Study Facilities

Our study spaces are designed with flexibility in mind, to give you the opportunity to meet up with friends to collaborate on group projects, or maintain quiet focus when you need to.

The Silberrad Student Centre overlooks the lakes on Square 5 and offers 24/7 access to study facilities.

• On the ground floor, you'll find our Learning Hub with computers, meeting spaces and study pods, suitable for both individual and group study
• The Centre is also home to our Student Services Hub - your one-stop-shop for finance, well being and study support services

Want to work on a group project? The Limehouse is a collaborate space off Square 4 and The Orangery is a coffee-friendly study room for team working inside the Zest Cafe

We are planning a number of new study spaces in 2023 and you can find more detail on our Student Directory

We've got over 800 computers at our Colchester Campus, along with scanners and printers in our IT labs. Got a problem on your laptop? Want to get your hands on some free software? Our IT helpdesk will make sure you get the best from all the IT resources available. And there is no need to waste time hunting down a free computer, there are a few ways to find one:

• You'll find screens around campus which highlight current IT labs with free space
• You can find a computer on our Computers on Campus page
• You can check out the live feed of computer availability

Find out more about all of our IT services here.

We also have helpful digital facilities, such as our digital library which has 100,000's resources available anytime, anywhere.

Our STEM Centre includes a 180-seat wet lab for our School of Life Sciences and a 150-seat IT-rich exploratory learning space to enable collaboration between students across our Faculty of Science and Health.

We have one of the world's leading robotics research facilities, housing robotic wheelchairs, spiders, dogs, football players, fish and robotic aircraft, which you can often see flying around the robotic arena.

The Essex Law Clinic offers free initial legal advice to the local community. Law students have the chance to work alongside practising lawyers and advises real clients to gain hands-on experience. Find out more about working in the Law Clinic. 

The Essex Human Rights Clinic hosts projects to help protect human rights both locally and globally, in partnership with civil society organisations and human rights institutions.  Students have the opportunity to get involved in a range of issues, applying their knowledge and developing their professional skills. The clinic is part of one of the oldest academic Human Rights Centres in the world. Learn more about working in the Human Rights Clinic.

A functioning hospital ward with robotic patients that can simulate a range of medical conditions helps our School of Health and Social Care students get practical experience. The space also includes six consultancy rooms which are equipped with cameras for reviewing practice consultations.

Our translation and interpreting training lab can be used to interpret conferences of up to 20 people. You can use the lab as part of your studies, giving you the tools you need to become an expert interpreter. 

The BabyLab is a specially designed lab created for studying children. We study how infants and children learn and develop; learning how the brain processes social stimuli, how babies learn about their bodies and when babies start realising sentences are made up of a collection of words. It's fascinating stuff. 

Students can use industry-leading Bloomberg data in Essex Business School's virtual trading floor, giving you access to the same tools used by traders and business analysts worldwide.

Our Centre for Brain Science contains equipment which can directly measure and module brain activity, track eye movements and measure physiological responses so we can investigate why we think, feel and act the way we do. 

At our Sports Therapy Clinic in the Essex Sport Arena, staff, students and external clients can be assessed and treated for a range of sports and other musculoskeletal injuries by our sports therapy students.