Problems and Opportunities... 1990 - 2000
"We 'Kilmorons' always valued Kilmorie as a unique hall because of its long-standing traditions. This, however, got us into trouble when we decided to replicate a raid on Mardon originally carried out in the 70s. The objective was to remove the hall signs, but when we got there we found the signs had now been rivetted, so we were forced to remove a couple of chairs instead. Unfortunately, these turned out to be antiques worth about £2,000 each, which sparked off a police investigation. Luckily, the University was so relieved to get the chairs back we didn't get into too much trouble."
Rob Blakemore, Computer Science 1997
The University remained extremely popular, notching up 22,000 applications for 1991. Student numbers had risen to 6,500.
Research quality continued to develop and in 1992 Exeter was ranked 15th out of 88 universities in the Research Assessment Exercise. This had important consequences for funding and prestige.
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| The visit of Archbishop Desmond
Tutu in 1990. He is pictured here with the
Vice-Chancellor Dr David Harrison. |
Camborne School of Mines in Cornwall joined the University in 1993 boosting student numbers to 8,000. The same year saw the creation of a new conference centre named after former treasurer Peter Chalk and the start of work on new student flats in Sidwell Street.
A second Queen's Anniversary Prize was gained in 1998. Teaching quality was also coming on strong with a growing number of subject areas winning 'excellent' ratings in national Teaching Quality Assessments.
By 1999 efforts to improve research performance were beginning to pay off with a 16% increase in research earnings to £8.6 million. The next Research Assessment Exercise was looming and it was essential the University recovered lost ground. Work with business was also growing with some £5 million being generated in 1999. Exeter remained very popular with employers - ninth in the UK according to a survey by The Times.
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