University of Essex
| University of Essex |
| |
| Motto | Thought The Harder · Heart The Keener |
| Established | 1964 (Royal Charter 1965) |
| Type | Public |
| Campus | Wivenhoe Park - Over 200 acres (809,000 m²) |
| Chancellor | Lord Phillips of Sudbury OBE |
| Vice-Chancellor | Professor Ivor Martin Crewe, DL, AcSS |
| Location | Colchester, Essex, UK |
| Enrollment | 8,800 students(6,600 Undergraduate, 2,200 Postgraduate) |
| Staff | 410 academic/teaching, 110 research, 220 other academic, 680 other |
| Affiliations | 1994 Group |
| Colour | Red |
| Homepage | www.essex.ac.uk |
The
University of Essex is a
British plate glass university. It received its
Royal Charter in 1965. The university's main
campus is based at
Wivenhoe Park on the outskirts of
Colchester (the oldest recorded town in Britain) in the English county of
Essex, less than a mile from the town of
Wivenhoe. Apart from the Wivenhoe Park campus, there are campuses in
Southend and
Loughton, home of the
East 15 Acting School.
Essex's
Mission statement is,
"The aim of the University is to equip students, employers and the wider community with the knowledge, skills and ideas for living and working successfully in an international world of rapid social and technical change, by means of teaching, training, expert advice and research of a world-class standard." The university's
motto,
Thought the harder, heart the keener, is adapted from the East Saxon poem
The Battle of Maldon.
Founding
|
The University on a sunny day |
In July 1959, Essex County Council accepted a proposal from Alderman Charles (later Lord) Leatherland that a
University be established in the
county. A University Promotion Committee was formed chaired by
Lord Lieutenant of Essex, Sir John Ruggles-Brise, which submitted a formal application to the University Grants Committee requesting that a University of Essex should be established. Initial reports suggested that the Promotion Committee had recommended
Hylands Park in
Chelmsford as the site for the new University, however in May 1961, the foundation of the University was announced in the
House of Commons with
Colchester as the preferred location and in December of the same year,
Wivenhoe Park was selected and acquired for the new university. In July 1962, Dr Albert Sloman, MA, DPhil, Gilmour Professor of Spanish and Dean of the Faculty of Arts,
University of Liverpool, was appointed as Vice-Chancellor and the Rt. Hon. R A (later Lord) Butler, CH, MP, was invited to be Chancellor, with Mr A Rowland-Jones appointed as Registrar. The first Professors were appointed in May 1963: Alan Gibson in
Physics, Peter Townsend in
Sociology,
Donald Davie in
Literature,
Richard Lipsey in
Economics, Ian Proudman in
Mathematics,
Jean Blondel in
Government, and John Bradley in
Chemistry. With its first staff appointed, a development plan for the university was published and a £1million Appeal Fund was launched, and within six months the Appeal Fund had exceeded its £1million target with
The Queen Mother and
Sir Winston Churchill among contributors, while work began on clearing the site for building work. In Autumn 1963, red was chosen as the University colour and the first prospectus was prepared and work began on the first permanent buildings; the science block and boiler room next to Wivenhoe House. In January 1964,
Hardy Amies designed the university's academic robes and temporary teaching huts had to be erected close to Wivenhoe House, while in March Sir John Ruggles-Brise was appointed the first Pro-Chancellor and Ald. Leatherland the first Treasurer of the University. Two months later the university's Armorial Bearings were published, with the
motto 'Thought the harder, heart the keener'.
Arrival of students
In October 1964, the first 122 students arrived with 28 teaching staff in three schools: Comparative Studies, Physical Sciences and Social Studies. Departments of
Chemistry,
Physics,
Government,
Sociology,
Literature,
Mathematics and
Economics open along with the Language Centre (later the Department of Language and
Linguistics) and the Computing Centre (later the Department of Computer Science) with Denis Mesure elected as the first President of the Students' Council. Work started on the first residential tower, Rayleigh in December with
The Queen approving the grant of Charter to take effect from 11 January, 1965.
