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Essex Preparation Programme

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The details
Essex Preparation Programme
All prospective undergraduate students
Online

Overview

The Essex Preparation Programme is for students who intend to enroll at the University of Essex after receiving an offer of study. The course is available from 30 June 2025 and will give you a flying start when settling in as a student at the University. To top it off, if you complete the course by 23:59 on 8 October 2025 and are eligible, you will receive a £250 cash bursary! Terms and conditions for the bursary are available online.

The course is divided into six topics, covering important parts of university life – such as study habits, reading and writing skills, and critical thinking.

Throughout, you'll build your academic skills, and a range of others that will help you to succeed at university. You'll learn through a mixture of lectures, articles and quizzes - and as the course is online, you can study at a pace that suits you – with new content being released weekly from the start of July.

Topics

Topics you’ll encounter on the Essex Preparation Programme are:

  • Learning – how to become an independent learner and improve your study habits.
  • Speaking – improving your speaking, discussion, and presentation skills.
  • Thinking – how to become a more critical thinker ready to tackle undergraduate study.
  • Reading – engaging with academic texts and reading actively.
  • Integrity – learn more about academic integrity to make sure you are prepared for what is expected of you.
  • Writing – writing at university level, and how to produce high-quality work from the outset.

Online workshops

To support your progress throughout the course, we will host a series of online workshops during the summer of 2025.

What you can expect from the university and what the university expects from you 

This session will look at how your courses and modules are put together; who's who in your department; where to go to get specific support, and how to utilise it. It will also give you a brief introduction to the E-learning platforms you will use at Essex, and you will meet other EPP students and have an opportunity to discuss your feelings about starting at university.

Discussion skills

This session will look at your experience of discussions in an academic context, and look at what you can expect in discussions at university level and what - in broad and simple terms - will be expected of you.  

Presentations and writing: similarities and differences

This session will explore how giving spoken presentations compares to writing essays, and how this comparison will help you to present effectively.

Becoming critical thinkers

What critical thinking means varies from subject to subject, but it is also a skill we all already use in our daily lives. In this session, we will look at the ways in which you are already a critical thinker, and some general strategies you can carry over into your undergraduate studies.

Thinking critically

The idea of thinking critically can often be intimidating. However, ‘critical thinking’ is the name we give to a set of skills that you already use in your day-to-day life. Critical thinking is about deciding which information we can rely on; thinking about how we might use this information, and how it fits with what we already know; deciding what conclusions we can draw; and thinking about what questions we need to ask next. In this workshop, we will practise applying these skills in some scenarios that we might encounter during our university studies, before asking: what does it mean to be a critical thinker in my discipline? 

Engaging with an academic text

Academic texts can be challenging, but developing reading skills will make the task less daunting. In this practical session, we will use a range of strategies to demonstrate how you can engage with an academic text and get the most out of your reading at university. 

Reading for knowledge and understanding

Reading for your university studies requires knowledge and understanding. It also requires you to develop a point of view based upon your knowledge and understanding. This session will look at what these two different concepts mean and how we develop them in our reading.

What is academic integrity?

This session provides an opportunity to explore academic integrity through discussion and establishes some basic principles.

Academic integrity follow up

This session will build on the first workshop this week, with content based on student questions and requests.

How is writing at university different?

This session is a general introduction to what academic writing looks like, with particular emphasis on evidence and the use of reliable academic sources. It uses Trump’s infamous claims for the curative powers of bleach as an example of a subjective, unsubstantiated claim and contrasts excerpts from two essays – a typical school-level essay and a university essay, showing how source material has been used to support argument in the latter.

Some aspects of academic writing

This week's session focuses on different aspects of writing at university.  It considers the importance of understanding the question and of creating well-structured and concisely written essays. There will also be plenty of time to ask any questions you may have about academic writing. 

How to enrol

You can sign-up for the course by following these simple steps from 30 June 2025:

  • Register with 'Open Essex', the online platform this course will take place on. You’ll need to select ‘Create new account’ at the bottom of the page.
  • Confirm your account by clicking the link in the email sent to you.
  • Enrol on the Essex Preparation Programme by logging into Open Essex and pressing ‘Enrol now’ on the course.

If you have any problems creating an account or accessing the course, please email tel@essex.ac.uk.

We also have a wide range of other resources on our Schools and Colleges web page, including our fantastic podcast series busting higher education myths, CPD resources for teachers and advisers, tips and tools for university applications, and our all-important information about on-campus events.

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