Exeter has been named 2007 University of the Year by the Times Higher Education Supplement.

The Award was made in recognition of the University’s efforts to create new educational opportunities in the South West in partnership with a range of other organisations. It was presented to the Vice-Chancellor Professor Steve Smith and the President of the Guild of Students Jess Dow at a glittering ceremony on 29 November at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. The ceremony was attended by 1,200 leading figures from the world of higher education. It caps an excellent year for the University which has firmly established itself as a top 20 UK higher education institution.

Professor Steve Smith, the University’s Vice-Chancellor, said: ‘This is an important statement by our peers who have recognised the excellent work carried out by the University’s staff and students. It caps a fantastic year for the University. Applications and research earnings have increased dramatically and we have risen to 17th place in the UK university league tables. This Award underlines the fact that Exeter is firmly on an upward trajectory. This is a University which combines world class research with a high quality student experience.’
History lecturer Dr Richard Toye also won the award for Young Academic Author of the Year. His colleague Dr Kate Fisher was shortlisted for the same award.

The University of the Award highlights three major educational initiatives which came to fruition in 2007. The success of these ventures has substantially raised the University’s profile, demonstrated its ability to work with different partners, added significant new academic assets and fuelled growth. The three ventures are:

• The graduation in summer 2007 of the first group of students to join the University’s Cornwall Campus near Falmouth. Not only has the campus proved extremely popular with students but it has also been possible to attract exceptional staff to Cornwall. The Cornwall Campus has attracted top-flight academic staff, including five Royal Society and two NERC Research Fellows. With a growing team of world-class academics, the University has brought some £5.4M in new research income to Cornwall since 2004. The opening of Phase 2 of the Campus in September 2007 saw further excellent appointments history, politics and law and the arrival of new cohorts of students in these subjects. 

• The completion of their studies by the first cohort of students from the Peninsula Medical School. Since the Medical School was established in 2002 it has grown in size from an initial intake of 127 students to 214 and has established bases in Exeter, Plymouth and Truro. It recently won funding for a new dental school – the first in the UK for 40 years - which opened its doors in October 2007. Research has quickly developed with Medical School researchers recently making national and international news with their discovery of genes for obesity and their ground-breaking diabetes research. 

• The £14 million Great Western Research project. This is a project involving all of the South West HEIs, but is led by Exeter. The project has provided a significant boost to postgraduate development in the South West with students working on projects in collaboration with local businesses.

Exeter’s award was judged by Baroness Kennedy, the barrister and Labour peer, Bernadette Porter CBE, former rector of Roehampton University, and Gerard Kelly, editor of The Times Higher. Making the award Bernadette Porter commented: “Exeter impressed me greatly, as the three projects are a good mixture of widening participation, institutional collaboration and research development. It celebrates three very diverse kinds of achievement.”