Is Exeter uni’s intake still mostly from the independent sector?

[Bell8484]

And if so is this an issue for those from state/ more diverse backgrounds?

Cambridge has always been a strong Labour city until the recent local election where they remain the largest party but no longer have control as green and lib dems have a higher number of seats between them.

Often big uni cities are Labour because of the student vote and interest in politics.

It's not as simple as North/South though - look at Durham and Newcastle.

Dd is the only state educated one in her halls at Nottingham. She’s already been skiing and is off to Henley with them. Most are former public school many ex boarders. She thinks it’s her halls as she had a year out she got a place in the best halls. They’re lovely though so don’t see it as a negative.

When she was sad over a boy and came home for the weekend when she got back they had cleaned her room and got her some flowers ❤️

That’s so lovely, @JuliettaCaeser!

That's the Penryn campus, shared with University of Falmouth.

For Humanities. I'd say VERY much an inferior choice, frankly. It used to be that they offered at much lower levels, and last time I was at Exeter (on the Exeter city campus), it was reported to me (as External Examiner) that the Penryn Humanities offering was being restructured, wth most research-active staff moving to the Exeter campus, and a focus on Cornish & regional studies to remain at Penryn.

And in the Humanities, being taught by research-active staff is really important - they teach what they're researching and writing about so it can be pretty cutting edge at 2nd & 3rd year.

Some degrees such as History and Politics are only available at the Falmouth location. The students I know loved it there and received a great education.

@patioh Durham is very popular with people south of Watford Gap. Ditto Newcastle for the good time vibe. They aren’t just serving local communities. Many dc travel to Durham from a great distance as it’s still a runner up to Oxbridge for many. Sheffield, Belfast and Liverpool aren’t. The percentages are: Durham 39.1% and Newcastle 22.3%, just below Bristol, which is always complained about for being “posh”. It isn’t.

This map is interesting.

https://www.indschools.co.uk/explore

@MeetMeOnTheCorner is not wrong that there are more independent schools in the south.

South based students travel north more readily than northern students travel south. The number of schools and popularity of certain unis drives choices. However most young people are great and school should not be seen as a division.

Could part of the reason be that there are more and better transport options from London to the rest of the UK than there are for those of us out in the sticks of the frozen north?

Getting to the southwest from where we live is a ball ache. Getting to Durham, Leeds, Newcastle or Edinburgh from London is a fast journey with LNER.

We have Northern Fail, trans Pennine Express (which, admittedly have upped their game recently), Cross Country and EMR.

It isn't about young people in the North not wanting to live miles away. It is also about cost. DD didn't want to go to London because it is too expensive.

Agree transport is terrible
But a lot of students have masses of stuff and parents drive them these days.

Usually only when moving them in and out. For Christmaas and Easter breaks the train takes the strain. When DH was in hospital for several weeks last year DD was coming home every weekend to visit. There was no way I was going to drive her back and forth.

@RampantIvyDo you really think many Scouse students really want to go to Exeter? Why would they?

We have poor East/West transport where I live. I’d have to go into London and out again to get anywhere east, west or south, if I didn’t have a car. Getting north is limited too. It takes hours getting across London even though I’m only 50 mins by train from London. I therefore think it’s about going to a uni where students think others are like them. In the north that’s seeking the vast majority from state schools.

Most people pick up DCs in cars at the end of term I think. Boys have less stuff to transport maybe, but we weren’t alone in taking ours to and fro. We drove an hour to a station to get DD1 when she came home for reading weeks and work experience.

Do you really think many Scouse students really want to go to Exeter? Why would they?

I don't suppose many Devon students want to go to Liverpool either TBH.

That’s true
Although if you’re north and transport isn’t great as a pp was saying. Most would drive because
Multi changes could make it very expensive lugging Grannies Christmas present

We are Kent
My lot would have to go into London. Take the tube. Then take two trains to get home.
No idea what all that would cost because we pick them all up and we are not alone. Parents everywhere

Tbh. I do love the drive anyway so
Ours are on their own though if they want to come home in the middle of a term

@RampantIvyNo but more are privately educated in the SW, W and S who choose Exeter, so that’s why Exeter have more privately educated students !!!

I think they all take louds
My boys definitely don’t travel light
Endless sports and music stuff takes up louds of space.

They weren’t suggesting it was the Uni
it’s the transport problem.
Plus plenty available nearby

Gosh! You could almost be forgiven for thinking wealth might be concentrated in the South East!

Indeed.

@RampantIvy The value of private schools is perhaps more keenly appreciated in London but if there was demand elsewhere, there would be the schools. If people feel the south earns more, come and join us. From my observations within family, the north dislikes any notion of joining the wealthier south. In fact the south is despised. Hence you get dc from comps being told they are inferior and should not, or cannot, mix with privately educated dc. It’s why universities not highly populated by southerners have very low privately educated dc %. People segregate themselves based on politics. Often not even background!

Your family sound rather narrow minded TBH.

I was born, grew up and went to school in an affluent part of South London. I worked in London for two and a half years before moving North, so I have had a foot in both camps. I also had many friends that I made through Brownies and Guides who were privately educated and some of DD's best friends are also privately educated because she doesn't subscribe to the view that privately educated people are "different". They are just people like you and me.

I don't subscribe to the view that London is a different country, but I have grown to love living in a rural part of South Yorkshire on the edge of the Pennines and have no desire to move back to the London area. I like to visit London and other cities, to enjoy museums and galleries and eat food from different cultures, something that I have passed on to DD, but I also like to come home to cleaner air, wide green spaces and less crowded public transport (when it runs).

I am a town mouse that has been converted to a country mouse.

I feel that you have a bit of a bee in your bonnet about North vs South though. Is it because of your family?

@RampantIvy It’s what Momentum type Labour politics does to you. Facebook all about Palestine too so I agree, narrow minded and off my radar! There are strongholds of people like this and they are now probably in the Green camp. You don’t choose your relatives but we’ve chosen not to invite them to DDs wedding. So we’ve given up. They aren’t like me.

'The North' is not some homogeneous mass. As someone who has lived their whole life in the north was educated at a comprehensive (and has a child at one currently), I find some of these views of northern state educated people frankly quite bizzare. My best friend at a northern uni was from London. We didnt despise each other - we got on and had a good laugh.