More than 500 freshers from Surrey started at Exeter this year

526 of Exeter’s most recent intake of freshers come from Surrey.

6.7 per cent of freshers this year are from Surrey, almost three times the number from Cornwall.

Those 526 are the the equivalent of over 0.045 per cent of Surrey’s approximate total population.

For English second year Jake Massey, the gilets haven’t gone unnoticed: “Exeter Uni is like finishing school for Surrey students.

“I probably would not have gone to Exeter if I lived in Surrey. It would be like getting bored of Bargain Hunt and watching Antiques Roadshow instead.”

If you stop and ask a random first-year where they’re from, there’s a one in three chance they’re from London or the home counties, and if you walk into the alumni lecture theatre at its full capacity, 26 freshers, would be from Surrey.

All in all, Exeter thoroughly deserves its reputation as Surrey-on-sea, the weather may be better but the chat certainly is not.