This summer will see two exciting developments within the Faculty of Science and Health. Executive Dean Professor Graham Underwood tells us more:
I am delighted that we are forming the first new school at the University for ten years – the School of Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Sciences.
This new School will bring together a new group of disciplines, joining academic teams from sports therapy and physiotherapy in the current School of Health and Human Sciences with those in the Centre of Sports and Exercise Science, currently within the School of Biological Sciences.
This is an exciting opportunity to develop sport and rehabilitation as a combined academic grouping at Essex to help us deliver excellence in education and excellence in research.
This is a coherent grouping of disciplines and will open up great opportunities for a range of different research collaborations around health and wellbeing. It will encourage working across disciplines and open up new research opportunities.
The School’s research will focus on two areas:
- health, exercise and active lifestyle
- sports performance and fatigue
It will mean researchers in sports and exercise science will benefit from regular interactions with academic scholars/practitioners with physiotherapy, sports therapy and rehabilitation expertise. We are hoping this will support our developing research culture in sports therapy and physiotherapy that has, until now, been largely focused on professional practice.
This new grouping of disciplines will mean Essex will be offering something a bit different from other higher education institutions in that we can bring new depth to our research and offer a much broader exercise and wellbeing package, from cradle to the grave.
Our new School with also place Essex in a better position to reflect NHS England’s five-year Forward View, which aims to reduce the nation’s health and wellbeing gap by supporting a healthier and fitter population.
The new School’s staffing infrastructure will enable us to integrate our research and education provision in the areas of healthy lifestyle, rehabilitation and sports performance. So, as well as supporting this NHS health agenda, we will continue our excellent work with elite athletes.
The new sports hall building will act as a hub for the new School, integrating education and research into the University’s sport and wellbeing agenda. Due to open during the 2017-18 academic year, the new sports building will house bespoke offices, teaching facilities, laboratories and therapy rooms to complement the existing labs already on our Colchester Campus. This includes the on-site sports therapy clinic which has been a huge success since opening to staff and students in the autumn.
This new School of Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Sciences will mean a new name for the School of Health and Human Sciences, as Head of the School Vikki-Jo Scott explains:
Our School of Health and Human Sciences is a pioneering department committed to making a difference to local, national and international health and social care, through education, research and knowledge transfer.
Over the next five years the NHS is proposing to dissolve the traditional boundaries between health and social care. To mirror this and better reflect the range of research, professional and education interests of staff and students within the School, we will be renamed the School of Health and Social Care from August 2017.
There is a national trend towards better collaboration between health and social care services and we want to train and support professionals who will be better prepared to work in this new culture of collaboration. This includes recognising the significant contribution that inter-professional learning and service user engagement can make to the high quality education we provide and research that we generate at Essex.
With a stronger focus on research, the School’s new name will better reflect the already excellent collaborative work we are doing in health and social care. We have streamlined our research into four themes to reflect our expertise at Essex. We specialise in applied, multi-disciplinary research that addresses local, national and international issues relating to health and social care policy and practice, and other related fields.
Our four key areas of research are:
- mental health and psychological wellbeing
- research for public and patient benefit
- social policy and social care
- health professions education and workforce development research
Health and social care provision is changing and our plans build on the School’s existing strengths and place us on a solid footing for the future to continue to deliver the high quality provision of education and research we are known for in this field.