University of Essex

History

• Granted Royal Charter in 1965.
• One of the UK's leading academic institutions with an international reputation for the quality of its research and teaching, particularly in the social sciences.
• From the outset has been an international university – both through student and staff body and academic programs

Notable alumni

• The Rt Hon John Bercow MP – Speaker of the House of Commons.
• Dr Oscar Arias Sanchez – Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress and former President of Costa Rica.
• Blake Harrison – Neil from The Inbetweeners and graduate of East 15.
• Daniel Libeskind – world-renowned architect and master-planner for the new World Trade Centre site in New York.
• David Yates, BAFTA – award-winning film and television director, and director of the Harry Potter films.
• Baroness Virginia Bottomley – former Secretary of State for Health and for National Heritage.
• Christopher Pissarides – Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and winner of 2010 Nobel Economic Prize.

Location and transport

• Colchester Campus is set in 200 acres of parkland on outskirts of Colchester.
• Good road (A12), rail (Colchester main line station, 40 minutes from London) and airport links (Stansted airport), port of Harwich also nearby
• Southend Campus, adjacent to the Southend Central railway station and Southend High Street, is in a new multi-million pound campus.
• Loughton Campus is the home of East 15 Acting School and is a five-minute walk from the nearest London Underground station, Debden, at the east end of the Central Line and 35 minutes by tube, from Liverpool Street.

Entry standards

• General entry requirement are A-Levels, BTEC, etc (specific subjects do identify individual course requirements).
• Essex does accept applicants with non-standard qualifications.

Student mix

• 11,282 students across all three campuses: 8,182 undergraduates and 3,100 postgraduates.
• 4,500 international students, with over 130 nationalities represented.
• Roughly 50/50 men and women.
• Applications to places ratio ranges greatly from course to course.

Course flexibility

• Broad first year with opportunity to try new subjects.
• Opportunity to change degree scheme at end of first year.
• Wide choice of options and modules.

Teaching standards

• The National Student Survey ranked Essex 20th in England for overall student satisfaction in 2011, with 88%  of students expressing overall satisfaction with their course.
• Art History and Theory, Philosophy and Psychoanalytic Studies achieved 95% or more satisfaction ratings.
• Ranked in the top 20 for a number of science, social science and humanities subjects.

Research standards

• Ranked ninth in the UK for the quality of our research in 2008 RAE.
• More than 90% of research recognised internationally for its quality and 22% of research rated as 'world leading'.
• Essex houses three major Economic and Social Research Council funded projects: The Data Archive (the largest depository of computer retrievable information outside the USA); Institute for Social and Economic Research; Qualidata – the Qualitative Data Service.

Academic strengths

• The UK’s leading university in social sciences with politics, and sociology ranked first, economics third and linguistics fourth nationally.
• Excellence in the humanities confirmed by outstanding national rankings for history (second in the UK), art history (ninth) and philosophy (tenth).
• Essex Business School ranked second in the UK in accounting and finance research.

Student facilities, including library and computing

• More than 580 workstations across the library and open access laboratories at the Colchester Campus, and more than 70 workstations at the Southend Campus.
• The library holds over 1 million volumes and many collections of national and international importance.
• Library open 24 hours during exam term.
• Twenty-four hour reading room.

Disability services

Students' union

• University nightclub Sub Zero won Best Student Venue in the UK in 2006.
• Full calendar of events each term for students, ranging from current music acts to themed nights to buffets.
• £400,000 refurbishment of the Student Union bar.
• Over 150 different clubs and societies.
• Range of services from academic support to volunteer opportunities, security minibus, newspaper, R:TV.

Sport

• More than 40 clubs ranging from mountaineering to volleyball.
• Newly opened £1.4-million sports centre with Evolve gym featuring state-of-the-art fitness technology.
• Eight hectares (20 acres) devoted to sport and extensive indoor, including a climbing wall, and outdoor facilities including disc golf course and synthetic pitch.

Recent/prospective new builds

• Clifftown Studios at the Southend Campus has been refurbished to include new theatrical space large enough to accommodate work by East 15 Acting School students. Opened January 2010.
• New £5-million pound Teaching Centre at the Colchester Campus, offering high quality, modern teaching space. Opened October 2010.
• Newly opened Southend student accommodation; University Square featuring 561 rooms with many green and sustainable features. Opened October 2010.
• The new £7-million infrastructure development, Knowledge Gateway is currently being developed at the Colchester Campus which will provide research and development and office space for start-up businesses through to major blue-chip companies, as well as associated hotel, and leisure facilities.
• Edge Hotel School is a £10-million development which will be the first of its kind in the UK housed at the Colchester Campus, staffed by students, supervised and mentored by industry professionals is designed to prepare the future leaders of the hotel and hospitality industry.
• Student facilities at the Colchester Campus have been improved with the development of the Limehouse; state-of-the-art space with PC-equipped learning group pods and two new seminar rooms. Also Fusion; open wok-style Southeast Asian eatery, offering good value, tasty and authentic snacks or larger meals. Opened January 2012.
• £21-million Student Centre and library extension including an integrated learning centre, 24-hour reading room, Students’ Union media centre and a one-stop-shop for student services. The library extension will include a dedicated 24-hour postgraduate study area plus additional reader spaces and library shelving. Opening October 2013.
• Southend’s Elmer Square will be built to create an integrated municipal and academic public library, alongside a stimulating research and learning environment for the University and a modern teaching facility for South Essex College of Further and Higher Education. (Autumn 2013).
•  £22 million complex of town houses called The Meadows, accommodating 228 students in groups of 12, plus en-suite flat clusters for a further 420 students, and a social pavilion. Opening autumn 2013.

Availability of part-time work

• Visit the Student JobShop to read about the assistance offered to students in finding temporary and part-time employment on and off campus.
• Frontrunners is the University's unique placement scheme, giving students the opportunity to undertake meaningful employment around campus and develop the higher-level skills necessary to compete for the best jobs.