University of Exeter 1457 reviews

For postgraduate psychology, no effort was made to increase employability beyond the standard careers service all students can access. I feel I have learned no new skills on this course, and I am very unprepared for a PhD, which is what most of my course want to pursue. There were no PhD talks or any advice on how to apply or what to look for etc. There were no other career talks either.

I think there are a fair number of different assessment types, however the teaching is at the very basic level. If you have done any animal behaviour before, you will probably not learn anything new. The organisation is very erratic. Marking is incredibly inconsistent both between and within assessments, with students receiving contrasting feedback. Research projects are very limited, despite what is advertised on the website, and a lot of supervisors were found to be very unhelpful.

10

I have not really experienced the Students Union, other than to contact them for help about some complaints about our course. They were helpful during that although not on the follow-up. I didn't get involved as it is mostly geared towards undergraduates.

Overall university facilities are good. The one downside to my course, and possibly the rest of the university, is the method to submit work is ridiculous. Hard copies have to be handed in for most assignments, as well as online in two separate webpages. Marks cannot be given back online, you have to go to campus to collect them.

Exeter is a lovely city, it has lots of different shops and restaurants. It is a small city, surrounded by rural life. It is only a short train ride to the beach as well.

Feedback is often inconsistent and unhelpful, or received too late for the next assignment. Tutors/supervisors were mostly found to be unhelpful and unsupportive.

There is a careers department on the centre of campus, weekly emails regarding opportunities are sent to us, there are always spokespersons that walk on campus that you can talk to!

I like the fact that there is a lot of contact hours, which means you get help with what you're struggling with! However, I think there are too many tutorials for certain modules

11

It's good at organising societies and the website is run well and they provide a lot of information with student life!

Very good, especially the Business school, there are lots of resources, the library is big and there is plenty of lecture theatres etc. However, it would be nice to have more places to study because there aren't that many spare rooms.

The main campus, Streatham campus is a little far from the centre of the city, but you get used to the walk! The city centre is full of life and there are plenty of shops as well as beautiful places to visit!

There are so many societies that there is bound to be at least a few everyone is interested in and they all have regular socials! As for clubs, there's a few that's quite popular, however to get a real opinion, you are better off watching some youtube videos for some in-depth explanations! There's this youtuber called Francesca Michaud and she makes Exeter student videos and this one video she made labelled "Interviewing Exeter Uni students about Uni Life " was really helpful for me when I was applying to Exeter! She interviews a lot of people about student life, so you will want to check that out!

The university recommends that you meet with your academic tutor at least once a term and I know a few people that did that and they said they actually formed a close bond with them as they offered pastoral care as well as academic advice! I'd say all the staff including lecturers are very nice and answer any questions, as well as being quick with replying to emails. I'd say the support is very good.

They have a careers department and STEM fairs etc, although there was only one STEM employer interested in biochemistry and even then they wanted engineering students for their biotech company.

What I like most....... Some lecturers were genuinely helpful and kind. Other lecturers were more interested in their own research and took up lecturing as an extra source of income so didn't really care. (Being a research scientist doesn't pay well). What most disliked about the teaching of the course: There seems to be no set standard/policing for the quality or difficulty of the teaching on this course. The lecturers always talk about the "external board of examiners" and how their exam papers get regulated, but what you have to remember is you're being taught about your lecturers specialist topic of research. The "external" board of examiners don't understand the specific topic and therefore cannot regulate it. This leads to students like myself choosing modules based on who marks harshly or kindly. Not by which modules seem most interesting. As there is such a high pressure to achieve a good grade. One of my lecturers even remarked about how they were told off for assessing at a standard too high, to which they retorted that they examine at a Cambridge level. Despite struggling to answer their own exam questions on their specialist topic, when asked in a question and answer session. The content may either be exceptionally taught or very very badly taught it purely depends upon which lecturer you have for your topic. If your content is taught badly then your only other option is read academic literature, which is also a compulsory part of the course. The problem with this is that academic literature is written by experts in their field for experts in their field and if you don't have a solid understanding of the basics taught by your lecturer, you're going to struggle. All in all some lecturers are brilliant and some are like a piece of broken glass stuck in the bottom of your shoe. You keep working hard through the blood sweat and tears in the hope that you'll achieve that 2.1.

25

They have good intentions, although some of the cost of food and drink on campus could be cheaper.

The science facilities are amazing. The labs have more than enough specialist equipment. The lecture theatres are also lovely. The only downside at the moment is study space, the library gets incredibly full. The uni is trying increase the number of study areas, but they seem increase the number of students they let in every year much faster.

