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Revision as of 13:55, 21 March 2004 by 80.4.3.78 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The University of Essex is a campus university based at Wivenhoe Park on the outskirts of Colchester in the English county of Essex, less than a mile from the town of Wivenhoe. It received its Royal Charter in 1965. The university has 17 departments spanning the Humanities, Social Sciences, Science, and Engineering. It is a living, breathing example of the '60s love of concrete.
The University of Essex enjoys academic respectability, with courses in law, electronic systems engineering, sociology, psychology, philosophy and art history all faring well. Set a couple of miles away from the oldest recorded Roman town in England, Colchester, deep in Constable country, the campus, which was showing signs of wear and tear, is undergoing refurbishment, but could be called picturesque.
Over 200 acres of attractive parkland, much of it landscaped in the eighteenth century, provides the setting for the University's Colchester campus. There is easy access to coast and countryside, including the area of outstanding natural beauty known as 'Constable Country', after the famous landscape artist John Constable, who painted many local scenes, including Wivenhoe Park itself.
Visitors are able to take advantage of the facilities available at Wivenhoe House, the original focus for the park, which has now become the University's hotel and conference centre. The close knit Colchester campus has shops, banks and restaurants, and the University is able to offer accommodation to a high proportion of its students.
As part of its excellent range of sporting and leisure facilities - all on the campus - the University boasts four squash courts, fitness gym, climbing wall and an eighteen-hole frisbee golf course. The Arts are also well catered for at Essex - there is a University Theatre, an Exhibition Gallery, and an extensive programme of musical and dramatic events.
Founded in 1965, the university was expected to develop quickly into a medium or large institution, but cuts in funding put paid to expansion. Recently, numbers have been increasing and with them has come an extension to the library and its opening hours, more accommodation and more space for teaching. Its reputation attracts large numbers of overseas students: in 1997/98, 36% of full-time first years were from abroad.
There are currently around 9,100 students at the University, 25% of these within the Graduate School. The University is an international community with students from more than 125 countries. In recent assessments Essex has regularly ranked among the top twelve UK universities for the quality of its research, with many of its departments rated as 'outstanding' by international standards.
Among Essex's alumni are John Bercow, a Tory MP who bucked the trend in 1997, Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh, and Oscar Arias Sanchez, a Nobel Prize winner. Plus, of course, the majority of the UK's sociology lecturers.