Anyone with a dc at Exeter?

[bendmeoverbackwards]

How do they find it?

Dd has been redirected from Oxford and is now considering Exeter where she has an offer. The course is Ancient and Modern History but if she accepts she might see if she can transfer to straight History.

Any experiences good or bad would be welcome! Thank you.

BAME (Chinese) students were attacked in Exeter last yr for apparently bringing the Corona Virus to town, so it doesn't bode well for black students does it?

To be fair they were in London as well and that's the most diverse of any UK city.

Beauty is in the year of the beholder, as they say. When I used to go to the university of York for work occasionally, 25+ years ago, I would think, shame about the concrete, but what a lovely setting. Less than a decade ago, visiting with DS1, my thought was more that I hoped it would ne finished soon (and I managed to get us lost at least once on our self guided tour, but the then new science bits were indeed very swish). Scroll forward to six months ago, virtual open day with DS2 and he is wowed by both the concrete bits (weird lad, but hey ho) and by the wider views of the campus, the water and the greenery and I'm thinking, well, at least they do seem to have finished it, give or take, and it's looking like an expanded version of the York I loved to go to for conferences back in the day.

I have been extensively researching Penryn versus Steatham - clearly bored thanks t lockdown 🤣
My son, after much nagging, has signed up to the virtual open days (not showing a huge amount of interest....!)
I think he might prefer Penryn as he’s an ‘outside’ sort of boy and the sea/country setting looks great. He is very quiet, has a small group of similar friends and doesn’t drink. Some people get offered Penryn if they miss their grades and it’s AAB rather than AAA, so I can see why some people look down on it a bit.
And it’s obviously quieter as not in a city.
My DS might scrape the grades for Streatham but I’m inching towards him being in a cohort of the slightly less academic or grade missers. He is very average academically but works very hard.
Has anyone else been looking at both? Any thoughts? I’m wondering what Streatham would be like for the less extrovert type. All the young people I know who go there are quite bouncy types.

@GaribaldiGirl

I have been extensively researching Penryn versus Steatham - clearly bored thanks t lockdown 🤣 My son, after much nagging, has signed up to the virtual open days (not showing a huge amount of interest....!) I think he might prefer Penryn as he’s an ‘outside’ sort of boy and the sea/country setting looks great. He is very quiet, has a small group of similar friends and doesn’t drink. Some people get offered Penryn if they miss their grades and it’s AAB rather than AAA, so I can see why some people look down on it a bit. And it’s obviously quieter as not in a city. My DS might scrape the grades for Streatham but I’m inching towards him being in a cohort of the slightly less academic or grade missers. He is very average academically but works very hard. Has anyone else been looking at both? Any thoughts? I’m wondering what Streatham would be like for the less extrovert type. All the young people I know who go there are quite bouncy types.

They don't offer dds course at Penryn, and there's no doubt it's anecdotally seen as a slightly poor relation academically- but at8 at the end of the day the certificate will say Exeter University! I know a good few who went to Penryn and they love it. It's even less diverse than Streatham though!

@Frodont - do you mean ethnically diverse? Don’t think my DS would notice either way. Or socio-economic diversity?

Glad to hear you know of happy students at Penryn! It’s quite small so not many anecdotal accounts...

@GaribaldiGirl

I have been extensively researching Penryn versus Steatham - clearly bored thanks t lockdown 🤣 My son, after much nagging, has signed up to the virtual open days (not showing a huge amount of interest....!) I think he might prefer Penryn as he’s an ‘outside’ sort of boy and the sea/country setting looks great. He is very quiet, has a small group of similar friends and doesn’t drink. Some people get offered Penryn if they miss their grades and it’s AAB rather than AAA, so I can see why some people look down on it a bit. And it’s obviously quieter as not in a city. My DS might scrape the grades for Streatham but I’m inching towards him being in a cohort of the slightly less academic or grade missers. He is very average academically but works very hard. Has anyone else been looking at both? Any thoughts? I’m wondering what Streatham would be like for the less extrovert type. All the young people I know who go there are quite bouncy types.

DD would have loved Penryn, just her scene, arty, music, drama, tropical gardens, beach life. However the History course at Penryn is very limited, and she isn't constrained by grade requirements, so her choice had to be Streatham due to the full course content being offered there.

We don't live a million miles away so Penryn is popular choice among friends kids. Some people do actually ask "EXETER or Penryn?" just because they are probably a bit judgemental.

