University News
The Forum wins building resilience award
In October 2024, the Forum on our Streatham Campus won an award for building resilience at the national Education Estates Awards.
This prestigious prize celebrates buildings that have stood the test of time and continue to enrich the student experience. James Hutchinson, Director of Estates, and Robin Holloway, Assistant Director of Estates – Capital Projects, collected the award from comedian Hugh Dennis at an awards ceremony in Manchester.
Built over ten years ago and opened by Queen Elizabeth II at the beginning of her Diamond Jubilee celebrations, the Forum offers a valuable space at the very heart of the social and academic life of our university. Essential support and education services are located in one place and the Forum Street continues to be a focal point for celebrations and events.
Penryn Campus celebrates 20th anniversary in 2024
In the two decades since it opened, Penryn has been home to thousands of University of Exeter students, studying degrees across arts, engineering and business.
Many have stayed in the Duchy, validating the vision of higher education improving opportunities for young people to build careers in the peninsula. Others have used it as a springboard to life-changing experiences around the world.
Exeter secures global top 10 position in the THE rankings
We’ve been ranked 1st in the world for the second year running in the Clean Water and Sanitation category of The Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2024 for our pivotal research, actions and commitment towards clean water and better sanitation.
The University also ranked 10th overall, and 2nd in the UK, in recognition of its steadfast commitment to sustainability, improving health and tackling inequality.
Exeter also secured 6th in the world for SDG14 Life Below Water, and 7th in the world for SDG12 Consumption and Production, and achieved top 40 positions in four further SDGs. Exeter achieved an overall score of 96 out of 100 to secure its position in the global top 10.
Steve Edge, 1950-2025
We are sad to announce that our alumnus and Honorary Graduate, Steve Edge (Law, 1972 and Hon LLD, 2012), passed away on Wednesday 16 April.
Steve was co-Chair of the University’s Advancement Board, heading up our current efforts to secure £150 million in philanthropic donations and 150 thousand in volunteering hours. A member of our Alumni Network Group since its inception in 2006, he became Chair in 2013. Steve’s leadership was instrumental in the University exceeding the ambitions for our earlier ‘Making the Exceptional Happen’ campaign. After graduating from Exeter in 1972, Steve joined Slaughter and May in 1973 becoming a Partner of the firm in 1982 before retiring as a Senior Partner in 2023. In 2008, ‘The Times’ described Steve as ‘the UK’s leading authority on corporate tax law.’
Steve’s support for Exeter was tireless. Many colleagues, especially those in the Law School, would have met Steve over many years – a true friend of, and advocate for, the University. Our deepest condolences go to Steve’s family and friends.
Relaunch of Mining Engineering at Camborne School of Mines
The next cohort of undergraduate Mining Engineering students are due to be welcomed to the University in the 2025/26 academic year. The programme, delivered by experts from the world-famous Camborne School of Mines, is being reintroduced after a five-year hiatus at the University’s Penryn Campus in Cornwall.
The degree programme will be part of the University’s Engineering 2030 Strategy that will see an increased portfolio of engineering programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Students on all existing and new programmes, will study a common first year and will be able to convert to the dedicated Mining Engineering programme in their second year of study. The relaunch was announced at the CSM Association Gala Dinner in Perth, Australia.
Penryn Campus celebrates Green Flag Award
Exeter’s Penryn Campus has been honoured with the coveted Green Flag Award for the seventh year in a row!
The Green Flag Award, administered by Keep Britain Tidy under license from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, is a benchmark of excellence for well-managed green spaces across the United Kingdom and around the world.
Set in 100 acres of countryside, the Penryn Campus grounds and gardens boast a unique collection of herbaceous beds, subtropical planting and a fruit producing orchard. The site also features outside spaces with historic relevance, such as the Tremough Grotto and Star Pond which was built in 1944 by US forces based at the campus prior to the D-Day landings, and historically rare rhododendrons which were cultivated in the Victorian era.
One of the many green initiatives that contributed to this year’s award is the Wildflower Planting Project, which recently celebrated the planting of more than 1,200 wildflower plugs between January and June 2024. Now in its second year, the project is helping to support biodiversity, encourage pollinators, and create habitats for local wildlife. The Penryn Campus continues to act as a vital green space for the local community to socialise, enjoy nature, and improve their physical and mental health.
Medical student wins international racial justice award
In June 2024, Naabil Khan, an Exeter medical student was awarded the Racial Justice in Medicine Award by the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), for supporting aspiring medical students and tackling inequality in teaching materials.
