Exeter university question - Streatham campus or Penryn campus?

[MollyHuaCha]

DS in interested in studying Politics and International Relations. Exeter university offers this course at both its Streatham and Penryn campuses and prospective students have to chose a campus before they apply - they are 100 miles apart!

Does anyone have any thoughts or insights about these campuses? Or of Exeter university generally? Looking to start in 2018.

Thanks in advance.

Thanks everyone. I appreciate all of your replies!

Bubbles Falmouth University is separate from Exeter University, although they share a campus at Penryn. Falmouth is a former poly, and used to be quite a good art college, although the exigencies of current funding (i.e. a downturn in income) means that the teaching on which Falmouth's good reputation is based has been cut.

Exeter University has 2 campuses. Students attending the Penryn campus still get an Exeter degree. But the entry standard is much lower and the expectation of first year students' achievements lower. However the students do improve over the 3 years.

I agree about the entry standard at the Penryn Campus of Exeter University. That was my point. I am not saying it is not worthwhile going there but just saying it is considered less prestigious than Streatham because it is easier to get into.

The whole issue about a second campus is not location it's about the qualifications to get into the courses offered. If they are lower then it is not the same as the original university. If it is a specific course that is only available at a certain site, such as medicine or veterinary science for example, then that is different.

@HollyBuckets Falmouth was never a poly, it was an art college many years ago. It's now a full university with decent league table ratings and a TEF gold for teaching standards (only 43 universities were rated gold, out of 134. And, of the 332 Higher Education providers that participated, Falmouth University came 9th overall).

OP for Exeter the quality of teaching and standard of degree is the same at Penryn as it is at Streatham. Some courses at Penryn are unique and more highly rated than Streatham. So it's really a city vs rural question for your DC.

And employers don't distinguish. Penryn is not a substandard Exeter.

Thanks for that info, @paq. I was simply trying to explain to bubbles that Falmouth and Exeter are separate universities sharing a campus at Penryn. She was mixing them up

Motheroffourdragons (love the name!) and Bubbles the entrance requirements are lower at Penryn - AAB-BBB as opposed to AAA-AAB at Streatham.

Holly and Paq, thanks for taking the time to post. MN is so helpful for getting others' views.

I still think Penryn could be a good fit for DS who loves smaller places and is not really into city clubbing. Shame it's so far for us to visit without staying one (maybe two) nights.

Tomorrow's AS results might give an insight on whether he is Russell Group material.

derektheladyhamster one of dds friends has just finished her first year doing marine biology at penryn and absolutely loved it, she was more of a quiet laid back type person not massively into parties and drinking etc and seems to be really thriving there. They spend a lot of time on the beach and when I saw her at the end of summer term she had a lovely tan !

I would highly recommend visiting. Where are you? There's flights to Newquay airport from various parts of the UK.

As PPs have said, its smaller and more laid back, it doesn't have the same range of societies or sports facilities as larger campuses but students are generally very happy there - I think actually that the NSS scores at Penryn are higher than at Streatham.

We flew to Newquay and rented a place in Penryn on Airbnb for a couple of nights when we went down for an open day.

derektheladyhamster, please could you tell me how you recommend getting from Newquay airport to Penryn?

We hired a car.

Thanks derektheladyhamster, I've booked the flights and an overnight hotel. Couldn't decide between car hire and taxis. In the end I've gone for taxis so I don't have to worry about finding a place to park at the campus. It's going to be an expensive uni look-around...

We treated it like a mini holiday (2 nights)