|
The campus under construction |
1965 brought 399 students enrolling for the start of the new academic year; the number of academic staff doubled to 61; and the first degrees, five
MSc and five
MA degrees were awarded. The Physics building opened and the first six floors of Rayleigh tower were ready for occupation and work began on the Albert Sloman Library. The first female lecturer was appointed: Dr D E Smith in the Department of
Sociology. In December, University Court met for the first time with around 500 members. Six months later, work started on the Lecture Theatre Building, plus the 'Topping out' of Keynes tower. In October 1966, the Hexagon Restaurant and General Store opened, with the number of students reaching 750. Lord Butler was installed as Chancellor at a ceremony held in Colchester's Moot Hall in 1967 and the first
Honorary Degrees were presented, the University's Mace was carried for the first time, while the first annual Degree Congregation saw 135 degrees conferred in July. At the start of the next academic year, the departments of Computer Science and Electronic Systems Engineering accepted their first students, the SSRC Data Bank (later renamed the UK Data Archive) was established and the Lecture Theatre Building and Library opened along with the first phase of the Social and Comparative Studies building, while work proceeded on Tawney and William Morris residential towers.
The University has 17 departments spanning the
Humanities,
Social Sciences,
Science, and
Engineering. Its departments of
Economics, Government (
Political Science),
Sociology and
Linguistics are particularly well-known and belong to the best in Europe. Essex is the only university which received the top rating (5*) in the UK government's Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) for these core Social Science disciplines (5* in Economics: Essex, LSE, UCL, Warwick; 5* in Politics: Essex, Oxford, Sheffield, Wales-Aberystwyth; 5* in sociology: Essex, Goldsmiths, Lancaster, Loughborough, Manchester, Surrey).
It is renowned for its
Human Rights Centre, the Institute of Social and Economic Research and the UK Data Archive. The
Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) is the top UK research centre for the analysis of panel data in Economics and Sociology which opened in 1989 as the ESRC Research Centre on Micro-Social Change in Britain, the UK Data Archive (UKDA), the biggest archive for electronic data in the social sciences and humanities, the British Election Study (BES), the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), the
British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), and many more research activities, particularly in the Social Sciences.
The Centre for Computational Finance and Economic Agents (CCFEA) is at the cutting edge of research into evolutionary methods to simulate markets with artificially intelligent agents.
In September 2000, the University set up an illiteracy programme to help develop relations in the community. The East 15 Acting School became part of the University. This is based in
Loughton, in south-west
Essex. Students at East 15 are University of Essex students and receive University of Essex degrees. East 15 students are taught on its Hatfields campus in Loughton; the school trains professional actors and related stage professionals.
Essex is a Partner Institution of
Writtle College near
Chelmsford, the oldest land based college in the UK, serving HE and FE students in agriculture and horticulture. Writtle has diversified into Business, Design and Equine programmes. It is a campus college that has grown a great deal, so much so that it has drawn up plans to become an independent University College within the next decade.
Essex is among the smallest non-specialist universities in Britain, but its academic excellence ranks it as one of the top universities in the UK. It ranks as one of the top 10 UK universities in both research and teaching evaluations. It is a member of the
1994 Group, and has a good international reputation. One of the major reasons for its international reputation is the annual Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis and Collection which was held for the 38th time in 2005 and which always attracts faculty and students from all over the world. Historically, the university was known as a left-wing hotbed with respect to faculty and students, but today hardly anything of this heritage remains. Yet, its academic air, especially, in social sciences and humanities, still prefers the progressive tradition.
According to
university rankings undertaken by
The Times, Essex University is ranked at number 30[
1], slipping from number 29 in 2005, and 27 in 2004. In comparison to universities in the 25-35 band, Essex University is generally below the median scores for undergraduate entry requirements, good honours, graduate prospects and completion. It performs relatively strongly in terms of research performance and facilities spend. Looking at the individual subject rankings undertaken by The Times[
2],
Economics is ranked joint 10th in the UK, behind the
University of York and in front of
Southampton University. Similarly,
Linguistics at Essex is ranked 8th in the UK, behind
Manchester University and in front of
University College London. In
Sociology, Essex is ranked 7th in the UK, behind
Bristol University and ahead of
Manchester University.According to an annual international ranking exercise undertaken by Shanghai Jiao Tong University which is an evaluation giving greater weight to the natural sciences and engineering sciences ([
3]), Essex University is placed within the 301-400 band of international universities. Other UK universities in this band include
Bath University, the
University of Aberdeen and the
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The main (Colchester) campus, Wivenhoe Park which once was painted by famous landscape painter
John Constable, with its concrete architecture is typical of England's 60s' universities and quite similar to that of the
University of East Anglia. The 60s' buildings are set in a huge park, called
Wivenhoe Park. There are 2 large lakes on campus (in the middle of one is the Vice-Chancellor's House), as well as a full 18-hole Frisbee or
disc golf course; the first in Britain.
