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10th November 2020 Phoebe Mumby (2020, English)

Exeter Plus provides positive introduction to university life

Phoebe Mumby (2020, English) was one of the students to take part in this year's Exeter Plus programme before the start of Michaelmas Term. Here she reports on her experience on the bridging programme.

Over the course of the two weeks we were tasked with writing one essay and delivering a short presentation on any topic we chose, and we attended a series of lectures on study skills such as critical reading, making the most of a lecture, and essay writing with Literary Fellow Tim Ecott. These lectures were delivered to us in our first week and the second was set aside for essay writing and presentation preparation, though not all went to plan – thanks corona!

In the first week we had plenty of time to socialise (from a distance) and explore the city (and its many pubs) as well as enjoying a formal dinner on our second night. We had a library induction and time to work in the beautiful college library, which could perhaps be our only chance this year as I hear slots are filling up fast – I guess just the once is enough. Sadly on the second week we were all trapped in self-isolation for three days, which were spent essay-writing (or procrastinating essay writing) and wondering if we’d ever taste freedom again – we really did have the full corona university experience condensed into just two weeks. What did help during isolation was having (Zoom) meetings with graduate mentors to help form our essays, and because of the situation our presentations were cancelled, much to the despair of us all…

Despite the hiccups caused by corona, Exeter Plus was still a really useful and fun experience to have before we were thrown into the deep end of university life. Starting university can be incredibly daunting and the prospect of meeting so many new people, in a brand new place, is scary to most, if not all of us. This is why the most valuable thing Exeter Plus gave us was the opportunity to adjust to university on a much smaller scale, and to get to know a group of people that perhaps we wouldn’t have otherwise met. It was a fantastic experience and we feel incredibly grateful to have been given such a fun and helpful opportunity, and we largely owe that to the generous donors, so on behalf of all of us who attended Exeter Plus, thank you.

Students welcomed to the Exeter Plus programme

Tutor for Admissions Professor Conall MacNiocaill welcomes students to Exeter Plus

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