Monthly Archives: September 2021

Work experience opportunities at the University of Exeter: An insight into internships and Graduate Business Partnerships

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A core aspect of heritage work at the University of Exeter is the creation and development of work opportunities within the university and with external heritage organisations and partners. These opportunities can be invaluable for students seeking to learn skills and gain experience alongside their undergraduate or postgraduate degrees. Current Graduate Business Partners Ben and Georgia and heritage intern Eloise tell us about their experiences working within and outside of the university and what they have gained from them.

Becoming Graduate Business Partners:

Since June, Ben and Georgia have been undertaking Graduate Business Partnerships (GBP’s) as Engagement and Campaign Support Officers within the Innovation, Impact and Business (IIB) directorate at the University of Exeter. The Graduate Business Partnership scheme helps recent graduates secure full-time graduate roles, with supportive employers in the South West.

Ben tells us about his experience:

For my GBP role, I provide communications and publicity for the many different research projects and partnerships based in IIB. This involves all sorts activity – from social media, to developing blog posts, to web design. The most exciting thing for me is the scope. IIB is the interface between the university and external organisations, be they charities, NGOs, businesses or the public sector. Because of this, the team in IIB work with academics across all areas of university activity, so the projects I work on are incredibly varied. 

Since starting four months ago, I’ve worked closely with the UNESCO Exeter City of Literature team (a personal favourite as a writer & culture lad), promoted environmentally focused projects (such as EEIST and Green Futures), and supported the university’s strategic partnerships with the Met Office and National Trust. I’ve particularly enjoyed speaking to academics about their work, whether this is ground-breaking research into vaccine passports or community interventions to improve the lives of people living with dementia.

As someone interested in both academic research and creative, editorial work, this role’s been a fantastic, challenging and insightful bridge between the two. I’ve developed a bunch of new skills and experiences (specifically in social media and newsletter engagement, writing and design), but also – by talking to university staff with experience in research, journalism and cultural development – a strong insight as to where I’d most like to work in the future.

An insight into Georgia’s experience as a GBP:

As an Engagement and Campaign Support Officer, I provide communications support for researchers and partners who work with the IIB team. This can be in the form of a blog post or social media content, to event planning or design input. I have recently been working with Ben to create the IIB Year in Review 2020-21, a new campaign that celebrates academic success stories from the past year. Learning about some of the great projects and partnerships which come out of the University has been particularly interesting and insightful.  

Working as a GBP has also allowed me to develop my design skills, primarily via Adobe InDesign. I have been working on ‘The Exeter Entrepreneur’ – a handbook designed to guide people through their entrepreneurial journey, emphasising the key programmes and support that the University of Exeter and SETsquared offers. Additionally, I have created a Press Pack for the Exeter City of Literature group – highlighting the positive impact of the UNESCO title. 

Outside of day-to-day work, the University encourages us to engage with personal development, whether this be developing my skills further or delving deeper into the sections of work that particularly interest me. Within IIB, we also have social hubs that enable local people to meet up and engage with each other out of the office. I found this particularly beneficial when working from home, as the South Devon social hub enabled me to meet co-workers face-to-face in a more informal setting. 

The IIB team have created a well-rounded and supportive environment that has allowed me to further develop my skills and pursue personal areas of interest. Learning about the magnificent projects being researched and developed at the University has been a particular highlight.  

Eloise Speechly: Interning with heritage partner The Charles Causley Trust:

Archaeology graduate and previous Professional Pathways intern Eloise has been undertaking an internship with The Charles Causley Trust throughout summer of 2021. The Charles Causley Trust is an organisation that maintains and raises the profile and appreciation of the work of Cornish-born writer Charles Causley, and has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the University of Exeter after previous collaboration.

Eloise tells us about her work for the Charles Causley Trust Festival of Arts and Literature:

Over this past summer, I was offered the privileged position to peak behind the scenes at what goes into creating an arts and culture festival, and the difficulties the current pandemic has caused. As an intern at the Charles Causley Trust, I was given unique insight into organising a large-scale cultural festival and gained first-hand experience in undertaking a portion of its administration.

 As an archaeology graduate, I was keen to make my mark and help tackle the mammoth task of creating a fun and interactive festival experience for all the family, in many cases from the comfort of their own home. With my trusty sausage dog Sammie by my side, I was entrusted with coordinating and communicating with acts, performers and artists the festival was featuring, ensuring that time tabling ran smoothly and gave visitors a chance to see as many events as possible.

