Oxford’s fourth eldest college, Exeter sits statuesquely at the academic heart of the city on semi-pedestrianised Turl Street, right next door to the Bodleian Library and just 250m from Carfax. It’s a small, close-knit and friendly place with buildings spanning five centuries and magnificent views from the garden. Its good looks may have something to do with its tendency to attract writerly types, as well as the fact it inspired both Phillip Pullman to base The Northern Lights' Lonsdale College on Exeter, and Inspector Morse to die in the front quad. Access to the walls makes it possible to snipe from on high at tourists below, while the location and compact layout make it ideal for students allergic to walking.
| Sex ratio (M:F): 56:44 |
Founded: 1314 |
| Full-time u'grads: 344 |
Part-time: 0 |
| Postgrads: 187 |
Mature: <1% |
State:private school: 45:55
|
International: 14% |
| Academic ranking: 20 |
Disabled: 1% |
The Undercroft Bar (cap. 200) is open 11–11 every day with College bops fortnightly (be warned: students are fined for drunken vomiting); there's a black-tie ball once a year. The crumbly library (70,000 books, 62 study places with Ethernet, 24-hr access) will undergo hefty renovation in 2009; 14 computer workstations with internet access; music rehearsal rooms; CofE chapel. Boathouse and playing fields (1.5 miles away). All first years live in old-fashioned but spacious rooms; £80-£100 a week; most rooms have Ethernet points and swipecard entry; the vast majority share bathrooms and toilets; most students in other years live out. All eat in hall, fortnightly ‘theme nights’ (quirky menus, guest speakers, etc). College doctor and nurse. Women’s advisor, subsidised attack alarms; hearing loops in lecture theatres; disabled access rooms in College and in main hostels. Variety of bursaries and hardship funds.
Famous Alumni
Martin Amis, Alan Bennett, Will Self, J R R Tolkein (writers); Sir Roger Bannister (four-minute-mile man); Willliam Morris (designer and social pioneer); Phillip Pullman (Christian-baiting children’s author); Ned Sherrin (broadcaster); Imogen Stubbs (actress).