The university's origins can be traced back to three separate educational institutions that existed in the city of Exeter and in Cornwall in the middle of the 19th century.

Since 2009, significant further investment has been made into new student accommodation, new buildings in The Exeter Business School, and the Forum: a new development for the centre of Streatham Campus.

The building, largely built in grey limestone from Torbay with Bath Stone dressings, was completed by the autumn of the following year.

[11] The Peninsula Medical School was established in 2000 in conjunction with the University of Plymouth and the National Health Service, based at St Luke's and the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.

Significant expansion and diversification of teaching and research provision occurred during the 1980s and early 1990s, including the development of undergraduate and taught postgraduate degree programmes in geology, environmental science and surveying.

Sports facilities, including a professional-standard tennis centre, have been completed in addition to an upgrade of the Students' Guild building.After a donation from the ruler of the Sharjah emirate, Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, an alumnus of the university, an extension was added to the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies building.

Building:One houses the Business School's MBA suite, La Touche café and several modern lecture theatres and seminar rooms.

Streatham Court is where you will find the Business School's Career Zone and Study Abroad Team, as well as the specialist Finance and Economics Experimental Laboratory at Exeter (FEELE), and high capacity, recently refurbished teaching rooms.

The Innovation Centre is host to some of the most upwardly mobile small firms in the country, according to Experian in a report commissioned by the BBC.

[27] A final decision was taken by the university management team in July 2007, with the Graduate School of Education, the Department of Sport and Health Sciences, and the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry remaining in residence at St. Luke's.

It seeks to promote a greater knowledge of historical and contemporary Cornwall with a particular emphasis on the use of oral history through the Cornish Audio Visual Archive (CAVA) which is based at the institute.

[28] Cornwall Council built the Tremough Innovation Centre (TIC) on land adjacent to the campus, with the aim of enabling existing and start-up companies to grow and thrive.

The universities are chosen because, like Exeter, they are research-intensive, offer a broad range of disciplines, perform strongly in league tables, and function with similar quantities of financial resources.

The theme of learning is symbolised by the book with gold edges and a Latin motto, Lucem sequimur ("We follow the light").

[50] In the 2016–17 academic year, the university had a domicile breakdown of 75:6:19 of UK:EU:non-EU students respectively with a female to male ratio of 55:45.

[51] Exeter was in the first group of UK universities to require an A*grade in A-level examinations as part of its standard offer for entry into some undergraduate courses.

[52] The Undergraduate Prospectus 2013 lists ten-degree programmes that require at least one A*grade as part of the conditional standard offer, including Economics, English, History, and Mathematics.

A team of international scientists led by the university are exploring the atmospheric conditions of exoplanets using the Hubble Space Telescope.

The university has developed links with the Met Office,[75] also based in Exeter, to build sophisticated climate prediction models.

[79] It is important to note that apart from the traditional MPhil and PhD route, university also offers professional doctorates and split-site PhDs for International students.

The AU is a separate body from the Students' Guild and is run by four members of staff based in the Athletic Union Office.

In addition, the university regularly has a large presence at the Edinburgh Festival, and has produced alumni including comedian Rhod Gilbert, actor Timothy Renouf, BAFTA winning actress Vanessa Kirby, and Felix Barrett, founder of Punchdrunk.

[98][99][100] Whilst Exeter itself no longer runs a music course,[101] it has multiple orchestral, vocal, classical and popular groups contained within the university under the umbrella society Extunes.

[102] Separate from Student Guild affiliated groups, the university chaplaincy also maintains a 24-person mixed choir with paid scholarships.

Xpression FM traces its routes back to 1976 and continues the tradition of hosting student written and run shows throughout term time.

[106] A number of Exeter's alumni have made significant contributions in many fields, including science, academia, government and law, arts, journalism and sport.