Though working remotely had its set-backs, with interaction being limited to the video chatting format, I couldn’t have asked for better employers or co-workers. The Causley Trust team made sure I felt welcomed with regular video meetings to check in on how my work was progressing. I cannot express in words how unbelievably enriching both personally and professionally this internship has proven to be long term as I go forward with my career!

To find out more about the work of The Charles Causley Trust, see their website.

For new and returning Exeter students looking for internship and work experience opportunities, check out the Handshake careers platform to keep up to date with current opportunities at both the university and with external organisations. With new roles approved every day, students can select their particular work interests to receive personalised job notifications.

Also see https://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/internships/ for more accounts written by students about their work experiences across a variety of degree programmes.

Calling all new Exeter students: An introduction to heritage at the University of Exeter Streatham campus, as the start of the new academic year approaches

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As the new academic year looms, academic staff within the University of Exeter are preparing for new visitors, new projects and new research.

A defining feature of Heritage practice at the University of Exeter is its scope. Through a combination of digital and physical heritage work, particularly in the last year, the preservation of heritage for future generations has become a focal point of heritage work. Encompassing a range of disciplines, heritage practice at the university continues to generate social, political and environmental conversations, as artefacts, research findings and literature help shape the cultural landscape of the south west.

Alongside this, the University of Exeter is part of a wider heritage network. It holds a number of Memorandum’s of Understanding (MoU’s) with heritage organisations in the south west, with a view to developing and generating projects and opportunities within the heritage space. Currently, the university has MoU’s with the Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM), Exeter Cathedral, Powderham Castle, South West Fed, The Charles Causley Trust, Wells Cathedral and Cornwall Museums Partnership. In addition, the University has a long standing partnership with the National Trust, that at present specifically focuses on environmental and cultural change, supporting wildlife renewal and improving wellbeing through nature. To find out more about Exeter’s partnerships, see the Exeter Heritage website.

Beginning with physical heritage at the university, you can visit the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum (BDCM), The Northcott Theatre and the Special Collections. Having reopened in May after being closed for several months, the BDCM is open for visitors every day between 10am and 5pm. Home to one of the largest collections of material on the moving image in Britain, the museum documents the development of optical entertainment from shadow-puppets and 17th century books on projection, to the most recent Hollywood blockbusters, including artefacts such as Magic Lanterns, rare books, prints, and an extensive variety of publicity materials. The academic research facility and accredited public museum commemorates British filmmaker Bill Douglas (1934-1991), whose work includes the Bill Douglas Trilogy (1972-78) and Comrades (1987).

Over at The Northcott Theatre, performances have returned, ranging from comedy stand-up shows to dance and drama productions. Having first opened its doors in November 1967 as the first arts centre in UK to have been built on university land, the Northcott quickly built a reputation as a venue that fostered new writing talent and pushed boundaries, playing a key role in the development of the careers of actors such as Celia Imrie, Robert Lindsay, Diana Rigg, Imelda Staunton, and John Nettles. September’s programme includes ‘The Three Musketeers – a Comedy Adventure’ and ‘Infinite ways home,’ a multisensory production that explores ritual, rave and human connection. All of Northcott Theatre’s events can be viewed via their website. The Theatre is located just prior to the top of Forum Hill.

Exeter’s rich literary history is preserved in the university’s Special Collections, which you can find in the Old Library. The Special Collections hold archives, rare books and manuscript resources covering all subject areas. Major highlights of the collection include Twentieth Century South West Writing, Literature and Visual Culture, Victorian Culture and Imperial Endeavour, Arab and Islamic Studies, and Religious and Parish book collections.

Famous writers held within the Archives, many of which were born in the south west, include Daphne du Maurier, Charles Causley, William Golding, Ted Hughes, Agatha Christie and Henry Williamson. Archive material from Special Collections can be viewed in the newly reopened Ronald Duncan Reading Room, Monday-Friday between 10 am and 5pm. Appointments must be made in advance by contacting .

In addition to the physical literary heritage at the university, the Digital Humanities Lab uses digital methods and practices to preserve material and further academic research, making literary texts more accessible and more widely understood. Their current projects include the Thomas Hardy Heritage project, a collaboration with Dorset Museum that has digitised Victorian writer Thomas Hardy’s letters, The Poetry of the Lancashire Cotton Famine, which aims to create a database of digitised poems from this period, and the Exeter Book Project, a joint project with Exeter Cathedral that has produced a new website with accessible images of the ancient anthology of poetry.

Look out for more information via the Exeter Heritage website or follow us on Twitter @UoEHeritage, for updates on the #heritage events to check out during this year’s Fresher’s Week.