About us
We have established a worldwide reputation for top quality teaching and
research since being founded in 1964. Over the past five decades we have
grown to more than 11,000 students, including over 3,000 postgraduates, who
come from all over the world to study at one of our three campuses in
Colchester, Loughton and Southend.
Our strengths
- Research excellence – Essex was ranked ninth in the UK for the quality
of our research and top for social sciences in the latest Research
Assessment Exercise (RAE, December 2008).
- Student satisfaction – we are in the top 20 for mainstream English
universities for overall satisfaction according to the 2011 National
Student Survey.
- International perspective – we are one of the UK's most internationally
diverse campus universities with students drawn from more than 130
countries.
“We
are an internationally oriented, research intensive university with a commitment to excellence in research and research-led teaching,
to the personal development of all our students, and to offering an outstanding campus-based student experience.”
Our approach
Research-intensive – our students learn from academics
at the forefront of their fields
Inclusive – we aim to support all our students to
succeed.
International – we are proud of our diverse student
community, strong links with leading universities across the world and the
global impact of our research.
Interdisciplinary – we encourage our academics to work
collaboratively across traditional subject boundaries to provide new
insights to important issues and our students benefit from being encouraged
to develop an interdisciplinary approach.
Our campuses
Essex has three vibrant campuses:
- Colchester Campus is based in
historic parkland close to England’s oldest recorded town;
- Loughton Campus is the home of the
world-renowned East 15 Acting School and has quick links to the centre of
London;
- Southend Campus is located in the
lively heart of the seaside resort.
Research excellence
Highlights from the latest Research
Assessment Exercise (RAE, December 2008), the UK’s independent review of
the quality of research at our universities, included:
- 22 per cent of our research was rated as ‘world-leading’ and more than
90 per cent was recognised internationally for its quality;
- we are the UK’s leading university in social sciences with politics and
sociology ranked first, economics third and linguistics fourth
nationally;
- in the humanities, history was ranked second, art history ranked ninth
and philosophy ranked tenth;
- Essex Business School was ranked second in the UK in accounting and
finance research.
Student experience
- National Student Survey 2011 – 88 per cent of students expressed overall
satisfaction with their course. This was well above the national average
and placed us in the top 20 for mainstream universities in England.
- Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey 2011 – 85 per cent of respondents
said their teaching and learning had met or exceeded their expectations,
while 90 per cent said their overall experience as a postgraduate had
met or exceeded their expectations.
- Postgraduate Research Experience Survey 2011 – more than 82 per cent of
our research students who took part said their overall experience had
met or exceeded their expectations.