Annual Review 2008-09
Vice-Chancellor's introduction
Although the higher education sector is facing difficult times, Essex
remains steadfastly resilient. Despite external pressures, 2008-09 was an
extremely successful year with significant achievements in research funding
and student recruitment, as well as recognition for our efforts to improve
the student experience.
Our research profile received a powerful boost when the University won
record research income for the second consecutive year. The total rose from
£15.7 million to £18.2 million, £1.7 million ahead of budget and testament
to the outstanding quality of work produced by our academics and the
excellent professional support they receive. Our achievements were further
endorsed by the Centre for Higher Education Development European Excellence
Rankings which rated economics, political science and psychology as
excellent.
We were particularly delighted by the award of a Queen's Anniversary
Prize for Essex's pioneering role in advancing the legal and broader
practice of international human rights. This well-deserved recognition of
our world-renowned Human Rights Centre shows how far Essex has come in its
relatively short, but nevertheless almost 50-year history. Our four new
Global Challenges projects, focusing our research on major issues faced by
humanity, give us every prospect of further success into the future.
Along with the provision of future-oriented research facilities, the
student experience has been at the heart of our £250 million capital
investment plan, launched this year. Projects already or nearly completed
include the major refurbishment and extension of the Lakeside Theatre, new
performance and studio space at the Clifftown Studios in Southend, and a £1
million fitness centre extension at the Sports Centre. Continuing and future
projects are too numerous to list but together they will provide modern,
sustainable state-of-the-art teaching and social facilities for our students
and phased improvements to the 45-year-old fabric of the original campus.
The improvements are already having a positive effect: for the second
year running we have succeeded in recruiting record numbers of students. Not
only did we exceed our targets, but we fully secured the additional student
numbers awarded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England. We are
also one of the few universities to have been awarded a further 200
additional student numbers for 2010-11, to support growth in Southend. This
means that our public funding for teaching will rise, helping to insulate
ourselves against possible difficulties ahead.
Recognition
of our efforts has been three-fold. Most pleasing is that our students
continued to show high levels of satisfaction, exceeding the national
average scores in most categories of the 2009 National Student Survey.
Eighty-five per cent expressed overall satisfaction with their courses, and
three of our smaller departments achieved 100 per cent overall satisfaction
ratings. The University won the Best Halls category in the National Student
Housing Survey, a particularly impressive outcome based on 800 student
responses from Essex. Further, our success in being shortlisted in the Most
Improved Student Experience category of the Times Higher Education Awards
was an indication that our long-standing close collaboration with the
Students' Union continues to reap enormous benefits for students.
Given this record of achievement in the face of an unhelpful funding
environment, I am confident that the University is well placed not only to
tackle future challenges, but also to maintain an ambitious research
trajectory and to provide a teaching, living and working experience of the
highest quality.
Professor Colin Riordan, Vice-Chancellor