Strategy 2009-10 to 2013-14
Academic Strategy: Excellence with Impact
Introduction
In the last ten years the University has undergone transformational change.
From being a single-campus university numbering some 5,700 students and
1,165 staff offering a traditional, if limited range of subjects, we
have become a multi-campus university of almost 10,000 students and
2,000 staff with a clear commitment to our region, a well-developed set
of partnerships delivering higher education in further education
colleges and a well-defined global agenda. In addition to our
traditional strengths in social sciences and long-standing reputation in
science and engineering and the humanities, we now offer highly
successful professional education in subjects as diverse as health,
acting and enterprise, and have established the thriving Essex Business
School with a distinctive profile that captures the zeitgeist and is
built on a powerful core of top-ranked research.
Overview
Essex has a commitment both to the very highest quality research and
to giving an opportunity to study to all those with the potential to
succeed. Reconciling the demands of research and the student experience,
of the academic and the applied, can be difficult, but underlying the
whole of our academic strategy is a genuine commitment to academic
excellence, cultural influence, economic impact and social justice.
Social sciences remain central to our academic strategy, forming as
they do the backbone of our academic reputation. Building on our
top-ranked strengths in the social sciences, our strategy for science
and engineering focuses on the interface between people and technology,
developing our strengths in health, environment, networks and
neuroscience. Teaching and research in the humanities operate on
the boundary between the critical and the creative, such that engagement
in practice and with the creative industries underlies all critical
activity. There is a particular emphasis on professional education
underpinned by research at the most demanding level in the areas of law
and management, while professional training to degree and post-degree
level forms the core activity in health and acting.
Our strategy for teaching and learning places students at the centre,
engaging them in collaborative learning in a supportive and
well-resourced academic environment. We will enhance the quality of
student learning through investment in the learning environment and in
our staff and their development, and will equip students with the skills
and experience to maximise their employability as graduates and by
providing internal work-placements to students via the Frontrunners
scheme.
Our research strategy aims at disproportionately increasing
research-grant income via collaborations, improved grant-bid quality and
broader engagement of researchers in the bidding process. We will be making
targeted investments and increasing the volume of high-quality researchers
eligible for submission in the Research Excellence Framework, adapting to
the new emphasis on ‘impact’ as appropriate.
The defining feature of our academic work in all respects is excellence
with impact.
Faculty level
Each of our faculties have an individual academic strategy: