Our collection of real, honest student reviews of unis and courses is the largest in the UK, and helps you make well-informed decisions about your future. Student reviews also form the basis of our annual Whatuni Student Choice Awards (WUSCAs), which highlight great work carried out by institutions for their students.
The campus is very green. There's a lot of outdoor space and it makes it a really nice place to study. The city is within a 15 minute walk of campus so everything's really close. However, it is very hilly. That's definitely something to consider if wanting to study here. Student support is pretty great. The well-being team has been super useful and there's lots of help within careers, the chaplains, and subject leads, including personal tutors. However, this is just my experience, and I am aware of other students who have not felt supported by the university. The uni always reminds us of where we can go for help. It's very clear. As for student life, the guild is quite good. There's many societies and there's always events going on in the Forum. However, the nightlife could be improved. It's not necessarily affiliated with the university, but as a student, it would make the uni experience even better. It's not awful, but could definitely be improved. The facilities here are great. There's many top of the range sports facilities , if that's something you're interested in, and lots of study spaces and cafes on campus.
Studying Arabic, I have some of the most contact hours out of any course, but it's really useful. The quality of the lectures are good, and since they are small class (for Arabic) it's almost 1-1 learning. However, lectures and seminars aren't recorded (and there's no slides), so if you miss one, it can be quite hard to catch up. The Arabic institute has a lovely common room, that holds breakfast weekly, and occasionally lunch. If you're sat in there doing work, it's not uncommon for older year groups or even lecturers to come sit with you and help with your work. We also have a library downstairs which is great, as the Forum library is usually full. We've had quite a few careers talks already, including from the civil service and government intelligence. I'm only in 1st year, so we haven't widely talked about internships and work placements, but we've had a talk about getting one on our year out, and if you wanted to organise one independently, I'm sure the institute would be happy to help. Sarah Roberts (the administrator for the IAIS) is amazing and very helpful! In my opinion the Arabic Institute is one of the most beautiful places on campus. My other subject (Spanish) is also quite good. I enjoy the course content. There is a wide range of modules to choose from which means you can sort of tailor your degree to what fits you. The content during lectures can be taught quite quick, so I do find myself having to watch back the recordings a lot. Although part of Queens building is dedicated to languages, a lot of lectures and seminars will be in other buildings on campus. What I love is the amount of activities that the languages department organises. There are regular language cafes where you can practice your language skills, as well as film nights, and a magazine, which you can write for.
All supermarkets in Exeter are outside the main city centre, so if you want to go to one, you either need are car, bike, or you'll be walking a long way. This includes cheaper supermarkets like Aldi and Lidl. Due to this, food can be a bit more expensive, as you either have to get delivery, or go to the express stores like Tesco, Sainsbury's or the M&S foodhall. You can take 2 buses to get to the Aldi, however the public transport in Exeter is quite poor. I've been on a bus before that has stopped midway to my destination and everyone was told to get off as the bus driver had decided to just end the route there. This is quite common. It's quite hard to find a job here. It seem that there's no vacancies or the job requires ridiculous hours, which are very difficult for a student. However, it is possible to find one, and the university offers quite a lot of jobs. I know a few people who are university ambassadors and they get paid quite well, although it is seasonal. Considering diversity, Exeter rates very low. The university as a whole is very white, but so is the city. The university tries to mitigate this by access campaigns and societies, but I'm not sure how successful it is. It's hard to tell as someone who is white, the full extent though.
The location is great, as it's on campus. My accommodation is an 8 minute walk from my lecturers (which are almost on the other side of campus). This is also great for safety. As we're in a student bubble, it feels very safe. Also, campus security are there to help at any time of day. Once a flatmate accidentally got locked out at 4am and campus security came within 5 minutes to help him back inside. My room allocation is exactly what I wanted. I requested self-catered and a quiet flat, and that's exactly what I got. All the rooms are the same, apart from the disabled room so I wasn't anything wildly different when I arrived. The downside is the WiFi. It's not awful, but it could be better. The problem is that the WiFi keeps going down campus wide, and so that affects our accommodation as well. Sometimes things can take a while to load, but it's not terrible. Another downside is the property management. Quite a few things in our kitchen have been broken, prior to us even using them. For example, our oven didn't work, and our microwave barely worked. It took them over 3 weeks to fix these issues. We had to share 1 oven between 10 of us. As for value for money, I pay £177 a week for a standard room ie. no ensuite (the bathrooms are 1 between 2). That's not an awful price considering its proximity to campus and the amenities we get. The accommodation team organise lots of activities, including crafts, and trips to different places. I would say it's definitely one of the nicer accommodations on campus.
