Exeter students amongst happiest in UK according to Times Higher survey

The close partnership working that the University enjoys with the Students’ Guild in Exeter and FXU in Cornwall no doubt contributed to the overall score.

This year, the University of Exeter leapt from joint 26th to seventh place, entering the top 10 for the first time.

Professor Janice Kay, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) said: “Making the student experience as good as it can be is at the heart of everything we do at Exeter – from building the Forum to enhancing the library, investing in top quality IT systems and recruiting the very best staff. We are delighted that our efforts have been recognised by this influential survey.

“I would also like to thank the students who gave up their time to participate in the survey – feedback like this is incredibly valuable to us and informs our decisions on where we need to focus our efforts.”

More than 14,000 full-time undergraduates took part in this year’s survey, which is an increase of about 3,000 compared with last year.

All respondents were members of YouthSight’s student panel – who are recruited via UCAS – and their views were gathered between October 2012 and June 2013.

The Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey is broken down into 21 attributes of universities, chosen by students as key indicators. Participants were asked to rate how their university performed in each of the areas using a seven-point scale. Each attribute was assigned a weight reflecting its importance within the overall student experience.

The greatest weight is applied to the attributes that correlated most to whether or not the respondent would recommend the university to a friend, with Exeter scoring on average 6.4 out of 7 in this category.

Other key indicators at the University of Exeter include 6 out of 7 for good support and welfare, 6.1 out of 7 for high quality staff and lectures and 6.5 for a good environment at the University.

This latest ranking comes in the same week that Exeter consolidated its tenth position in the Complete University Guide, which rates universities across a whole range of factors.