Our key statistics

Latest rankings

We’re a top 25 university, and in the top 5 for ‘value-added’, in the Guardian University Guide 2025.

We are 30th out of 130 UK universities in the Complete University Guide 2025.

We're the top university in the East of England for 'overall positivity' according to feedback from students in the National Student Survey 2024.

Number one university in the UK for Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs), the flagship Innovate UK programme.

We’re 58th in the global Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2024 and ranked in the top 100 globally for nine of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals assessed.

We have five subject areas in the top 10 in The Guardian University Guide 2025.

17th for international outlook in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2025

We’re in the top 100 globally for politics and international studies in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024

We are 65th for Social Sciences in the THE World University Rankings by Subject 2023

47th for Law in THE World University Rankings by Subject 2023 

Top 150 for Business and Economics in THE World University Rankings by Subject 2023

Top 200 for Arts and Humanities in the THE World University Rankings by Subject 2023

86% of our graduates are in employment or further study (Graduate Outcomes 2024)

Research excellence

• Find out more about our performance in the Research Excellence Framework 2021 in our news section 

Essex is a centre of world-leading excellence for the social sciences. Four social science subjects are in the UK top 10 for research quality (Grade Point Average, REF2021) and five are in the UK Top 10 for research power (Times Higher Education 2022). We have further outstanding strengths in science and health, and arts and humanities.

The four Essex subjects in the UK top 10 for research quality are -  sociology, economics and econometrics, politics and international studies, and modern languages and linguistics. 

The five Essex subjects in the UK top 10 for research power are – sociology, law, economics and econometrics, politics and international studies, and computer science.

• Research Excellence Framework 2021 web page

About The National Student Survey

The National Student Survey (NSS) is an independent survey that gathers final year undergraduate students' opinions on the quality of their course.

More than 2,000 Essex students shared their views through NSS 2024. You can find an overview of our performance in NSS 2024 in our news section.

The survey is usually open from January to April each year and students can find out more information about taking part on our student directory.

All the data gathered is published by the Office for Students including a provider level dashboard.

The NSS is very important to us in understanding and improving the student experience. The feedback from students is used to inform the way we support students in the coming years.

National Student Survey 2024

The NSS changed significantly in 2024. For each of the 26 core questions, students now use a four-point scale to indicate how positive they were about a particular aspect of their student experience. A question which asked students in England how satisfied they are with the quality of their course has also been removed.

A positivity measure or score can be calculated for each question based on the proportion of respondents who choose a positive answer. For each question, there is a sliding scale of four possible answers with two positive responses and two negative responses available.

Times Higher Education and National Student Survey

Times Higher Education has analysed the NSS data to provide an overall ‘positivity score’ across all 26 core questions.

According to the Times Higher analysis, Essex is ranked 30th out of all English broad discipline universities with a positivity score of 82.5%.

Truly international

We have students from more than 140 countries and a third of our students are from outside the UK - 12.8% are from the European Union and 21.5% are from overseas.

A growing university

• 17,800+ students on Essex programmes at our three campuses.
• 13,800+ undergraduates at our three campuses.
• 3,900+ postgraduates at our three campuses.

Note: Our figures refer to headcount - total number of students registered on Essex courses in 2021.

Awards won

• Most Innovative Teacher award at the 2021 Times Higher Education Awards.
• Outstanding collaboration award for national NVSA for Students’ Union Refugee training programme.
• Wivenhoe Park, the home of our Colchester Campus has won the Green Flag award fives years in a row and was named in the top 10 of the People’s Choice Awards.
• Collaboration Award for a decade of successful partnership to deliver high-quality student housing at the National Student Accommodation Award

Economic impact

• Our contribution to the UK economy is worth more than £500m. In Colchester our economic impact is £478m and in Southend our economic impact is £55m.
• We are number one for Knowledge Transfer Partnerships in the UK (Innovate UK).
• Our research income is £42m (2020-21) – including contracts, grants and fees.
• We employ more than 2,644 academic, research, senior support and general support staff.