The architect of the University of Essex campus took the Tuscan town of
San Gimignano with its squares and towers as an inspiration (the university has six residential towers mainly for undergraduates, but the original plan was to build 29) although whether or not he succeeded in translating that town's flair into modern architecture is debatable. As well as the towers, South Courts (which can be seen at the rear of the main photo of the University) and the University Quays residences provide enough space to guarantee every first year a place on campus.
The University has a very large population of International students, with around 40% being international. Only
LSE and
SOAS have these higher proportions. The University has one of the highest Black and Minority Ethnic student populations of any University in the UK, at roughly a third of the student body. Although, there are departments, particularly in the Humanities and Comparative Studies School, such as History and LIFTS (Literature, Film and Theater Studies), which have over 90% White, UK-based, undergraduate students.
The
University of Essex Students Union is well regarded nationally. It has a very successful volunteering programme that is a national award winner. It has been successful in expanding services offered including considerable expansion and relocation of its Advice Centre. The Students' Union runs the majority of commercial services on campus and is very successful. Its shops stock a great deal of imported food products reflecting the University's international community. They have many licensed venues, the primary venues being the Student Union Bar and the Top Bar. There are club-style venues: Mondo, Level 2 and the newly refurbished Sub Zero (formally the Underground), which have hosted many bands and top name DJ's, including
The Kinks,
The Pretenders,
Iggy Pop and the
Sugababes whilst in recent times Maximo Park, The Subways and Babyshambles continue its reputation.
The student newspaper is
The Rabbit, named after the many rabbits which can be seen on campus daily and it is autonomous from the Students' Union Executive Committee. The student radio station is called
RED AM1404, broadcasting on 1404AM and over the Internet, and was the second student radio station in the UK. Established in 1971 it was originally called URE (University Radio Essex). This year sees the launch of a TV Channel R:TV which will broadcast student made productions.
The University has a wide range of sports clubs, including many sports not normally experienced outside of University life such as
disc golf and
American Football. It has a reasonably well-equipped sports centre, including a fitness suite, squash courts, netball and tennis courts and an 8 m climbing wall. The University has its own clubhouse and boat-park at nearby Brightlingsea.
On 25 November 2004,
Her Majesty the Queen and
HRH The Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh, visited the university as part of its 40th anniversary celebrations (1964-2004). The university's first student, John M. Dowden, who started postgraduate research on fluid dynamics at the age of 23 in 1964, is today a professor of mathematics and was the head of the university's mathematics department until his retirement from the post in 2005.
The university is continuously expanding which includes the University of Essex
Southend development, a new lecture hall with two lecture theatres for 500 students each and a new social science research building. The new Network Centre opened in May 2004 housing robotics research and the University Quays, a student accommodation complex housing 770 students, opened in September 2004. The university is a partner in developing a new
University Campus in Suffolk, jointly with the
University of East Anglia.
Over the 1990s, and the influence of policy activity in the United States stimulated by the
Bayh-Dole Act, the British Government has sought to strengthen the links between universities and industry as means to contribute to economic growth and the technological capacity of companies through technology transfer and exploitation of university ideas. Essex University has received grants from the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) delivered by
HEFCE and other government departments to develop such capacity to link with industry. A Research and Business Development Office has been established, which is to be complemented with the development of a research park adjacent to the campus [
4]. Links between the university and industry have mostly been found within the Department of Electronic Systems Engineering (ESE) and the Computer Science departments. ESE has maintained a long standing relationship with the Japanese photography and printing company, Canon. [
5] as well as links with British Telecom. The university has produced spin-out companies, which include Ilotron [
6] (2000), and Technologica Ltd. (2001).
See List of University of Essex people.*
University of Essex website*
East 15 Acting School website*
University of Essex Southend website*
University Campus Suffolk website*
Essex Students Union.*
RED - student radio station.*
Wyvern - the University magazine.*
Writtle College - A partner institution of the University of Essex*
List of Societies at Essex*
List of Sports Clubs at Essex*
University of Essex Conservative Future*
new noise society of essex university*
British Election Study (BES) website*
Occupations and demonstrations of 1968*
British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) website*
Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis and Collection website*
European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) website*
Human Rights Centre website*
Instititute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) website*
UK Data Archive (UKDA) website*
Center for Computational Finance and Economic Agents*
1994 Group of Research Universities
