streatham Estate from the centre of the city occurred over time. The first new building erected on the Streatham Estate was the Washington Singer building; the foundation stone was laid by the Prince of Wales, then President of the University College of the South West of England. The building was opened in 1931. The first of the purpose-built halls of residence, Mardon Hall, opened in 1933. The second academic building on the estate was the Roborough Library named in recognition of the interest taken in the development of the college by the first Lord Roborough, one of its early benefactors. Roborough Library was completed around 1939.
The University College of the South West of England became the University of Exeter and received its royal charter in 1955, exactly one hundred years after the formation of the original Exeter School of Art. Queen Elizabeth II presented the charter to the university on a visit to Streatham the following year.
The university underwent a period of considerable expansion in the 1960s. Between 1963 and 1968, a period when the number of students at Exeter almost doubled, no fewer than ten major buildings were completed on the Streatham estate as well as halls of residence for around 1,000 students. These included homes for the Chemistry and Physics departments, the Newman, Laver and Engineering Buildings and Streatham Court. Queen's Building had been opened for the Arts Faculty in 1959 and the Amory Building, housing Law and Social Sciences, followed in 1974. In the following two decades, considerable investment was made in developing new self-catering accommodation for students.
Gifts from the Gulf States made it possible to build a new university library in 1983 and more recently have allowed for the creation of a new Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies; as of 2017, Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad al-Qasimi, the ruler of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates– had given more than £8 million to Exeter University, and was described by the university as its "single most important supporter" in its 2007 annual report. A further major donation enabled the completion of the Xfi Centre for Finance and Investment. Since 2009, significant further investment has been made into new student accommodation, new buildings in The Exeter Business School, and the Forum: a new development for the centre of Streatham Campus.
St Luke's College Exeter
In 1838, the Exeter Diocesan Board of Education resolved to found an institution for the education and training of schoolmasters, the first such initiative in England. As a result, a year later, the Exeter Diocesan Training College was created in Cathedral Close, Exeter at the former house of the Archdeacon of Totnes, adjacent to Exeter Cathedral. The first principal was appointed and the college opened in 1840.Expansion followed, and in 1853, John Hayward was commissioned to design a purpose-built premises for the college on Heavitree Road. The building, largely built in grey limestone from Torbay with Bath Stone dressings, was completed by the autumn of the following year. On 18 October 1854, after a service in Exeter Cathedral, an opening ceremony for the new buildings was held. From this date in 1854, the college was unofficially known as St Luke's. The college's intake in 1854 was 40 students.
In parallel, at the Royal Albert Memorial College, an initiative within the Arts and Sciences department in 1912 eventually led to the formation of an Institute of Education and a separate department of Extra Mural Studies for the purposes of teacher training. Exeter Diocesan Training College was formally renamed to St Luke's College Exeter in 1930 and became co-educational in 1966.
In 1978, St Luke's College Exeter was incorporated into the University of Exeter. A faculty was created incorporating the university's Institute of Education and St Luke's College Exeter into a new School of Education.
The Peninsula Medical School was established in 2000 in conjunction with the University of Plymouth and the National Health Service, based at St Luke's and the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital. The School of Dentistry opened in 2007 and, together with the Peninsula Medical School, created the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry. St Luke's campus is the main site for the University of Exeter Medical School, which accepted its first students in 2013.
Camborne School of Mines
During the 18th and 19th centuries, Cornwall was among the most significant metalliferous mining regions in the world. Camborne School of Mines was founded in 1888 to meet the needs of this local industry.Camborne School of Mines was located in the centre of Camborne for almost a century but, following major investment by the international mining industry and others, relocated in 1975 to purpose-built facilities midway between Camborne and Redruth. Significant expansion and diversification of teaching and research provision occurred during the 1980s and early 1990s, including the development of undergraduate and taught postgraduate degree programmes in geology, environmental science and surveying. In 1993, Camborne School of Mines was incorporated into the University of Exeter.
Initiatives by the university and others to expand the provision of higher education in Cornwall resulted in the Combined Universities in Cornwall initiative in 1999. As part of this initiative, Penryn, just outside Falmouth, became the site of the Penryn Campus, a facility shared with Falmouth University. Camborne School of Mines relocated to Penryn during 2004 when the university's new Cornwall Campus opened.
Campuses
Streatham Campus
Streatham is the main campus, sitting on a hillside one side of which looks down across Exeter city centre. The Independent has described the campus environment as "sublime". The campus has several galleries, including the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum. A Sculpture Walk includes pieces by Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. There is a bar called the "Ram" and a bar within a nightclub called the Lemon Grove, both run by the University of Exeter, formerly run by the Students Guild. The campus hosts a medical centre, a counselling service, a children's day-care centre and numerous catering outlets. Many halls of residence and some self-catering accommodation are located on this campus or in the near vicinity. The Northcott Theatre resides on the campus.In the early 2000s, the university benefited from an investment program worth more than £235 million. New student accommodation was constructed, including Holland Hall, named after the former vice-chancellor of the same name. Sports facilities, including a professional-standard tennis centre, have been completed in addition to an upgrade of the Students' Guild building.After a donation from the ruler of the Sharjah emirate, Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, an alumnus of the university, an extension was added to the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies building. He has donated more than £5m since 2001. In 2006, the Department of Drama completed a major renovation with the construction of the state of the art Alexander Building, named after the university's former Chancellor Lord Alexander. The Department of Biosciences is based in three buildings on the Streatham Campus: Geoffrey Pope, the Henry Wellcome building for Biocatalysis and the Hatherly Laboratories. The department has recently received significant investment to further develop its facilities, particularly with improvements to the Geoffrey Pope building.
On the Streatham Campus, the Business School is spread over three buildings, located in close proximity to each other: Building:One, Xfi Building and Streatham Court. Building:One houses the Business School's MBA suite, La Touche café and several modern lecture theatres and seminar rooms. The Xfi Building is home to the school's Bloomberg Suite, a specialist IT room for detailed financial market data, and next to this is the Student IT Suite, also equipped with specialist software. Streatham Court is where you will find the Business School's Career Zone and Study Abroad Team, as well as the specialist Finance and Economics Experimental Laboratory at Exeter, and high capacity, recently refurbished teaching rooms.
The Exeter Innovation Centre, based at the Streatham Campus, has been completed in two phases. Phase I of the Innovation Centre was finished in 2000 with Phase II opening in 2008, creating a building for use by new and growing businesses within the development and research sectors. A base for 55 firms in the city, the centre houses high-tech businesses from the software and biomedical sectors to advanced manufacturing and internet firms. The Innovation Centre is host to some of the most upwardly mobile small firms in the country, according to Experian in a report commissioned by the BBC.
As a result of a £48 million investment including £5 million donated by Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, The Forum building includes new facilities including a 400-seat auditorium, a student services centre, learning spaces and retail facilities. The Forum is located at the centre of the Streatham Campus and features the refurbished main library, the Great Hall and the area between it. Designed as a glass structure of modernist design, The Forum also acts as the university reception area. The Forum was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 2 May 2012. The Forum's structural engineers, Buro Happold, won the 2013 Institution of Structural Engineers award for Education or Healthcare structures for the project.
In 2017, the £52 million Living Systems Institute was opened to pioneer research into living systems and the diagnosis and treatment of disease.