Facilities

(Harry G West and Paul Cleave) 

The community garden offers a unique teaching resource and outdoor classroom for students taking the Gardening, Community and Wellbeing module on the Masters in Food Studies, or as an MA taster for undergraduates. It is also a site for transgenerational learning, alongside campus neighbours, for those attending its weekly community gardening sessions. The garden brings together academic and practical learning. In its orchard, polytunnels, vegetable plot, and wildlife area, students learn diverse skills—pruning fruit trees, analysing soil, composting, foraging, fostering biodiversity and practicing traditional craft skills. Beyond this, the garden affords those who use it opportunities to learn about: the positive long-term environmental impacts of community gardens; the physical and mental health benefits that people derive from connecting with nature; and the ways in which extended commensality—growing, preparing and eating food together—fosters a sense of belonging and wellbeing. Shaped by the creative labours of those who have spent time in it, the garden prepares students to lead in future on similar initiatives in the communities in which they will live. 
 

The Q-Step Centre for Computational Social Science (C2S2) at the University of Exeter promotes education and research in the interdisciplinary field of computational social science, which combines scientific methods, statistical techniques, Artificial Intelligence, and machine learning to gain actionable insights from big data. Building upon the University’s strong foundations in Sociology, Criminology, and Politics and International Relations, C2S2 combines knowledge and understanding from these fields using computational methods to develop a better understanding of both novel and long-standing socio-political issues through cutting-edge research and our range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

C2S2 is based in the Clayden Building on the University of Exeter’s Streatham campus and boasts a state-of-the-art Computational Social Science Lab providing individual PCs for up to 30 students.