@Frodont 😂😂 oh yes I can imagine. I’m sure some people of my acquaintance will be clarifying that point. The same ones who ask me how he’s getting on with slightly over-concerned faces) - he’s dyslexic so had a bumpy ride at times in education).
This is all assuming he follows my guidance. I do now have his UCAS log in info though, could accept for him 😈😂

[quote GaribaldiGirl]@Frodont 😂😂 oh yes I can imagine. I’m sure some people of my acquaintance will be clarifying that point. The same ones who ask me how he’s getting on with slightly over-concerned faces) - he’s dyslexic so had a bumpy ride at times in education).
This is all assuming he follows my guidance. I do now have his UCAS log in info though, could accept for him 😈😂[/quote]
🤣

@Frodont: most Warwick grads seem quite determined to do well. Some DC simply don’t want to be a longish bus ride from everything. Coventry isn’t particularly inspiring. Also those who say a university is in idyllic countryside. Do many students ever access it? DH snd other friends went to Sheffield but the bar scene and Union was the pull. Never the countryside. It’s a parent thing! Lots of DC who choose unis that are campus stay on the campus due to expense. It’s also a massive shame that student ents has diminished in lots of places. DH had a wonderful time on the ents committee getting the up and coming touring bands of the day that went on to be big names. When we looked around a couple of campus universities with DDs they decided they couldn’t imagine being so constrained. Obviously sporty people like it and quiet people but they can seem soulless with no outside ents available close by.

[quote PresentingPercy]@Frodont: most Warwick grads seem quite determined to do well. Some DC simply don’t want to be a longish bus ride from everything. Coventry isn’t particularly inspiring. Also those who say a university is in idyllic countryside. Do many students ever access it? DH snd other friends went to Sheffield but the bar scene and Union was the pull. Never the countryside. It’s a parent thing! Lots of DC who choose unis that are campus stay on the campus due to expense. It’s also a massive shame that student ents has diminished in lots of places. DH had a wonderful time on the ents committee getting the up and coming touring bands of the day that went on to be big names. When we looked around a couple of campus universities with DDs they decided they couldn’t imagine being so constrained. Obviously sporty people like it and quiet people but they can seem soulless with no outside ents available close by.[/quote]
Mine at Exeter visited Dartmoor for weekends and went to the beaches quite a lot. I think their friendship group travelled around quite a bit from there. That might be because of golf though.

I didn't say anything about Warwick? It doesn't do dds course.

@Jux I'm a External examiner at Exeter and I've just been consulted by the department I external for on the university plans for ensuring that current students' difficulties in a global pandemic don't have an untoward impact on their degrees overall.

It's complex so unlikely your DD understands - I had it carefully explained by the Exams tutor - they're doing a cohort check (they call it something else which I forget) - so they're checking marks for modules and year groups against several previous years (most universities keep this sort of data for 5 years), to ensure that this year's median and mean marks, and standard deviations in cohorts are not out of whack from those of previous years.

We've wrestled with this at my university - we can't do a 'No Detriment' policy as there is no benchmark mark for any student - they're doing all their work this year under national conditions of a pandemic. I think I'm going to pass on the Exeter plan to my own departmental Exams officer as a model & see what we're doing.

As for your other comments here & in another thread - you're tending to behave a bit like some of my undergrads - projecting your anxiety, frustration etc on the university. We're in a global pandemic - what do you expect universities to do? keep going on as normal?

If your DD has a registered disability, or is in some way registered with her university as needing extra support, or CEV (my place is trying hard to get students to let them know about this) then she should be able to get extra support for using the Library. My place offers a sort of Click & Collect - you ordered up books which weren't available digitally, and then you could collect them, in a wrapped parcel, from an outdoors collection point, masked up, with the university person in mask & wearing gloves.

If she's CEV, has she told her Department this, or her university? Again, my place has a reporting mechanism, and we regularly email students to check in. But if they don't tell s, and they're not already registered as having a disability/needing support (eg extra exam time etc), then we don't know if they don't tell us.

@QueenoftheAir, thank you for your calm and measured reply. You're right of course, I was projecting etc and being an idiot but we've been so so sensible and calm and measured here for months and months and months and then the frustration just overflowed and MN got it.

Thanks @Jux - you're usually such a calm & fair poster yourself!

I've been taking anger & projection in person, from my undergrads (100s of them) for the last couple of weeks, and while it's understandable, it's also coming close to unacceptable. We're all in this, and in my experience (of my own & colleagues' institutions) universities are trying to do what they can. Students and parents really need to calm down & ask for help rationally. Most of th time, we're doing what we can within a framework of chaos caused by lack of Government planning & funding.

