Annual Review 2008-09
News from our campuses
Colchester
Iconic 1960s architecture blends in with new, award-winning buildings
on the 200-acre Wivenoe Park in Colchester.
Internationally
acclaimed poet, and winner of the 1992 Nobel Prize for Literature Derek
Walcott visited the campus to collect his honorary degree and give an
exclusive public reading. The celebrated Caribbean poet, playwright,
essayist and visual artists discussed his work in front of a packed audience
at the Lakeside Theatre.
Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty and recipient of a University
honorary degree in 2006, opened the Essex Law Clinic. A collaborative
initiative between the Students' Union Advice Centre and student society
Street Law, the Clinic delivers free and reliable legal advice and is
staffed by students from the School of Law.
Essex spearheaded its energy efficiency campaign by installing a wind
turbine on the newly-completed School of Health and Human Sciences Building.
It generates enough energy to power half the building and is just one of
several green initiatives employed to reduce the University's carbon
footprint.
The Ivor Crewe Lecture Hall received a hat-trick of prestigious
architecture awards picking up national Civic Trust and Royal Institute of
British Architecture (RIBA) East awards, as well as winning the New
Contemporary Buildings category at the 2008 Colchester 2020 and RIBA
Architectural Awards.
The Albert Sloman Library received an extensive, personal collection of
BBC Question Time recordings from television presenter, journalist and Essex
honorary graduate David Dimbleby including 344 videotapes.
Loughton
Home to the University's renowned department for performance art, East
15 Acting School, the compact Loughton Campus offers state-of-the-art
studios, technical equipment and a theatre.
A student from East 15 Acting School won the esteemed Laurence Olivier
Bursary for an unprecedented seventh time. The £7,500 bursary - only open to
students studying at accredited drama schools - was awarded to Frances
McNamee. Two further East 15 students picked up awards with Thomas Nelson
winning £2,5000 as part of the same bursary scheme and Daniel Jenkins
awarded the Sir John Gielgud Bursary of £4,000.
East 15 launched its new MA/MFA in Filmmaking at a star-studded event at
BAFTA. Held on the eve of the British Academy Film Awards, the launch
attracted support from some of the biggest names of stage and screen
including one of the UK's leading film directors, Mike Newell.
Southend
Opened in 2007, the multi-million-pound Gateway Building, off the
town's High Street, combines high-tech teaching facilities with a business
hub and health centre.
Students started using the new Clifftown Studios in the former Clifftown
United Reform Church. Originally built in 1866, the redeveloped listed
building provides new teaching, training, rehearsal and performance space
for students from East 15 Acting School as well as the University's third
theatre.
Work started on the Campus's first block of student accommodation which
will provide 561 student study bedrooms at the heart of the town centre. It
will be finished for the new intake of students in October 2010.
The first doctorate for a Southend Campus student was awarded at the July
2009 graduation ceremonies. Yazid Abubakar, who was the first postgraduate
student to enrol at the Campus, was awarded a PhD in Entrepreneurship.