Department of Sociology and Criminology

Our facilities

Student chatting in the Secret Garden

Helping you and your studies


Study Centre

Our Study Centre offers academic and personal support for all our students, and is unique to our Department.

Run by Study Support Manager, Illana Flora and a team of student volunteers, the Study Centre offers informal advice and support in all areas of your study and life at Essex.

It is home to an extensive range of study aids and support services and also runs a programme of academic skills workshops throughout the year, from essay writing, to getting to grips with lectures, revision, presentations and one-to-one support.

Common room

Our common room is at the heart of the Department. It's open every day and is a great place to meet up, chat with friends and staff, or read.

It's stocked with daily newspapers, magazines and journals, and drinks are also available. It's also the venue for drinks and nibbles after weekly departmental seminars.

Read our students work

Our IDEATE undergraduate journal of sociology showcases the very best of our students' work.

You can read their work to give you an idea of how to write essays, projects, presentations and research proposals with first class grades.

Access to resources

In addition to the Albert Sloman Library, you have access to the collections of datasets, archives and research materials held in the UK Data Archive. 

These are used by our staff in their research work and you can use them for your research.

You can access a number of software packages in all the computer labs on Campus, including:

  • statistical software (SAS, STATA, SPSS, R and others)
  • geographic information system (ArcGIS)
  • qualitative data coding and analysis package (MAX QDA2)
  • standard word processing, data analysis/graphing, presentation and bibliography management software.

If you want to experiment with or specialise in survey research, we provide access to the Qualtrics online survey system. If you need further qualitative data analysis tools, the University also has a site-wide licence for installation of NVivo 9.

Internationally acclaimed resources

Essex is one of the focal points for social and economic research funding in the UK.

With the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), based at our Colchester Campus, you'll have access to additional internationally acclaimed resources and the opportunity to work with world-leading experts in the field of applied social research.