Essex achieves 97% student satisfaction in art history

Essex is among the best in the UK for student satisfaction in art history, with 97% of students expressing overall satisfaction with their course in the latest National Student Survey (NSS).

Our art history department is ranked top 10 in the Times Good University Guide (2018) and 6th for research excellence in the REF 2014*. The latest NSS results show how much students enjoy the courses on offer.

Dr Natasha Ruiz-Gómez, Director of Undergraduate Studies for Art History, said: “This feedback from our students feels great! We think art history is important and exciting, and we’ve worked hard to communicate that to our students.

“The team here at Essex is a group of young art historians who are passionate about developing the discipline though we each look at the history of art in very different ways. We all love what we do which is, I think, obvious to our students.”

Essex art history courses have been revamped in recent years and Dr Ruiz-Gómez believes this is behind the subject’s resounding success in the NSS. 

“We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about our curriculum,” she said, “and attempting to improve it with exciting new modules that are flexible enough to incorporate each staff member’s cutting-edge research. 

“At the same time, we’ve rethought many of our modes of assessment. This work has been ongoing for several years, but I think it’s really come to fruition this past year.”

Essex is home to one of the most important public collections of art from Latin America in Europe, ESCALA. We also have particular expertise in curating, and are one of the few top-ranked art history schools in the UK to offer BA Curatorial Studies in addition to Masters courses.

Places are available for both undergraduate and postgraduate art history courses starting in October. 

The annual National Student Survey (NSS) of final-year undergraduates is carried out by the UK government’s Office for Students and the UK higher education funding bodies.