University of Exeter

The university’s history began with the School of Art, created in Exeter in 1855 by Sir Stafford Northcote.⁠[1]

In 1922 the institution moved to its permanent home on the Streatham Estate and was granted University College status along with an annual government grant.⁠[1]

In 1923 the institution adopted its heritage crest: a castle from Exeter’s coat of arms showing Rougemont Castle on a red ground, a green cross from Devon County Council, fifteen gold bezants from Cornwall’s coat of arms, and a gold-edged open book bearing the Latin motto “Lucem sequimur” (“We follow the light”).⁠[2]

On December 21, 1955, Queen Elizabeth II granted a Charter of Incorporation on the petition of the University College of the South West of England, establishing the University of Exeter as a body corporate with perpetual succession. The institution thereby gained full university status and launched four founding faculties: Arts, Science, Social Studies and Law.⁠[3][4][1]

In 1959 the Queen’s Building opened as the home of the Arts Faculty. In 1963 the university built new halls of residence and science laboratories in response to the government’s expansion of higher education. In 1967 the purpose-built Northcott Theatre opened on the Streatham campus, replacing the old Theatre Royal.⁠[1]

In 1970 the university expanded into Cornwall by founding the Institute of Cornish Studies. In 1972 the Amory Building opened for the social sciences. In 1974 it established a partnership with Kenyon College in Ohio, which the university describes as its longest-standing global partnership.⁠[1]

In 1978 St Luke’s College of Education, dating back to 1840, joined the university, making it a two-campus institution.⁠[1]

In 1984 the Princess Royal opened the university’s New Library. In 1993 the Camborne School of Mines, founded in 1888 to meet the needs of local industry, became part of the university, and a dual legal degree was launched with Rennes University. The university launched its first website in 1995, and in 1999 the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum opened on the Streatham campus.⁠[1]

In 2000 the university established the Peninsula Medical School in association with the University of Plymouth, and from 2004 medical students were taught at the Knowledge Spa in Truro. After a ten-year partnership, the University of Exeter Medical School was launched in 2013.⁠[1]

In 2004 the £69 million Penryn Campus opened in Cornwall, and in 2006 Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh visited to open its Learning Resources Centre. The university describes the campus as a 100-acre site near Falmouth, shared with Falmouth University and home to the Environment and Sustainability Institute.⁠[1][5]

In 2009 the university began a £300 million capital investment programme that included the Forum on the Streatham campus, which Queen Elizabeth II opened in 2012. The same year the £30 million Environment and Sustainability Institute opened at the Penryn Campus.⁠[1]

On March 12, 2012, the university announced that it had accepted an invitation to join the Russell Group, alongside Durham UniversityDurham UniversityDurham University, legally named the University of Durham, is a research university in Durham, North East England, and a member of the Russell Group. Founded under an 1832 Act of Parliament and granted a Royal Charter in 1837, it describes itself as England’s third oldest university and has a collegiate system in which all students belong to one of 17 colleges. Its current Vice-Chancellor and Warden is Karen O’Brien and its Chancellor is Fiona Hill; it had 21,588 students in 2023/24.Open the full entry, Queen Mary University of LondonQueen Mary University of LondonQueen Mary University of London is a research-intensive university in London, United Kingdom, formed from four historic institutions, the oldest of which, the London Hospital Medical College, was founded in 1785. It is a member of the Russell Group.Open the full entry and the University of YorkUniversity of YorkThe University of York is a collegiate research university in York, England, United Kingdom. It was incorporated by royal charter and admitted its first students in 1963, and it joined the Russell Group in 2012.Open the full entry. Vice-Chancellor Steve Smith called the Russell Group “the natural home for Exeter” and credited a decade of work strengthening the university. Membership of the four took effect on August 1, 2012.⁠[6][7]

In 2013 the university was named The Times and The Sunday Times University of the Year, and in 2016 their Sports University of the Year. In 2017 the £52 million Living Systems Institute opened at the Streatham campus, the university achieved a Gold rating in the inaugural Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), and it established the QUEX partnership with the University of Queensland, now the UQ-Exeter Institute.⁠[1]

In 2018 the university launched the Global Systems Institute, created the ENSURE partnership with The Chinese University of Hong Kong and opened the Renewable Energy Engineering Facility (REEF) at Penryn. In 2019 the Stella Turk building opened, housing more than 250 researchers.⁠[1]