I am loving this university a lot. The university providing me with all the facilities that a student should need. With such a beautiful environment and weather as well as the overall atmosphere, I enjoy a lot at studying as well as participating in Co curricular activities than the university
Other than the internship and the job opportunity. Everything as I have observed an experience in the university are good.
The unique hall are well maintained and are systematically made according to the need
Exeter is a lovely city - student life is great if you enjoy the outdoors, sport, pubs, local culture, and the limited clubs we have here. It takes a bit of getting used to if you are from a large city. The Students' Guild has for a long time been a joke institution that has not only failed to reflect the concerns of said students but has actively worked against them. Fortunately, it seems to have improved a little this year and has introduced things like Money Week. Improving on last year's Guild is probably not such a big achievement, though, considering that they did literally nothing all-year except offer a couple of equivocal and vapid statements on the UCU strikes.
Ancient History is a enjoyable, engaging, and challenging course. The Classics department is, on the whole, extremely hardworking, supportive, friendly, and helpful. Unfortunately, the course does not offer any internships, but does help you develop important skills and experiences for the workplace. Tutor contact time has been minimal/non-existent for most of my time at Exeter.
Excellent safety and property management. We even had a support person from the University come round to ask how we were doing each week. Campus estate patrol were very vigilant and we felt quite safe. The location is ok. It's right next to the train station, but is off campus and therefore a bit socially isolated. The value for money is pretty poor. The accommodation was ok, but is fairly overpriced considering that it is off-campus and self-catered.
I love that he uni is small and often feel like a community. Nonetheless it is still a corporate institution which takes funding and invests in oil companies, border violence and is dismissive of student engagement in things that are not in the interest of university profits. The uni has been silent about the current genocide, the well-bein support is dismissive of mental health concerns that can't be fixed with a walk outside.
My first year was mostly online and very isolating but since I have enjoyed classes mostly. I do think that teaching and researching are two different jobs and some lecturers have no interest/do not enjoy engaging with students. I like the flexibility of my course, able to chose multi-disciplinary modules. I did study abroad and did not feel well supported or informed b the uni - especially having been on a smaller campus
cornwall you get what you expect! great beaches and walks, good buses for how rural it is but having to wait 30mins+ is normal. not diverse and too expensive to live here after graduating without a loan.
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Amazing location and the campus itself is spectacular looking with uni accomodation really close by. However, it's completely segregated from main campus (like 40minute walk) which makes it very difficult to socialise with people on different courses and join societies. It's quite isolating. The facilities are also limited to just one cafe and there's always huge queues especially at lunch. Streatham have much better facilities. I also have no idea who to contact if I have queries and the general enquiries email for our campus who we are directed to take several days to get back to us.
The spiral learning style is great. Clinical skills suite at the hospital is also amazing but placements need alot of work- shadowing a GP receptionist for instance is not the best use of time or 9/10 placements act like they had no idea you were coming and will leave you to just entertain yourself for hours until they figure out what to do with you
Great location close to town. However it is very much a student town- feels very much like it's been taken over by 18 year olds (just go into a local coffee shop and 90% of the people in there are students) and it is very evident that this causes alot of tension with locals and I have witnessed a few clashes where locals loudly complain that the cafe is taken over with students on their laptops and theres no where to sit. Also experienced shop staff and cafe staff being rude and condescending to students.
Cannot fault the halls at all. Reception super friendly the handy man is amazing- any problems he is there same day. Security is great, always felt very safe even when everyone went home for the holiday. Had everything I need. Only downside is no living room but kitchen was huge and doubled as communal space. Laundry room a little on the expensive side and washers never clean anything properly but at the same time managed to shrink loads of my clothes.
Great student life, lots of extracurriculars to choose from, great support from the university for things like mental health etc.
Interesting course, is quite heavy on statistics and research methods.
Good value for money, university responds to issues with the accommodation and fixes it.
The university of Exeter is a very welcoming place. There are many great facilities and the support from lecturers is helpful. However, an improvement could be more involvement with student societies. Certain societies don't try hard enough with socials, and stash, and that could be improved.
We have in-class lectures but they are recorded which is good if we want to go back and review the content. The course hours are good and lecturers are always open to have 1:1 meetings.
The university halls I stayed in were a good value for money. The facilities like the laundry building was nearby and easily accessible. Reception was always friendly. The only flaw would be the occasional silverfish sighting.
