Essex recognised for delivering “very high quality” education

The University of Essex delivers “very high quality education”, according to the UK Government’s Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) and has received a Silver rating overall.

The student experience and outcomes at Essex are both rated Silver by the TEF panel as they are also rated as “typically very high quality”, with the judges stating there were “numerous examples of very high quality practices related to teaching, learning and assessment”.

The panel report said the University “fosters a supportive learning environment, and its students have access to a readily available range of very high-quality academic support”.

Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Madeline Eacott said: “We are proud our education is judged to be very high quality overall and the judging panel made so many positive comments about what we offer here at Essex.

“I am particularly pleased they highlighted how our course content stretches students and helps them develop their knowledge and skills for future careers. The support we offer for professional development of staff and promoting excellent academic practice is also praised.

“Supporting success for every student from every background is key to our approach at Essex and the impact of this is recognised in the report.

“We will now be working with our departments and students to use feedback from the TEF to help create an even better living and learning environment for our students.”

The TEF is run by the Office for Students to assess and rate teaching quality at all universities and colleges. The national scheme aims to encourage higher education providers to deliver excellence in the areas that students care about the most: teaching, learning and achieving positive outcomes from their studies.

As part of the TEF process, Essex students contributed their views and experiences through the Students’ Union.

The student submission said students are “proud of the excellent working relationship” with the University and “there is a clear, shared commitment to listening and working with students to continually improve all aspects of the Essex experience”.

Students’ Union Vice-President for Education Joe Holmes said the student submission included data and feedback collected by the Students' Union throughout the year that is regularly used to inform the work of the University and Students' Union.

He said: “The Students' Union is a platform for student voice and encourages students to share feedback all year round.

“The feedback we provided to the TEF panel shows students were very positive about their experience at Essex. They spoke about their learning outcomes, their student experience in terms of things that are offered such as sport, societies and our student media platform Rebel. They also spoke about assessment, feedback and personal tutoring.

“We can recognise that silver is very high quality, but at Essex we always strive to be even better and our close partnership with the University as a Students’ Union means we will always be acting on student feedback to aim higher and achieve even more for our students.”