Excellence in research leads to rankings success for sciences

Excellence in research has propelled both life sciences and psychology at Essex into the top 250 of the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings by Subject for the first time.

In life sciences, which includes our courses in both biological sciences and sports science, we moved up into the 201-250 bracket from 301-400 last year, thanks to excellent performance in several areas assessed by the THE rankings team. 

The biggest impact came from a significant improvement in our citations; a crucial measure of the impact of our research. This was supported by increases in our scores for student-staff ratio and international outlook – which looks at international collaboration and the ability of universities to attract undergraduates, postgraduates and faculty from around the world.

This year also saw Essex enter the THE World University Rankings by Subject for psychology for the first time, thanks to the size of our thriving PhD student community where we are developing the next generation of researchers. We were ranked 201-250 for psychology.

Executive Dean for the Faculty of Science and Health Professor Graham Underwood said: “I am delighted to see that the very high standard of education and research carried out in our School of Life Sciences, School of Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Sciences and Department of Psychology has been recognised in these prestigious international rankings. 

“Excellence in research and an international outlook are at the very heart of our values at Essex and are embedded in our education.”

It’s an exciting year for science at Essex with the opening of our new £12 million STEM Centre which provides modern teaching space and cutting-edge new equipment. 

Essex was ranked 29th in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2019 in September and was 5th overall for our spending on facilities. We were also ranked top 20 in the UK for sports science in the Guardian University Guide 2019.