Notable alumni in the fields of government and law include Abdullah Gül, the 11th President of Turkey,[107] Ameenah Gurib, 6th President of Mauritius, Mehmet Şimşek, former Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey, Zewde Gebre-Sellassie former Deputy Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Prem Nababsing, former Deputy Prime Minister of Mauritius, Sigrid Kaag, Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation (Netherlands) since October 2017, Lau Kong Wah, former Secretary for Home Affairs of Hong Kong, Tengku Zafrul Aziz, Minister of Finance (Malaysia), Gabriel Makhlouf, Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland since September 2019, and Secretary to the New Zealand Treasury between 2011 and 2019, Ambiga Sreenevasan, Malaysian lawyer and human rights advocate (LLB Law, 1970s),[108] and Jean-Marie Seroney, Kenyan human rights advocate, legislator, and an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, Tito Karnavian, retired police general and Minister of Home Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia (Police Studies, 1993), Patrick Kwateng Acheampong, former Inspector General of Police of the Ghana Police Service (MA Police Studies and Criminal Justice, 1990), Ahmad Shah of Pahang, Sultan of Pahang, constitutional monarch, and head of state of Malaysia (1979–1984), George L. Savvides, Attorney-General of the Republic of Cyprus and former Minister of Justice and Public Order, and Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, ruler of the Sharjah emirate.

In UK domestic politics and government, alumni include Sajid Javid, former Chancellor of the Exchequer and Home Secretary of the United Kingdom (Economics and politics), James Brokenshire, former Minister for Security and former Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Jeremy Wright QC, former Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Mark Lancaster, former Minister of State for the Armed Forces since June 2017, John Pullinger, the National Statistician, Andrew Lansley, former Secretary of State for Health, and Leader of the House of Commons (BA Politics), Caroline Lucas, MP and former leader of the Green Party of England and Wales (BA English, 1983, PhD, 1990),[109][110] Fiona Shackleton, Baroness Shackleton of Belgravia, family law solicitors and personal solicitor to Prince William and Prince Harry (Law, 1970s),[111] Luke Pollard, Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and Lynne Owens, Director-General of the National Crime Agency.

Alumni in arts, journalism and entertainment include J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books (French and Classics, 1986),[112] Robert Bolt, Tony Award-winning playwright and two-time Academy Award award-winning screenwriter,[113] Vanessa Kirby, BAFTA award-winning actress in Netflix's The Crown (English, 2008), Stephen Dillane, BAFTA and Tony Award-winning actor best known for his work in Game of Thrones (History and political science), Mark Labbett, professional quizzer and TV personality on The Chase (PGCE),[114] Thom Yorke, lead singer of Radiohead (English and Fine Arts),[115] Nina Allan, author of speculative fiction and winner of the Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire for Best Foreign Novel in 2014 (Russian literature), Steve Backshall, BAFTA award-winning television presenter, Samantha Baines, actress and comedian (BA(Hons) Drama),[116] Steve Bell, political cartoonist, Tom Deacon, comedian and Radio 1 DJ (Drama, 2007), Frank Gardner, the BBC's Security Correspondent (Arabic, 1980s),[117] Tim Montgomerie, British political activist and blogger, Clemmie Moodie, associate features editor at the Daily Mirror (English, 2003), James Pearce, journalist and presenter for BBC Sport (Politics), Rob Walker, British sports commentator and television presenter, Ben Collins, racing driver known for being The Stig on the BBC motoring television show Top Gear (Law, 1997),[118] Matthew Wright, broadcaster and journalist (English and Drama),[119] and Will Young, singer (Politics).

In business, graduates include Neil Woodford, British fund manager and the founding partner of Woodford Investment Management, Belabbes Benkredda, Algerian-German social innovator, founder of The Munathara Initiative (MA in Middle East Politics),[122] Dennis Gillings, British-born American billionaire statistician and entrepreneur, and the founder of the Fortune 500 company Quintiles (BA, 1966 and PhD, 1972),[123] and Henry Staunton, chairman of WHSmith.