Dictionary of Meaning

<<Back
Please select a letter:
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0-9

University of Essex

*** Shopping-Tip: University of Essex

University of Essex

Motto	Thought The Harder · Heart The Keener
Established	1964 (Royal Charter 1965)
University Type	Public
Chancellor	Lord Phillips of Sudbury OBE
Vice-Chancellor	Professor Ivor Martin Crewe, DL, AcSS
Location	Colchester, Essex, UK
Enrolment(approx.)	5,200 undergraduate, 2,200 postgraduate, 1,700 short programmes
Employees (approx.)	410 academic/teaching, 110 research, 220 other academic, 680 other
Campus Size	Over 200 acres (809,000 m²)
Homepage	[http://www.essex.ac.uk/ www.essex.ac.uk]
Member of	1994 Group

The University of Essex is a British university, one of the plate glass universities (like University of Warwick or University of York). It received its University of Warwick or University of York). It received its Royal Charter in 1965 and is a campus university 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 main campus it also has a campus in Southend-on-Sea and its Southend-on-Sea and its East 15 Acting School is based at Loughton.

Departments and research centres

The University has 17 departments spanning the Humanities, Social Sciences, Science, and Engineering. Its departments of economics, government (political science), and sociology are particularly well-known and belong to the best in all of 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 also 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 recently formed 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. The East 15 Acting School became part of the University in 2000. Based in Loughton in outer London, the School trains professional actors and related stage professionals. Essex is also 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. More recently, Writtle has diversified into Business, Design and Equine programmes. Writtle is a campus college that has grown four fold in recent years, so much so that it has drawn up plans to become an independent University College within the next few decades.

Reputation

, and has a good international reputation. One of the major reasons for its international reputation is arguably 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. According to university rankings undertaken by The Times, Essex University is ranked at Number 29, slipping from number 27 in 2004 ([http://www.timesonline.co.uk/pdfs/finalunitable2.pdf]). In comparison to universities in the 25-35 band, Essex University is generally below the median scores for undergraduate entry requirements, 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[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,716-1628873,00.html], Economics is ranked 8th in the UK, behind Bath University and in front of Oxford University. Similarly, Politics at Essex is also ranked 8th in the UK, behind St Andrews University and in front of Birmingham University. In Sociology, Essex is ranked joint 6th with Bristol 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 ([http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rank/2005/ARWU2005Methodology.htm]), 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 Colchester campus

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 60's buildings are set in a huge park, called Wivenhoe Park. There are also 2 large lakes on campus, one of which sits the Vice-Chancellors House in the middle (below) as well as a full 18 hole Frisbee or disc golf course, which is an excellent way to avoid any pressing work. 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 people are not quite sure whether he succeeded in translating that town's flair into modern architecture. 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.

Ethnicity

The University has a very large population of International students, with just under 50% being international. Only London School of Economics|LSE and School of Oriental and African Studies|SOAS have these higher proportions. The University has one of the highest black student populations of an University in the UK.

Student Organisations

The Essex Students Union has many drinking venues, the largest of which are the Student Union bar and the Top Bar. There are also club style venues: Mondo, Level 2 and The Underground. All venues except the Underground are also open during the day. The student newspaper is The Rabbit, named after the many rabbits which can be seen on campus daily. The student radio station is called RED, broadcasting on 1404AM and over the internet.

- University of Essex Students Union

Sports at the University

The University has a wide range of sports societies, including some not normally experienced outside of University life such as disc golf and American Football

40th anniversary in 2004 and future

On 25 November 2004, Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom|Her Majesty the Queen and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh|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-on-Sea 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 Southend-on-Sea 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.

Links with Industry

Over the 1990s, and the influence of policy activity in the United States stimulated by the as well as links with British Telecom. The University has produced a number of spin-out companies, which include Ilotron (2000), and Technologica Ltd. (2001).

Famous alumni

- Tony Banks (musician)|Tony Banks, member of the band Genesis (band);

- Richard Bartle, Co-creator of MUD1, the first ever MUD (Multi-User Dungeon)

- John Bercow, British Conservative politician

- Thozamile Botha, South African politican

- Virginia Bottomley, British Conservative politician

- Nick Broomfield, Documentary film maker

- Some members of the Angry Brigade

- Brian Hanrahan, BBC foreign correspondent

- Peter Joslin, Chief Constable of Warwickshire

- Daniel Libeskind, architect to build the Freedom Tower and Memory Foundations on the site of the World Trade Center in New York City

- Siobhain McDonagh, British Labour politician

- Ben Okri, Booker Prize Winner