In my time working as an External for Exeter, I've been very impressed by the care they demonstrate for students, and the way academic staff in my area always go above & beyond for their students. I've had a quick look at the Exeter provision in my area and there IS a kind of postal or COVID-safe collection service, and there are subject librarians on hand to help as well.

But there is a limit, and maybe your DD's tutors have reached it ... Academics are only human, and we'e all dealing with our own circumstances. I'm clinically vulnerable & I have colleagues shielding, whose mental health is on a knife edge. One of my professional services colleagues remarked before Christmas that she's in awe of the way academic staff keep on, in the face of flak from students, government, and parents.

Sorry, I've only just seen your reply. We've all calmed down here. DD has taken a 'break from study' for 6 months (or thereabouts) and will start the year again in September when we hope enough people will have been vaccinated that the Uni can continue service more or less as normal. She's got her accommodation for next year sorted which is strong confirmation of intent.

I hope you're feeling more content too. The vaccine programme is going so well here and both dh and I have now had our first shots. We're not sure when dd will have hers but even if they don't take account of her disability (ME, most of the gps at our surgery seem to think it's a made-up thing so it's possible she won't be on a slightly more vulnerable list like I am) I think she'll get a vaccine fairly soon anyway.

I must say, I'm gobsmacked by the efficiency of the NHS who have really pulled out the stops on this.

There is hope! Having had the vaccine I found there was more light in the world, when I hadn't even realised that I was miserable about it.

Sorry if I'm being dense, but how was she redirected from Oxford? Does Oxford now suggest candidates to other universities?

@ShulamithFirestone, no. Its just a kinder way of putting it than using the r word, should one's DC have been unsuccessful in their application. Therefore, sent off down another path, so to speak - to concentrate on one of the other universities for which one may have an offer, or take a gap year and reapply etc

I’m really liking York’s description from Garibaldi . DD favours a cosy community, although her top choice will be Warwick

which is well known for not having dealt with sexism/rape culture as effectively as it should have done

York and Exeter are both very attractive cities. York is colder and Exeter wetter :)

My son at Exeter Streatham campus in his first year. He is on a small science course; and has had and will have from next week some face to face teaching and lab work, which he is very pleased about. His girlfriend, on another bigger course, at the same uni has had none all year. And they had the bomb evacuation last weekend to make things even more unusual.

@Rege

Sadly it is not a 'rumour', I really wish it were. Racism exists in some form in every UK university which our black dc deal with as best they can. There have been incidents at various top unis but some universities particularly stand out for its nastiness and 'Exeter' is one of the worst in and out of the university.

Racism at Penryn campus

6 separate hate crimes targeted at Asian students

I'd like readers to read this next article in particular because it highlights the type of low level racism that black students face at university that people don't really pay attention to or get told just 'lighten up' as opposed to full on attacks that can't ignored.

Experiences of racism in UK universities

Exeter had a delightful racist Law society as recently as 2018 that was eventually disbanded.

Work is being done to address the issues at Exeter, lots of committees, talks etc etc but how effective this all is is anyone's guess, but probably not in time for my DC.
What is Exeter doing about it?

You read on here parents worried about how 'happy' their dc will be at xyz university...and they are white!, well imagine if you had to add, 'will someone attack my dc for their colour to the conundrum'? would people want to be their friend? will they be subject to racial slurs and laughed off? we all want our dc to go to university and enjoy themselves, make new friends, date and just thrive. Why are our black dc not allowed this?

Why are we forced to opt for a university lower than their abilities just to be safe?
I am angry and frustrated that we have very bright black dc who through no fault of their own are scared into not choosing any top university they wish and hope to thrive there because of some racist, entitled white dc who think they don't belong there and when I read threads like this about how all your white dc are having a blast! it grates even more. That's not your fault as individuals but I'm hoping you see why it's so frustrating.

This is unfortunately true A black colleague’s daughter decided not to apply for university at Exeter because she had heard so many stories of blatant racism. She has therefore decided to only apply to universities with a diverse demographic.

6 separate hate crimes targeted at Asian students

Firstly, please be assured that I do not doubt that BAME students experience racism on campus, we all know they do, and it is not acceptable.

However, with regards to the above article, all the incidents were in town, not on campus, and not perpetrated by students. The victims were students, not the racists. You could therefore, apply this article to any town or city in the country, including higher diverse communitiies, so, in this instance I think the article is unfairly being used to tarnish the university, when it is the city community that is at fault.