Plymouth University’s Exeter campus is located on the outer edges of Exeter, Devon.
To get to the buildings you must travel down a small and decidedly pot-holes road. I imagine this is due to the excess of vehicles travelling down what would otherwise be a quiet suburban setting. The uni is not keen on promoting this view, however it is unavoidable being the first thing your notice as you walk or drive in.
The carp park is of a good size, obviously they charge you to use it, something like £40 a year or thereabouts. There always seems to be plenty of room.
The halls are about two miles away in the centre of town, most students use the bus service from the high street which is quite effective and regular.
Depending on where you area living in Exeter you can walk/cycle into uni, you are unlikely to find yourself closer than a mile or so from the campus.
The buildings are fairly bog standard municipal architecture with deliciously rendered concrete throughout.
The entrance is somewhat unsuccessful considering this is an art and design institution. If you’re looking for inspirational architecture try the cathedral.
Various grassed areas are to be found around the edges of the buildings and at the back there are playing fields.
As for people - its not really what I would call culturally diverse. Male female ratio is about equal.
Facilities can be an issue, particularly if you are planning to do the designer maker type of course. Workshops are fairly well equipped and there are specialist machines… milling, large wood lathe, metal lathes, vacuum laminator… but you would be shown such things on a tour so that’s less important. There are issues as I was mentioning to do with when the workshops and materials cage is open. Something they probably wont cover on a visit is that there are often problems to do with:
a) the sudden scarceness of technicians when everyone is trying to start/finish projects
And b) the frequency of technician coffee/lunch/fag breaks, during which time the workshop and cage will be shut.
Working practice is fairly loose, anyone who has done design related courses in the past may well relate to this: Standard project briefing / mid-project reviews and then final ‘show and tell’ presentation scenarios apply.
In the first year there will be more scheduled meetings and various other lectures from tutors and guest speakers. Some are better than others but they are probably worth attending, particularly if you are unsure whether to take product, maker, or furniture & interiors in the second year.
The second year seems much more free and generally better for just getting on with the projects that you are there to do. Scheduled meetings usually two or three times a week, these can vary though, the rest of the time its up to you. Designer Makers tend to spend more time in uni than Product designers because they need to use the workshops more.
Something called ‘design culture’ is worth mentioning. I don’t remember being informed of this feature of the course before starting, it probably is mentioned in the details somewhere though. Its basically a once a week session lasting anywhere from ten minutes to two hours (usually shorter) where you sit in a lecture hall and listen/watch stuff/slides/ videos etc. The work attached to this can be very dull but it seems you have to do it or you fail. My first year involved filling a large folder of rather inconsistent and at times even incoherent history/design/art/culture type of stuff. This seems to have little to do with what I had gone to uni to do, and if anything diverted time away from the ’real’ project work.
However it wasn’t all that bad because in addition to this there was a group project for design culture which turned out to be quite entertaining, but again was not actually related in and logical way to design.
Now ive lost my train of thought, lets reduce the rest to bullet points as Pete suggested, to avoid rambling any further:
+ no work over holidays
+ no exams
+ yes its enjoyable
- fairly crud stained union bar but…
+ cheap beer and…
+ bar very close to main 3d area, but…
- don’t use the machines after going to the bar.
+ Exeter is great. (no really, there are shops and its verdant)
- plenty of homeless ready to fleece you viscously on the cobbles
+ Uri Geller hangs around the football grounds
- Uri Geller hangs around the football grounds