The University of Exeter is proposing to redevelop its St Luke’s Campus over the next 50 years and enhance its local and global reputation as world-leading centre of excellence for health and wellbeing research and education.

In November 2023 and April 2024, the University invited colleagues, students, strategic partners and members of the local community to an early-stage engagement so they could share their views on how the campus should be developed (please find details of the engagement events below). The feedback is being incorporated in to a planning application to be submitted to Exeter City Council.

The proposal for the campus aims to boost health-related education and research in the coming decades, directly benefitting the local community by creating more high-quality jobs, offering a world-class education on the doorstep, and generating research which will have direct impacts on patient care. The proposal seeks to ensure the campus is open and available as a community asset, upgrading both the appearance and utility of the site and adding economic benefit to the area.

The vision for the campus aims to greatly improve the look of the site by creating a modern and biodiverse landscape, whilst opening up the area with welcoming, publicly accessible spaces that are beneficial to the health of those that work, study and visit the campus.

The proposal includes seven potential new buildings over the coming decades, and the area, scale, height and distribution of public open spaces within the campus, as well as which buildings, features and green spaces will be retained.

Background

St Luke’s was founded in 1854 as a teacher training college, an activity that is still going strong through the University’s School of Education. The campus has a proud 160-year history of delivering high-quality research and training, with an increasing focus on health and wellbeing since the University of Exeter Medical School was established a decade ago. Now, the campus also houses the Academy of Nursing, and activities including biomedical, public health, the UK’s number one sports and health sciences research groups, as well as the training of the next generation of nurses, doctors, medical scientists, and radiographers.

The University’s health and wellbeing research has already led to a number of significant global breakthroughs, meaning better diagnosis and treatment in key areas. Specific examples include new ways of treating babies with neonatal diabetes across the world, finding new ways of diagnosing cancer to improve survival rates, and better ways of caring for people with early-stage dementia.

In partnership with Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, the University has also established the UK’s first National Rapid Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) Service, which has revolutionised the diagnosis of children and babies with rare genetic diseases across the UK. In the last two years, the partnership has also launched the South West Peninsula’s first National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Exeter Biomedical Research Centre, and been granted funding for a new NIHR Healthtech Research Centre. Together, the new centres will drive scientific discoveries that have the potential to make a real difference by ensuring key breakthroughs are rapidly adopted to benefit patients.

The new vision for the campus aims to build on the close proximity to key partner the Royal Devon, to help stimulate an expansion of health-related activity, which would mean health and economic benefits for the area.

Consultants tor&co have been appointed by the University to develop the vision for the future redevelopment of St Luke’s Campus.

Public Engagement in April 2024

Public views were invited at two engagement events in April at St Luke's Campus. 

At the events, the local community, University colleagues and students were able to view information on the proposed redevelopment for St Luke’s and feedback their thoughts. You can view the display materials from the engagement events, here:  St Luke's engagement display materials April 2024

You can view the display materials from the November 2023 engagement event, here: St Luke's engagement display material Nov 2023 

The vision for St Luke's will demonstrate how future development of the campus can complement and contribute to the aspirations of planning policy and other planned development throughout the city including CityPoint, Liveable Exeter and the new Exeter Local Plan.