Our Essex story

We’re a university where curiosity prevails, and where exploring new ways of thinking and pushing boundaries, isn’t just encouraged, it’s expected.

Our university brand identity is firmly rooted in our founding ethos – all about being different. In particular, Sir Albert Sloman had a vision that Essex would be ‘freer, more daring, more experimental’ and these ideas are at the core of our Essex identity.

We look at everything we do within Essex through a ‘challenger’ prism, how we can do things differently to make a real difference. From changes to the curriculum to the type of student experience we want to offer, our Essex identity continues to inform and impact how we think about the best way to deliver the goals of excellence in education and research, as well as how we describe what we do and who we are.

Committed to transformational research-led education

Curiosity-invoking, boundary-pushing, inspirational.

We're committed to two things: excellence in teaching and excellence in research.

We put student success at the heart of our mission, supporting every student from every background to achieve outstanding outcomes; preparing our students to thrive in their future lives.

Our determination to make a difference in society means we’re 58th in the global Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2024, which ranked more than 1,400 universities around the world.

Making an impact through our research is at the heart of our university. We're in the UK top 10 for research quality in four subjects (Grade Point Average, REF2021) and in the UK top 10 for research power in five subjects (Times Higher Education 2022). Find out more about our REF2021 performance.

Our strategy sets out our ambitions for 2025 and how we plan to achieve them.

What we believe a university education is all about

We believe a person’s potential is not simply defined by grades or background but by an attitude of mind: a willingness to question, to collaborate and to push at the frontiers of knowledge.

Time at university should do more than equip students to pass exams. By living and learning in our global academic community, our students enjoy a richness of experience that extends far beyond the lecture theatre.

By contributing to their own and others’ Essex experience, they discover who they are and how they can realise their full potential and opportunities throughout their lives.

We believe that knowledge should be created together, not just handed down. By actively participating in research, our students learn how to think, not what to think.

There is more to learn than we can ever be taught, so we believe time at university should inspire us to want to explore and embrace what we do not yet know.

At Essex, our deep-seated belief is that people with passion can change things for the better – for themselves, for their families, for their communities, for their companies, for their countries ‘for the world’.