Exeter's reputation

Exeter's reputation has been on the rise over the past few years.

In fact, it has risen so much, that i've started to consider putting them as an insurance choice (that is, if I can secure an offer).

Their accounting course is now ranked 3rd nationally, according to the Times good university guide 2009. Their business course is ranked 7th. Their overall ranking is now 13th. I am just very very impressed. I also love the location and all, plus my aunt and uncle went there for university and claim the social life is amazing.

My question is: what have they done to give themselves such amazing credit? What have they done to improve their reputation by so much? Of course, Exeter's reputation has always been fairly high, but surely it's now at an extreme high?

Reply 1

Angelil

They've been brutal - cut departments that weren't doing 'as well' e.g. chem and music which I believe were getting 5s rather than 5*s on the RAE; ploughed a lot of money into the improvement of facilities (both department and accommodation wise), and this along with the beauty of the location has led to a rise in applications. By virtue of this rise in applications, Exeter has also been able to increase its standard offers as a result (eg. the standard offer for English is now AAA), leading to the student population being of an arguably higher calibre overall. All of this rolled up together leads to the university rising in the league tables.

University of Exeter

Exeter

Reply 2

Bien

Exeter has definitely gone up in terms of reputation,but I must ask the Modern Languages department looks absolutely amazing, why does it score so slow on the RAE?

Reply 3

Angelil

Remember those RAE scores are old: another set are due imminently, I think.

Reply 4

The Boosh

Desiret91

My question is: what have they done to give themselves such amazing credit? What have they done to improve their reputation by so much? Of course, Exeter's reputation has always been fairly high, but surely it's now at an extreme high?

in terms of table performance, exeter has jumped up 20 places over the last few years because:

(a) a lack of weighting on the rae. exeter's rae2001 return was poor, and its rae1996 return was very very very poor. for the rae2001, exeter was about 35th in the uk, and in 1996 it was a lot lower. basically, the tables don't really use research scores as a heavily weighted measure so exeter's rae2001 isn't dragging it down any more.

(b) exeter has consistently been ranked in the top10 for student satisfaction, and this has been given a heavy weighting.

(c) teaching quality is now measured by teaching satisfaction from the student satisfaction scores, so exeter's top student satisfaction score is pretty much given a double weighting.

(d) exeter is in the top 10-15 (?) for number of upper second class/first class honours degrees awarded.

(e) exeter has a very low drop out rate

(f) exeter asks for high ucas points because of its popularity.

(g) spending and investment has increased by hundreds of millions BUT the league tables haven't caught up yet so these haven't had an impact on its position.

if the rae2008 goes well (which it should, because all non 5-5* depts were closed) then exeter will stay in the top 20 for the next 4-5 years. if it goes badly, then it will sink into obscurity again.

in terms of reputation, exeter is fantastic at marketing itself so people are learning about the university (hence the MASSIVE increase in applicants).