70 YEAR CELEBRATION
The history of the
University of Exeter
Did you know that 2025 is a special year for the University? It marks our 70-year celebration, after having achieved full university status in 1955 upon receiving our Royal Charter.
Pre 1955
The University of Exeter was slowly becoming established from the University College of the South West. Long before it received its charter in 1955, the institution had already built up more than 100 years of academic history.
1955
The University receives its Charter and achieves full university status. At this point the University is organised into four faculties: Arts, Science, Social Studies and Law.
1960
The 1960s were a golden age for the University. Applications grew faster than places, and many major buildings were completed.
1967
The purpose-built Northcott Theatre opened on the University’s Streatham Campus as a replacement for the old Theatre Royal in 1967. The theatre opened with a production of ‘The Merchant of Venice’ on 2 November 1967.
1978
Exeter becomes a two campus University, as St Luke’s College of Education joins the institution. St Luke’s was arguably the oldest of the Church of England Colleges with just 19 students in its first intake in 1840. Expansion followed the move from the former house of the Archdeacon of Totnes in Cathedral Close to its present site in 1854. Co-education arrived in 1966 and the merger with the University followed later.
1980
Student numbers continued to increase and by the end of the decade had gone from 3,400 to nearly 5,200. Exeter’s reputation as an alternative to Oxbridge continued to develop.
1993
Camborne School of Mines merged with the University. In 1876, Mr G L Basset, a mining entrepreneur, opened a laboratory at Camborne for the use of the pupils of the Miners’ Association. By 1888, Camborne Mining School was established, meeting the demands of local people and mining engineers from across the world.
2000
The Peninsula Medical School was established on 1 August 2000 in partnership with the University of Plymouth and the NHS in Devon and Cornwall. Its creation followed a successful bid to the Government, as part of a national expansion of medical student numbers in the UK.
2004
The year 2004 marked the opening of our Cornwall Campus, located in Penryn. It cost £69 million and was an exciting development for the University of Exeter.
2005
By 2005, the University had more than 13,500 students! A growth of over 13,000 since 1955. By this point, it had an annual turnover of £121 million and employed around 2,500 staff.
2009
Following a £130 million investment in student accommodation to provide 2,600 new places, work began on the University’s £300 million capital investment programme which saw the building of the INTO centre, Building:One at the Business School, and improvements to Geoffrey Pope. Work also began on the largest part of the programme, the Forum on Streatham Campus which was opened by Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on 2 May 2012.
2012
By 2012, Exeter was firmly established as a Top 10 UK university and joined the Russell Group of leading research-led universities.
2013
Exeter was named as The Times University of the Year in 2013! What’s more, the Environment and Sustainability Institute (ESI) on our Penryn Campus also opened in this year.
2015
The University’s performance in the UK higher education league tables was also consolidated in 2015 when, for the first time in the University’s history, it was ranked in the top 10 in all UK higher education league tables.
2022
This year 99% of our research was rated of international quality in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021.
We were the winner of Business School of the Year in the Times Higher Education (THE) Awards 2022.
TODAY
To date, we’re working on Strategy 2030 and our greener, healthier, fairer objectives. All our campuses, Streatham, St Luke’s, Truro and Penryn, are buzzing with enthusiastic staff and students, and we’re leading in many impactful research areas. We also currently have 195,000 alumni in over 183 countries around the world!
