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 Mike in Halls in the 70s

Three Flashbacks and a Flash-Forward: Returning to Student Life at Exeter, Decades On

Alumnus and current student Mike Cooper (English and Drama, 1975) shares his story of studying at Exeter several decades apart.

Flashback I: Autumn Term 2019

Late last September. I’m 65½, trudging (tired out from a long drive, then from my B&B) up the slopes of the University’s Streatham Campus: towards Queen’s Building, the Northcott, the Great Hall – and specifically The Forum.

If any student spares me a glance, then as well as my breathlessness and ‘glow’, they’ll see silver hair, something of a paunch, distinctly non-student-ish-clothes. Perhaps they think I’m some kind of staff member.

No. Actually, I’m just about to join them as a mature postgrad. I register, get my student card, collect a fistful of bumf and freebies. And so I’ve started a long-planned, long-saved-for, life-stage – finally returning to significant formal learning, post-retirement. I’m filling a gap, starting something more meaningful than my career was for some years. It’s a thrilling, confusing, daunting, amusing adventure. Sometimes, all those simultaneously. And more.

It’s all just a bit spooky, too.

Flashback II: Autumn Term 1972

Very early October. I’m 18½, trudging (jet-lagged from Heathrow, the morning before) up the slopes of the University’s Streatham Campus: towards Queen’s Building, the Northcott and the Great Hall – but not of course the as yet unimagined Forum.

If anyone spares me a glance, they’ll find me a mix of the familiar and unfamiliar.

I’m black-haired, slim, and rather unfashionable. I’m joining a small group of fellow first-year undergraduates. They’re mostly British; I’m not. I’d left New York City a day or so before, and my Manhattan high-school a few months before that. It’s a fresh life-stage – a thrilling, confusing, daunting, amusing adventure. Sometimes, all those simultaneously. And more.

Much as it would be again, 47 years later almost to the day.

Flash-Back III: Winter Term 2019-20

I’m now fully-embarked on a rather new, unusual degree: a Master’s by Research (‘MbyRes’). Most people familiar with universities – even some Exeter staff – assume it’s an ‘MRes’: that is, a Master’s in Research. No: it’s definitely ‘by’, not ‘in’.

That’s because I’m approaching my proposed topic largely through materials held in Exeter’s Special Collections archives, with little of the sharp focus on research methods or principles per se that would be at the core of an MRes. In fact, there’s no actual taught element at all; just a supervised dissertation, ultimately. That suits me well. I’m part-time and external, living as I now do near Southampton, with lots else on in my post-working life.

Frankly, I’m struggling with some things, early on: concepts, cultures, procedures and practicalities. But I’m making progress, too – and enjoying it all immensely. Rather as I did, nearly half a century ago.

Flash-Forward: ‘on-course’, Summer 2020

As for so many people everywhere, in such manifold ways, it’s all been pretty discombobulating since early March of this year.

My last 3-day trip to the Exeter campus was shortly before the full coronavirus storm struck the UK and the University. I can’t get on in any significant way with my work, at present; the archive I’m working on in Special Collections at the Old Library has been closed completely. It’s not material that I could deal with by post or digitally, however helpful the staff would like to be.

So: I do some peripheral things, originally better-suited to Year 2 of my part-time studies. It’s frustrating, of course – as is being unclear (however understandably) about when the facilities I need might re-open.

One thing I can however do this summer, now aged 66½ and just short of 48 years on from arriving that very first time, is to reflect: both on my ‘return’ over the past year or so, and about some long-term comparisons and conclusions.

As anyone who’s revisited the city and the University campuses after some years will testify, much has now changed – and much hasn’t.

What’s similar? The often-appealing beauties of the landscapes, on-campus and off; the palpable ‘buzz’ of lively minds around you, about both serious things and otherwise; and the sense of private excitement that accompanies any journey of exploration, through an environment that nurtures experiment and discovery.

What’s different? Well, certainly, ‘scale’. City and University are both striking these days in their expanded spaces, architecture and people. Both are arguably less intimate and more standardised now than back in the 1970s, true; so, you can indeed feel a tad lost or regimented now and then. Yet those changes have undeniably also brought enhanced and attractive diversity and accessibility in many ways (bar those hills, of course: still no morning chairlifts up from the accommodation near St. David’s).

Technology has of course transformed things out of all measure, too (as everywhere else, but especially here for teaching and learning). Academic and social systems are far more developed and complex for supporting individuals and their progress. Admittedly, they might be somewhat bureaucratic, too; but that’s pretty familiar nowadays, and it can often be parlayed, mitigated and navigated to one’s advantage.

And yes: the position of Exeter’s alumni seems far more significant – well, to an alumnus, at least. There’s a welcoming community: a powerful source of memories, links, activities, information, advice (and increasingly importantly of course, additional fund-raising).

But to this particular alumnus/returned-student, the big difference on which to reflect is about me. The person I was, the person I became, and the person I now am. Just like the University and the city, “although much is taken, much abides” – and much is new, too.

I’ve grown. Not just in age and waistline and hair-colour, but I hope as a person. In some ways perhaps better; in some perhaps not. But what I can say with utter certainty is that being an Exeter graduate changed my life, both substantially and net, pretty positively. Like many of us, I have regrets about my younger days and earlier self – but coming to Exeter is not in any way one of those.

And maybe this new chapter of studying at Exeter will do the same, once again, for whatever years and experiences lie ahead.

 

 

Mike in Special Collections in 2019, and in his halls of residence in 1972

Date: 14 August 2020