The totally refurbished heritage-style Top Bar looks out to Square 4 and parkland, and the vibrant Southeast Asian eatery, Fusion, offers a wide range of delicious, fresh authentic South East Asian cuisine during the day and evenings, seven days a week – with a takeaway service, too. There is a wide range of non-alcoholic drinks available from the juice bar and a huge selection of teas and coffees.

Opening times

For students at Colchester Campus who need a locker on campus during the day to store books and bags, Hotkey lockers are now available for £1 a day. Centrally located in the Lecture Theatre Building foyer, you can reserve yours by asking at Students’ Union reception, where you also pick up your key. Hotkey lockers are brought to you by the winning team of this year’s Essex Boot Camp entrepreneurship competition (pictured). Why not take part in this year’s initiative?

A new guide for students living off Colchester Campus is out now. Produced by the Students' Union, the Student Street guide features 12 top tips on easing the move from halls of residence to a house, such as paying a deposit, doing an inventory of the property, information on rubbish and recycling and how to be a good neighbour in your street. It's available from the Students' Union or you can download a PDF version.

The new online portal for University staff, myEssex for staff, is now live – providing staff with access to personalised information alongside campus news and other useful information on the University’s website. Visit the portal here and log-in using your username and password.

Due to open in Spring 2012, this major £10 million refurbishment and redevelopment of Wivenhoe House will combine the fully operational grand country house hotel, refurbished to the highest standards, with the home of the Edge Hotel School. The new venue will include 16 bedrooms, mostly hotel suites, a dining room which will become the hotel’s signature restaurant, and public rooms. See the Wivenhoe House website and video animation of the new development.

The University of Essex's 50th Anniversary campaign has now been launched. The University will be 50 years old in 2014 - and a short film has been produced to start the campaign, which charts the University's growing reputation locally, nationally and globally. Watch it on the 50th Anniversary website.

Six University sports clubs have received a share of the annual £5,000 sports club grant, made available by the introduction of the Passport to Sport membership scheme. The clubs are squash, American football, table tennis, badminton, basketball and cricket. At an informal gathering, David Williams, Director of Sport, praised the winning teams for their successful bids and for their dedication to boosting their teams’ membership. Funds will go towards buying new equipment and coaching.

The new Knowledge Gateway The new Knowledge Gateway junction is now open on the north side of campus for students, staff, Day Nursery users and visitors, accessed off the A133 Clingoe Hill. The new road layout includes a signalized Toucan crossing, providing a safe crossing point for students who walk or cycle onto campus. A full network of cycle and pedestrian routes on the north side of campus, including a reinstated cycle and footpath along Boundary Road, are also now open. This £7 million project to put in roads, services and landscaping is the first stage of the University’s 40-acre Knowledge Gateway development, which will provide research and development and office space for businesses and organisations keen to forge links with the University, alongside the new Meadows student residences, due to open autumn 2013.

• Map of routes onto Colchester Campus - December 2011 (pdf)

Following on from the success of the Orangery, a new shared IT workspace is now open at Colchester Campus. The Limehouse is situated in the inner quadrant at the bottom of Square 4 in room 5S.3.4 (accessible via Square 4 from the Law foyer, and down two flights of stairs). It offers 8 state-of-the-art glass IT pods, with the same IT facilities as the Orangery to support creative team-working among groups of students and members of staff, including writable glass and interactive white screens. The Limehouse is open 7 days a week from 7am until midnight, and has two vending machines for hot drinks and snacks. This vibrant new space was delivered to tight timescales by Estate Management and ISS, and sits between two new teaching rooms and a spacious outside decking area which is due to be completed by the end of November.

What motivates academics to dedicate their professional lives to a particular field of study? This question is answered by a new series of vodcasts now on YouTube called Research Discoveries.

In these short, high-quality interviews, a number of our world-leading academics (including Professor Anthony King, pictured right) go in front of the camera to explain what drives their specific interests and their desire to teach.

As a collection, the impressive breadth of expertise at the University of Essex – which is rated ninth in the UK for the quality of its academic research – is unveiled.

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council has given the green light to ambitious plans to build a brand new state-of-the-art library and learning facility in the town.

The new building, which is being jointly funded by the Council, the University of Essex and South Essex College, will be called The Forum and is due for completion by summer 2013. Read more about The Forum on the SBC website.

The University of Essex is in the top 20 in England for student satisfaction according to the National Student Survey (NSS) for 2011. Eighty-eight per cent of Essex students expressed overall satisfaction with their course - placing the University 20th out of English mainstream universities. Read the full news release.

The University's official Facebook page has notched up more than 13,000 likes! The page features news and updates from across our three campuses, alongside comment from our students, staff, alumni and other friends.

Take a look for yourself at the University of Essex official Facebook page.

The University of Essex online car-sharing database now has around 240 members of the University community signed up to it, with the aim of bringing together potential car sharers. Find out more and join the scheme by registering here.

Following refurbishment over recent weeks, the University’s sailing clubhouse at Brightlingsea is now open. The Brightlingsea Watersports and Yacht Club (BWYC) clubhouse facility, which will serve food and drinks and have a changing area, and nearby boatyard is now open all year to University staff and students and members of the public and is free for use to staff or students holding a silver or gold Passport to Sport.

The club caters for beginners, enthusiasts and experienced sailors alike and aims to offer a range of activities including yachting, dinghy sailing, kayaking, rowing and windsurfing. Keen to encourage newcomers to the water, the club also plans to offer taster sessions and coaching schemes.

• More pictures of the new clubhouse here
• University of Essex Sports Centre website
• BWYC website
• Find out more about joining Passport to Sport