Exeter is a really lovely place, although if you want a big city with a very active nightlife, it probably won't be for you. The campus is really beautiful and it's great that the city centre is within walking distance. I love being so close to the beaches and the moors as it makes for great days out. I was in catered accommodation in 1st year and would highly recommend, especially if you find the idea of cooking for yourself daunting. You can meet people more easily with a corridor set up than in self catered flats. Exeter has a reputation for being posh and there are definitely a lot of people from well off families and private schools, but that doesn't mean they are bad people and I expect most Russel Group unis would be the same. It is fairly expensive to live in Exeter but there are definitely more affordable student houses available, especially if you're willing to live in a bit of a different area from the main places. As it's a fairly small city you can never go anywhere without seeing someone you recognise but I don't think that's a bad thing! Overall I have had a very positive experience here so far but would advise people to pick a university based on the course first, and everything else second.
I have been very happy with my choice of degree. The Classics and Ancient History department at Exeter is fairly small and so you always know someone in your lectures and lots of the professors know your name. I do both Latin and Greek which are taught more like school lessons with smaller classes and more interaction, especially at the higher levels where the groups are smaller. Other modules might have 100 or so people so lectures are fairly big and aren't very interactive but I find the lecturers really engaging. I have found the small group seminars really useful too for looking at some topics in more depth. Assessment depends from module to module - it's mostly coursework essays and online written exams, but language modules tend to have more in person exams. No matter what you study uni is fewer contact hours than school so you do have to be more motivated to get work done, so I think finding the things you study interesting is so important.
Personally I really like Exeter as a place to live. It is a fairly small city but there is plenty going on. I like being near the sea and the moors, there are good options for days out. The city centre has a good range of shops and food places, and it has cinema, museum etc. It's not renowned for the nightlife so if that's what you're looking for it might not be the place for you. It is also a fairly expensive place to live, and not a particularly diverse area. But the weather is pretty good compared to the rest of the UK! The location of the campus in relation to the city centre is also a bonus as everything is really walkable.
I cannot speak more highly of my first year halls experience. I was in a small catered hall with shared bathrooms and a corridor set up. Catered was perfect for me as I didn't want to cook and the food provided was pretty good - they had a lot of options for breakfasts and also usually four options for dinners. We didn't have lunches provided and my main criticism would be the lack of kitchen facilities for making food - we only had kettles and toasters. My hall had shared bathrooms but I never had a problem with people making a mess or all the showers being in use, and we had sinks in our rooms anyway. The rooms were actually really big and we also had good communal spaces with a common room with a pool table and TV. I felt it was a lot easier to make friends because of the communal space and also because everyone would socialise at meals, we weren't confined to a flat of 5 or so people. It seemed like really good value for money as I spent very little money on food for lunches. Overall I would say you don't need a double bed or an en suite in 1st year halls and if you are considering catered it is so worth it! My hall was also so close to the centre of campus which was so nice.
Best aspects are the location and the staff who seem genuinely interested in their subject and translate this in how they teach. Worst aspects are that there never seem to be enough study spaces at peak times and that some of the other students can ruin the experience.
Best aspects are the lecturers who are knowledgeable and passionate about their subject. Worst aspect is career uncertainty.
It is a really beautiful place to live with countryside very close by and great views over hills. The town centre is easily accessible and has a wide range of shops. It is more expensive in terms of housing and cost of living, however, and the bus system is very poor.
Best aspects are the space and the facilities which are clean and easy to access. Worst aspects are its location, it’s the furthest from the uni and at the bottom of a very steep hill
Great campus if you are looking for that sort of thing, footpaths and ponds everywhere with benches which are really nice when it's sunny weather, great connections to the south west (dartmoor, exmouth, etc.), downside is if you like clubbing the night life is very subpar, I do not so it's fine but that is something to consider.
Almost all in person teaching rather than online, contact hours are about 9-11 hours per week, weighted towards seminars rather than lectures. Seminars are really useful however I think often times I don't gain much from lectures as they are only an hour and are surface level, never actually used lecture content for an assignment.
I got allocated ground floor room next to the kitchen so I get a lot of people knocking on my window or have late conversations next to the smoke bin right outside my window, but that's just a short straw I guess. Really close to lessons, maximum 10m walk, also about 7m from the coop and 15m into town. Any complaints are usually solved on the day / day after, only other complaint is that the showers are wet rooms and the drain gets clogged a lot meaning the floor can flood easily.
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