Lisa Roberts took up the post of President and Vice-Chancellor on September 1, 2020, becoming the university’s first female leader and succeeding Steve Smith, who had served for 18 years. She was previously Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation at the University of LeedsUniversity of LeedsThe University of Leeds is a research university in Leeds, England. It was founded in 1904, when King Edward VII granted its Royal Charter, and its roots go back to the Leeds School of Medicine of 1831 and the Yorkshire College of Science of 1874. It is a member of the Russell Group.Open the full entry, where she led the development of its research and innovation strategy, and she is a board member of the Russell Group, Jisc and Universities UK.⁠[8][1]

In 2021 the university launched StrategyStrategyStrategy (formerly MicroStrategy) is a Nasdaq-listed company (ticker MSTR) headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia, United States, founded in 1989 by Michael Saylor and originally built on enterprise analytics software. Since 2020, the company has used bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve asset and describes itself as the world’s first and largest Bitcoin Treasury Company; as of September 27, 2026, it held 847,666 bitcoins. Its current Chief Executive Officer is Phong Le.Open the full entry 2030. In 2022, after consulting more than 2,500 students, staff, alumni and partners between 2019 and 2022, it launched a new logo and brand replacing the visual identity introduced in March 2005; that year it also won the Times Higher EducationTimes Higher EducationTimes Higher Education (THE) is a London-based higher education news and data company. It grew out of the Times Higher Education Supplement, launched in 1971, and is best known for its World University Rankings, founded in 2004; it has been owned by the private equity firm Inflexion since 2019.Open the full entry Business School of the Year award.⁠[1][2]

In 2023 the university received Triple Gold in the TEF, which it describes as one of only four Russell Group universities to hold that rating. That year it joined the Worldwide Universities Network of more than 20 research universities and launched the Graduate School of Environment and Sustainability in Cornwall. In 2024 it opened the CREWW water research centre at Streatham, which it describes as the UK’s first purpose-built transdisciplinary water research centre.⁠[1][5]

In 2025 the university set out plans for a branch campus in Cairo with Ain Shams University and signed a memorandum of understanding with it; the same year the Streatham grounds were accredited as a botanical garden by Botanic Gardens Conservation International.⁠[1][9]

In August 2026 the university, National Ain Shams University and Ain Shams University signed Heads of Terms at the Al Zaafaran Palace in Cairo, under which students will initially be able to study a portfolio of Exeter undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Egypt. Lisa Roberts said Exeter is the first Russell Group university to establish a teaching presence in Africa.⁠[9]

On November 3, 2026, the university announced that it had formally launched Defence Futures at an event at the House of Lords. The initiative connects the university’s research, innovation and education expertise with government and industry to address the UK’s defence, security and resilience challenges, and provides a central point of engagement for organisations seeking to collaborate with its researchers; its work spans cyber security, artificial intelligence and autonomous systems, climate and energy security, environmental intelligence, health resilience, space technologies, advanced engineering, and geopolitics and security policy. The university cites more than 200 academics in relevant fields and £6.4 million secured through the Office for Students’ Defence Related Skills Fund, and it is a founding member of the Defence Universities Alliance.⁠[10]

On a full-time-equivalent basis at the December 1 census for 2025/26, the university had 29,777 students: 23,725 undergraduates, 4,261 taught postgraduates and 1,791 research postgraduates, with 22,849 at Streatham, 4,295 at St Luke’s and 2,632 at Penryn. At December 1, 2025, it had 5,995 full-time-equivalent staff, including 2,989 academic staff.⁠[11]

The university was ranked 136th in the QS World University Rankings 2027 and joint 157th in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2027, and 16th in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2027.⁠[11]

The university has three faculties, the Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences and the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, each led by a Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean. It describes its campuses as Streatham and St Luke’s in Exeter and Penryn in Cornwall.⁠[12][5]

The Council is the university’s governing body, chaired by Quentin Woodley; the Senate is its senior academic forum; and the University Executive Board, chaired by the Vice-Chancellor, manages the university and delivers its corporate strategy.⁠[13][14]

Under the Statutes, the Chancellor is appointed by the Council for five years, renewable for one further five-year term. The current Chancellor, Michael Barber, is the seventh holder of the office and succeeded Lord Myners of Truro; an authority on education and public service delivery, he founded the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit in 2001 and was knighted in 2005.⁠[4][15]

University of Exeter: Official website: https://www.exeter.ac.uk/ (opens in a new window).⁠[16]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/school/university-of-exeter/ (opens in a new window).⁠[17]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/universityofexeter (opens in a new window).⁠[16]