The city is nice, it has everything you could need. You can reasonably easily get a job at places like dominoes as the student population creates a high demand for pizza haha. There are many lovely restaurants that are reasonably priced with gorgeous food, you just have to know where to look. The night like isn't bad for a smaller city it has a few clubs, but they close at 2am. This is only an issue for first years, as in 2nd and 3rd year you'll spend your entire life studying on campus.

There are loads of great societies and clubs at exeter. It's perfect to make friends with mutual interests. There are clubs for everything including the extremely niche and as well as popular hobbies. If you can't find a society that you're interested in you can create your own.

In terms of academic support there seems to be very little, you have a personal and academic tutor who might check up on you once a year, but you're pretty much on your own. If you're struggling with the content of your course you can of course email your lecturers for that specific topic (at your own peril). Some will give you a straight forward answer or even offer to go over the content with you. Others might just belittle you for not understanding their expert area they're been working in for the past 20 years, or suggest that you read a paper that you won't understand, because you don't understand their topic and generally just skirt around answering you. The student well being centre at Exeter is actually quite good. Most of the doctors at the health centre are very friendly and empathetic to general struggles of being a student. They have some free options available for mental health issues that may become more apparent at uni.

The University will organise many career fairs focusing on Psychology, but also other areas which might be of interest for a Psychology undergraduate. Throughout the three year programme, career as well as postgraduate research lectures are organised at last once every semester. The University's career website is well-organised, accesible and very helpful in proving job prospects or meetings with individual students for talks of future employment, but also advice on how to do a CV and so on. Overall, an extensive amount of help is provided to ensure students can graduate and be confident about what to do next.

All the lecturers in Psychology at Exeter have contributed or are currently contributing a great deal in very influential research, which means they are all aware or current developments and can therefore bring an up-to-date approach to students. The lecturers are all passionate about the area they teach which is extremely helpful in keeping students motivated. The balance of teaching hours and individual studying is very reasonable, although some modules could direct students more towards appropropiate research. An aspect which is specific to Psychology and could be improved is the adivce given for carrying out research for coursework.

10

The Student Union is very active in all possible areas of student's univeristy life- so many activities and sociaties are proposed to stuents, it is difficult to be bored!

The University is constantly improving and renewing its facilities. Unlike many universities in the UK, the buildings are colourful with a modern, powerful touch and it is a pleasure to study and have attend to lectures. Shops, cafes and restaurants are plentiful and all departments are equipped with material suited for their needs. It makes a huge difference to study in an environment with where everything is provided.

Exeter is the perfect combination between town and bysu city- everything is within walking distance and yet it is not so small that getting bored is easy. There are always things to do, whether it is restaurants, nightclubs, cultural sightings or outdoor activities in the beautiful surrounding countryside. The University and societies also organise hundreds of activities and socials throughout the week. However, it is just as easy to stay comfortably at home where the sound of traffic is very limited and enjoy a relaxed evenning in a cosy little city.

Clubs and societies are very organised and have regular but also varied events and social outings for their members and friends. Clubs and societies at Exeter are very open to new members and make everyone feel part of the family, it is a great way to meet new people and make new friends. There are hundreds of choices to suit every hobby and taste, ranging from numerous sport societies to eating to reading etc. It is for everyone!

Support offered is more than sufficent, with the main reception desk answering any topic required or directing one to appropriated sources. Lectures and supervisors are easily accessible with office hours but also reply to their emails within hours and are always ready to provide help. Essay feedback is detailed and encourages students to improve for following assessments, and exams papers can be requested once marked to see direct feedback. The wellbeing center offers a lot of help for stress management as well as other mental issues and the health clinic offers reasonably short wait-in service and appointments. If one needs help regarding anything in the University, there is a service for it!

Offers mock interviews and CV workshops throughout the time at university, as well as hosting employability events.

I found that the majority of the lecturers were very accomplished, which meant that they definitely knew what they were talking about. However the class sizes were too big, and there was a real lack of engagement between students and both lecturers and other students. The amount of idea sharing was low, and we were not encouraged to be critical of things we were studying very much. There could have been a lot more interaction through seminars and smaller lecturers, allowing for students to ask questions to engage with the course content.

12

It enabled such a wide variety of activities to be offered with some good funding opportunities for student societies.

Very good, the main thing that could be better would be more studying space.

Engaging, lots going on but with a good "small city" atmosphere.

Varied.

Some of the support offered is good, but for my course at least I found my personal tutor was not helpful at all, only meeting with him once in the 4 years of my course. I also found that the lecturers usually could not offer much support as there were too many students assigned to each of them.

Careers team. I didn't use the service

Certain tutors seemed to use biased language about emotive topics. Which didn't seem as balanced as I'd like in an academic course. Another didn't have a good breadth of knowledge around many topics, which meant he was less helpful as a dissertation supervisor. Several people mentioned it, and one swapped away from him. Loved the topics and most tutors were excellent and very knowledgable.

