UK Student Recruitment and Access

The UK Student Recruitment and Access Team leads the University’s UK recruitment, outreach, and recruitment events activity. Our shared purpose is to help prospective students make informed decisions about higher education and support positive student application outcomes.

We deliver activities across our campuses, in schools and colleges, and through external partners. Our work supports the University in achieving its student recruitment objectives and meeting the commitments set out in the University's Access and Participation Plan.

UK Recruitment

Our UK student recruitment work involves working closely with schools and colleges across the East of England, London, the South East and the Midlands to raise awareness of the University and promote our offer to prospective students. The team also delivers our schools and colleges membership scheme, which operates across our key target regions. Activities for schools include:

• HE/careers fair attendance
• HE information sessions
• Coordinating academic subject taster sessions
• Bespoke school group campus visits
• School group focused events on campus – including our termly Insight Days and subject discovery days
• Progression partnerships
• Annual Teacher and Advisers Conference, and teacher CPD webinars
• Exhibition event attendance, including those organised by UCAS, UK Uni Search and What Uni?

Our work also delivers online activity and resources; this includes but is not limited to: 

• Summer Webinar Series
• Department-focused information webinars
• Postgraduate information sessions
• Promotion of online courses (University Preparation Programme and Python Preparation Programme), working closely with the Skills for Success team
• Management of third-party platforms (Unibuddy, Unifrog, The Student Room and UniTasterDays)

The UK recruitment team works closely with lots of departments/teams across the university to deliver our work successfully. To learn more or discuss how you can support our work, contact schools-link@essex.ac.uk. 

Outreach 

Our Outreach team works with key schools and colleges across Essex, Suffolk, and East London to improve access to higher education for underrepresented students. The team supports young people who may be the first in their family to attend university, come from lower-income households or live in areas of disadvantage. Our targeted programmes contribute to the University’s Access and Participation Plan and help students explore higher education opportunities. 

To find out more about our outreach work, or opportunities to get involved, contact outreach@essex.ac.uk.

Recruitment Events

Our events team delivers a variety of in-person and virtual events throughout the year, working collaboratively with teams across the institution to ensure our events support our student recruitment efforts by showcasing Essex at varying points of the prospective student journey. Our events include:

• Open Days at our Colchester and Loughton campuses
• Campus Tours
• Postgraduate virtual events
• UCAS Discovery Colchester
• Clearing events
• Summer Webinar Series 

To find out more about our events or discuss how you can get involved, contact opendays@essex.ac.uk.