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The University of Essex is a British plate glass university. It received its Royal Charter in 1965. The university's main campus is located 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, Loughton, home of the East 15 Acting School, and Writtle (the former Essex Institute of Agriculture).

According to the University's Mission statement, "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.

History

Founding

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 Alderman 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.

1965 brought 399 students enrolling for the start of the new academic year; the number of academic staff more than 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.

Departments and research centres

The University has 19 departments spanning the Humanities, Social Sciences, Science, and Engineering. Its departments of Economics, Government (Political Science), Sociology and Language and Linguistics are particularly well-known and belong to the best in Europe. Essex's research in politics, economics and sociology received top (5*) ratings in the UK government's 2001 Research Assessment Exercise.

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) studies evolutionary methods to simulate markets with artificially intelligent agents.

In September 2000 the East 15 Acting School became part of the University. The School is based in Loughton in southwest Essex and will shortly establish a branch in Southend.

The University has a number of partner institutions: Colchester Institute, South East Essex College (in Southend), Writtle College near Chelmsford, the Tavistock and Portman Trust (in London), and Insearch, as well as the imminent development of a new set of partners in Suffolk and Norfolk as part of a joint venture with the University of East Anglia, under the banner University Campus Suffolk.

Reputation

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 and is a member of the 1994 Group with an international reputation. One of the major reasons for this is the annual Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis and Collection now approaching its 39th year, attracting 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.

In 2005 the University won the prestigious Queen's Award for Enterprise for its contribution to the UK economy.

In the last Research Assessment Exercise (2001), the University of Essex received the best possible rating (5*) for its research in economics, politics, and sociology . It is the only UK university whose research received the best possible rating in all these three subjects.

According to university rankings compiled by The Times, Essex University is ranked at number 30 , slipping from number 29 in 2005, and 27 in 2004. It performs relatively strongly in terms of research performance and facilities spend. Looking at the individual subject rankings listed by The Times , 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 (), 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.

Wivenhoe Park campus

The main (Colchester) campus, Wivenhoe Park, which was once 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. Wivenhoe Park houses the main 1960's buildings along with an 18th century house that also features in Constable's painting and is now used by the University as a hotel and conference centre. There are 2 small 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 as well as all overseas students.

Student body

The University has a very large population of International students, with just fewer than 40% being international. Only LSE and SOAS have a higher proportion.

Student organisations

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 (formerly the Underground), which have hosted many bands and top name DJ's, including AC/DC, The Kinks, The Pretenders, Iggy Pop and the Sugababes whilst in recent times Maxïmo Park, Editors, The Paddingtons, The Subways, Babyshambles, Boy Kill Boy and The Young Knives continue its reputation.

The Union is known for running a host of extremely successful sports clubs and societies, ranging from Fencing to French, Labour to LGBT.

The student newspaper is The Rabbit, named after the many rabbits which can be seen on campus. It had been suggested that the editing of The Rabbit had previously been somewhat prejudiced due to its affiliation with the Students' Union Executive Committee. As of the academic year 2006-2007, it is now autonomous from the Students' Union and a more balanced and critical newspaper is hoped for as a result.

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 Students' Union is run by an Executive Committee of 5 full time officers and 7 part-time officers. The Students' Union is a member of the National Union of Students and many of its members are involved.

Sports

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 8m climbing wall. The University has its own clubhouse and boat-park at nearby Brightlingsea. 'k[ kk'

40th anniversary in 2004 and future

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 still expanding. Physically, the new Network Centre opened in May 2004 housing the Department of Electronic Systems Engineering and parts of the Department of Computer Science. The University Quays, a student accommodation complex housing 770 students, opened in September 2003. A 1,000 seat Lecture Hall, capable of being divided into 2x500 seat lecture theatres, opened in 2006. Current developments include the University of Essex Southend development, and at Wivenhoe Park, a new Social Science Research Centre is nearing completion, to house the University's Institute of Social and Economic Research and the UK Data Archive. A new building for the School of Health and Human Sciences will soon get underway, as will an extension for the Psychology department. Planning permission for a new Research Park was granted in June 2006 and work is expected to commence on this multi-phase project during 2007. The University is also partner in developing a new University Campus in Suffolk, jointly with the University of East Anglia and has recently become the validating partner for degrees offered by the Colchester Institute.

Links with industry

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 . 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. as well as links with British Telecom. The university has produced spin-out companies, which include Ilotron (2000), and Technologica Ltd. (2001).

Notable alumni

See: List of University of Essex people

External links

• University of Essex website
• University of Essex Students' Union
• Insearch Essex website
• Wyvern - the University magazine
• East 15 Acting School website
• University of Essex Southend website
• Wivenhoe House Hotel and Conference Centre
• University Campus Suffolk website
• Colchester Institute website
• Writtle College - A partner institution of the University of Essex
• South East Essex College - A partner institution of the University of Essex, co-located on the Southend Campus

Further links

• 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

References

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "University of Essex" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

• University of Essex (2006). 40 years of the University of Essex. Retrieved 19 June 2006.

1. ^ "Table 0a - All students by institution, mode of study, level of study, gender and domicile 2005/06". Higher Education Statistics Agency online statistics. Retrieved 2007-03-31.
2. "2001 Research Assessment Exercise - Institution: H-0118 University of Essex" (PDF). Higher Education and Research Opportunities (HERO). 2001. Retrieved 2007-08-07.

• University of Essex
• Colchester
• Education in Essex
• Nursing schools in the United Kingdom
• Educational institutions established in 1964
• 1994 Group