First new school at University for ten years launched

August has seen two exciting new developments within the Faculty of Science and Health reach fruition.

The first new school at the University for ten years – the School of Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Sciences – has now launched, bringing together academic teams from sports therapy and physiotherapy in the School of Health and Human Sciences with those in the Centre of Sports and Exercise Science, within the School of Biological Sciences.

Executive Dean Professor Graham Underwood said: “This is an exciting opportunity to develop sport and rehabilitation as a combined academic grouping at Essex to help us deliver excellence in education and excellence in research.

“This is a coherent grouping of disciplines and will open up great opportunities for a range of different research collaborations around health and wellbeing. It will encourage working across disciplines and open up new research opportunities.”

At the same time the School of Health and Human Sciences has been renamed the School of Health and Social Care, to mirror the NHS’s plan to dissolve the traditional boundaries between health and social care over the next five years.

Head of School, Vikki-Jo Scott explained: “There is a national trend towards better collaboration between health and social care services and we want to train and support professionals who will be better prepared to work in this new culture of collaboration. This includes recognising the significant contribution that inter-professional learning and service user engagement can make to the high quality education we provide and research that we generate at Essex.

“With a stronger focus on research, the School’s new name will better reflect the already excellent collaborative work we are doing in health and social care.”