Exeter University Penryn Campus

[doglover]

My dd has visited some universities prior to applying (for English) in the autumn but is struggling to see herself at the majority we have seen eg. Bristol, Nottingham, Sussex, UCL. Her aspirational choice is Oxford but she's realistic about her chances there! She really liked Royal Holloway too: she's drawn to smaller, more traditional establishments ..... but they must have an orchestra! She initially dismissed Durham because of the 7 hour journey from home but is now seriously considering it because of the collegiate system. She has also mentioned Exeter Uni Penryn Campus at Falmouth .... any knowledge of this place? Would the English course there be as excellent as Exeter? She's a quiet, conscientious girl who felt overwhelmed at the large, busy unis and I'm not sure what to advise ............

Thanks in advance.

OP, I've been to the Penryn campus and met two of the English faculty staff there. The education your daughter will receive here is an Exeter education and the degree she'll receive is from the University of Exeter. Many of the faculty staff are shared between the university's two campuses (Streatham in Exeter and Penryn near Falmouth; there's also St. Luke's in Exeter but that's primarily for medical school students) and the books are shared between them too, i.e. you order a book from the library and it arrives the same day or following morning if it's stored at the other campus. The online resources are, of course, shared too.

For a subject like English a small campus such as Penryn's is fantastic as the staff to student ratio is high and there is also the opportunity to mix with the students on the Journalism and other creative writing-related courses at Falmouth University (Falmouth College of Arts) which shares the communal areas such as dining room, common room, bar, etc. with the Exeter students.

I'd really recommend it to your daughter if she likes that closer knit environment and suggest that she send an email to the admissions tutor for Humanities if she has any questions at all.

Again, many thanks everyone. As usual with MN, it pays to remember that some people have very strong personal opinions based on fact and others' may be somewhat less factual .......

I'll show my dd the latest posts - particular thanks to LOOMN for your informative and reasoned reply - and she can use/disregard as appropriate!

scary, the best way to work out how good is a university is look at the grades required for a place (and A levels people actually got who got a place). Royal H is for the also rans and is a bit mediocre. Look at say randomly history - ABB there; cotrast with Bristol history A*AA.

That test of looking at grades needed to get in is acutally one of the best most objective tests there is in assessing which are the better places as it's the free market test in a way.

Employers know this. If you have a choice of a better place than RU you'd be foolish not to take it. That doesn't mean people cannot do well at those places easier to get into but why take the risk?

Except plenty make high offers to try and give the impression they are a high demand high quality place - when they're not...

Bath makes higher offers than Durham in plenty of subjects for instance....

Gosh, anyone knows that employers prefer Bristol and Durham to Royal H. If mumsnetters aren't aware of that and schools then they are doing their teenagers a terrible disservice.

anyone knows that employers prefer Bristol and Durham to Royal H

Sweeping generalisations like this are not helpful. It's not true that a) anyone knows this because b) it's not always the case.

Goodbyestranger with regards to the colleges at Durham Uni John Snow College is in Stockton on Tees approx 23 miles from Durham city !
Are you maybe thinking of Josephine Butler they are relatively new ?

scaryteacher. Royal Holloway is not Russell Group! The London institutions that are Russell Group are: Imperial, Kings, UCL, LSE and Queen Mary. These are listed on their web site. Have you advised pupils that RH is Russell Group?

Just to add to the mix, don't assume they know what they want. Dd flatly refused to countenance a London uni on the basis that London was too big,scarey,noisy etc, hence the epic trek north to look at Durham. She has just finished a two week course based at a London uni and is now happily prepared to apply to imperial. Turns out London isn't as big, scarey, noisy as she thought ( maybe like I said .......)