Wivenhoe Park
Colchester
CO4 3SQ
Tel 01206 873 778
admit@essex.ac.uk
www.essex.ac.uk
Open days: September 19 (Colchester), September 26 (Southend)

PERFORMANCE

Sunday Times ranking 46 (39)

Student satisfaction 76.1%
Head teacher ranking 42 (67=)
Peer ranking 35= (25)
Research quality 69.3%
A-level/Higher points 299
Unemployment 12.4%
Firsts and 2:1s 61%
Student/staff ratio 13.7:1
Dropout rate 14.9% (12.6%)
World ranking 258=

Multimedia

• The Times University Guide table

VITAL STATISTICS

Undergraduates 7,453 (1,358)
Postgraduates 1,764 (933)
Teaching staff 359
Applications/places 11,288/2,678; 4.2:1 (+17.9%)
Clearing entry 18%
Live in 45% (100%) £63-£98
Bursaries 22%: £319-£2,119
Scholarships Various: £1,000-£3,000

SOCIAL MIX

EU/overseas 9%/18.7%
Mature 20.7%
State school 96.3%
Lowest social classes 34.3%
Low-participation areas 15.4%

The 200-acre Colchester campus that sees distinctive 1960s architecture set against a backdrop of rolling parkland is the largest and most iconic of Essex’s three hubs. Southend hosts a newer, more diminutive sibling campus while Loughton is home to East 15, the university’s theatre school named after its London postcode.

This triumvirate of sites fixes Essex firmly in the higher education landscape of southeast England, and with 142 nationalities represented in its student population, studying here makes for an international experience.

The university has an excellent reputation for teaching and research, ranking ninth across all subjects in the 2008 research assessments and topping the league in social sciences.

Undergraduates reap the benefits of Essex’s research profile via the profusion of quality academics on hand to teach them. Politics (government) is one of the 12 subjects where teaching is rated excellent, which the newly elected speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, can attest to having graduated with a first-class honours degree in the subject in 1985.

Times recommends

• Students face big rise in university fees
• Students to rate lecturers online
• Lord heads team to look at raising tuition fees