She was presented the award at the Future Physicians for Change conference in Washington DC. It is the first time a British student has won the award, which recognises exceptional individuals who have done unparallelled work and seek to mitigate health disparities.
This accolade joined Naabil’s collection as she is also the winner of the Rising Star Award in Healthcare with WeAreTheCity, for her work around diversifying the medical curriculum, public involvement in medicine, and continuing the conversation surrounding representation and diversity in medicine.
Exeter wins Gold Award
We’ve been awarded the prestigious Gold award in the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme.
The scheme recognises support and ongoing commitment to the Armed Forces community.
The University’s AFC Advocacy Group and Community Network leads work to welcome service people to the university community. The network is working to extend this support throughout the South West.
In 2019, the University signed the Armed Forces Covenant (AFC), a promise to ensure those who serve or who have served in the armed forces, and their families, are treated with fairness and respect in the communities, economy and society they serve with their lives. The AFC relies on the people, communities, and businesses of the UK to actively support it to make a difference.
The winners have all been powerful advocates for the Armed Forces Covenant by actively engaging with their peers, encouraging them to employ armed forces personnel, veterans, and their families, and providing robust and sustained support for reservists.
Gold status is also awarded to those who implement HR policies that accommodate the needs of the Armed Forces Community, while continuously promoting this advocacy within their own networks and industry.
Exeter part of £11 million national funding to improve mental health of young people
A new NIHR Mental Health Research Group involving the University of Exeter will work with young people to provide timely support in key stages of development.
The significant funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) brings together researchers from the University of Bath in partnership with experts from the University of Exeter and the University of Bristol with a focus on tackling mental health challenges in children and young people in the region.
The study will actively collaborate with children and young people who will be invited to shape integral aspects of the research, designing research activities and participate in the studies.
The research will cover four key areas, one of which is improving mental health treatment for young people who have additional needs such as autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
BRC Launch
Two years ago, the National Institute of Health and Social Care Research announced £15 million in funding for our new Exeter Biomedical Research Centre (BRC). In October 2023, researchers, clinicians, and members of the public came together at our launch event, where we celebrated the benefits this major investment has brought so far. Already it is helping us translate medical discoveries swiftly into benefits for patients, driving improvements in health for our local populations, as well as nationally and internationally. The new facility is the first of its kind in the South West Peninsula.
We use cutting edge translational research to improve health outcomes for patients and the public. By translating scientific breakthroughs into potential new treatments, diagnostics, and medical technologies, we are helping to address the biggest health issues affecting people in our communities today. Our partnership brings together world-class medical research leaders from across the region, and their technical knowledge is partnered with expertise from patients, carers, and families to identify and drive forward important new research.
Exeter awarded £14 million to fight “next global pandemic”
The University of Exeter and collaborators have recently been awarded £14 million for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) research – widely acknowledged as the “next global pandemic”.
AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites evolve to become resistant to commonly used antimicrobial drugs making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death. As well as the threat of a lack of treatments for conditions from sepsis to malaria, AMR infections are also a threat to crops and livestock impacting food security.
Five million deaths worldwide are already associated with AMR infections caused by bacteria, and it has been predicted that AMR infections will be the leading cause of death by 2050 with a cumulative cost to society of $100 trillion.
With nearly 400 experts working together, Exeter is at the forefront of developing solutions that could benefit the global population and stop deaths. Recently funded projects included a £9 million Horizon Europe project on AMR and climate change, focusing on AMR evolution, ecology and epidemiology in coastal environments and a £5 million UKRI funded project focusing on molecular and evolutionary mechanisms that can be used to control AMR in microbial communities.
Volvo Environment Prize 2022 awarded for world-leading microplastics research
Professor Tamara Galloway from the University of Exeter has been awarded the Volvo Environment Prize 2022, for her pioneering work to alert the world to the devastating impacts of plastic pollution in the environment.
Professor Galloway was one of three world-leading scientists from the South West region – along with Professor Richard Thompson and Professor Penelope Lindeque – to win the 2022 accolade, marking their role at the global forefront of marine litter research and education for the past two decades. They have also helped to bring about changes in global policy, with their work central to international government legislation and influencing the United Nations Treaty on Plastic Pollution, signed by 175 nations earlier this year.
In selecting the three laureates for this year’s award, the jury for the Volvo Environment Prize acknowledged that their work “has been instrumental in providing societal awareness of plastic pollution as an emerging global challenge and triggering policy actions”. The Volvo Environment Prize has been awarded annually since 1990 and has become one of the scientific world’s most respected environmental prizes. This is just the fourth time in its history that it has been awarded to scientists from the UK.