2

Used them once or twice, excellent.

Didn't use them often. Library was very good.

Great, small but everything's there.

Didn't use them

Poor, I wasn't advised by my tutors of any services that might have helped when I was unwell and needed support.

There existed a very helpful careers department who were always on hand to give helpful information on necessary experience in the career you were striving for. They went above and beyond that and sought out opportunities to obtain this experience. Personally I was sent an email from the Physics department for a summer internship opportunity with Ogden Trust, which I took, and that experience has shaped my future as I am now applying for SCITT with that school. There was also huge support for societies from the university. I was President of the Evangelical Christian Union and through this experience of liaising with the university, I feel I learnt many necessary skills such as time management, organisation and communication.

What I enjoyed most about my course was the tutorials we had every week. This was a time to, as a group of 5 or so confused students, bring our questions to a dedicated lecturer who would explain the concepts in a different way and help us to understand. When I started utilising this option, was when I started performing well. What I struggled with most was the weekly workload in the first few years. Weekly problem sets were set on subjects I could not yet understand and this left me with an ultimatum, complete the problem sets to a sub-standard or take the time to truly understand the topic. Due to time restrictions, both options were rarely achievable simultaneously.

20

Students union had an excellent set of societies, publicised their events well and were very helpful at the information desk.

University facilities in the Physics department were excellent. For our dissertation work, the vast array of quality equipment allowed multiple methods to be attempted to optimise the accuracy of our results.

Exeter is a city that quickly feels like your city. It is small enough that you rarely took a trip into town without catching up with someone you know. Crucially, however, there were opportunities to get out of the student bubble from time to time, for me this was through church and Jive lessons.

Excellent variety, very enjoyable and inclusive.

As said, there is excellent academic support. Personally there are ways to obtain the support you may need in times of trouble.

Gives you talks to go to, career fairs, etc.

+ Staff is excellent - 2 hour lectures are too long. 1.5 would be better.

8

I like it. The Guild is run well (all of the societies are well organized), and they build great buildings/facilities for students (such as DH1).

Great. New ones are always being built, and you can find everything you need and more on campus. It is essentially its own city.

Very good. The atmosphere of Exeter is wonderful. There are so many cool places to go (especially for drinks and food), the river is very pretty, there are great walks you can do, places to go out in the evening, and a few ruins (ideal for an archaeologist).

Very good. They have everything I could think of, and all have plenty of activities and socials to attend.

The university has many systems in place to offer support. Everybody has a tutor that helps both with the academic and the personal, and there is a wellbeing center for ones emotional and mental issues. Personally I have not had the best experience with either. Staff is always great, but my tutor was changed every year while I was enrolled, not allowing me to develop a good connection. Wellbeing can offer great services (and it does to a lot of people), but I found it both difficult and stressful, even simply to be seen for the very first time.

Career zone is very helpful

Tutorials are very helpful

10

They have many activities but need more marketing to get others awareness

Excellent

Best city ever

Iit's okay

They are helpful

These were pretty good at Exeter. Although they didn't offer anything to me.

The course material was interesting and they run a good, but disorganised residential. A number of the speakers changed at the last minute, no one had checked the sound connection for a Skype speaker. The information about what we could use for our write up was unclear. So it often felt a bit confused. Sadly some of the lecturers weren't very helpful, one would plan 1 2 1 tutorials and then cancel, which would have been fine had she been flexible and able to work around my schedule. It felt like one lecturer presented a biased view of certain emotional topics. As a result we wondered if she marked work more harshly where it disagreed with her strong ethical stances. Several others found one particular lecturer to be very difficult to get assistance from, the lecturer rarely knew where to find readings on topics we were asking about and several people had problems with them as their dissertation supervisor, one I know of was allowed to swap. Emails to some of the main lecturers often went unanswered. In particular many of us had to email several times to receive feedback on our dissertations, one girl finally posted her request on Facebook and then received her feedback (along with the post being deleted). Sometimes the handin dates on the online information would be incorrect, leading to problems. But the head of the programme was extremely helpful. She often permitted extensions, when I was struggling with work and this course. She also has an amazing wealth of knowledge, alway knew of some reading which might provide some helpful leads. Overall very lovely people and interesting topics, but if I had my time over then I. would not do this Ma. Instead I would have looked at human-animal interactions.

0.5

They were helpful, gave good advice although not always well staffed. Took them some time to reply to questions.

Excellent.

Nice small city. Lots to do.

Didn't engage with them

I was ill during my course and my lecturers never told me there was a disability team or counselling. I only found out at my graduation when talking to another student who had received support from the disability team. That was very disappointing, maybe I could have achieved a distinction instead of a merit (as I was very close).