Doing things the Essex way

We are an internationally-oriented, research-intensive university with a commitment to research-led teaching in a challenging, intellectually-stimulating environment.

We actively encourage and help develop the skills and mindset that will help our members to become tomorrow's thought leaders. We provide a range of support and guidance to support members of the University in fostering these values.

Our University identity

We all play our part in the University of Essex story. How we all express our identity as a collective is an important part of how we are perceived by our students, businesses, and the wider community. In our increasingly global and highly competitive sector, it is essential for the University of Essex to be easily identifiable internationally in all our communications.

Our brand guidelines explain how we express our Essex identity – bring it to life with a voice and visual style that is reflective of our character and personality.

We keep our language clear and simple without dumbing down the content, and keep our tone friendly and accessible, using the first person where appropriate. How to write like Essex explains the tone of voice and house style when writing about Essex.

Our visual style is designed to grab attention. Bold, clear, and direct. Our Essex Spirit is all about authenticity and real-world grit – so we express this using Essex buildings, Essex people and their Essex stories.

You can contact our brand management team at branding@essex.ac.uk for advice and guidance on expressing our University identity across all your communication channels – social media, video, website, print, and on our campuses.

• Our Essex story and our Essex personality explain who we are and what we stand for as a university.
• We have access to a design and print service for producing communications materials.
• Our media centre is your first port of call for submitting video requests and producing podcasts.
• Any website presence should be discussed with our Web team at wedm@essex.ac.uk, who manage all website-based decisions.
• We also have a number of communications templates you can use including internal posters, report templates, PowerPoint, letterheads, and setting your email signature.

Teaching development

Organisational Development (OD) (part of People and Culture) offer a range of courses and resources to help you develop your career, including induction, training, accredited programmes of professional development, networking opportunities and hands-on tools and resources.

• OD offer a range of how-to guides for staff interested in key learning and teaching themes, from how to support students to creating vodcasts and using technology.
• Find out about Cadenza, our professional development framework for staff who teach and support learning.

Learning technologies 

We provide and support a range of learning technologies, including Listen Again, which makes recorded lectures available for our students to hear again online. Other learning technologies include our virtual learning environment Moodle, online assessment with Question Mark Perception, online coursework submission and personal response systems.

Sharing news

There are many ways to find out about news and events at the University, and to share your news.

Essex Weekly (Colchester, Southend, Loughton) is our weekly e-newsletter sent to University staff. Our Essex Daily blog is constantly updated with news and events information. If you have any news items to be considered for either of these, please email weekly@essex.ac.uk.

Find out how you can submit news story you think we should be sharing.

Organising an event

If you would like to organise an event, the first port of call is to take a look at our organising an event information. This gives advice on how to get started, getting the right authorisation, and what else you need to do to get your plans under way and make your event a success.

Our experienced Event Essex team can also help organise events or conferences at our Colchester or Southend Campuses, or at other local venues, providing support to plan your event from start to finish.

Diversity and inclusion

Our People Supporting Strategy (.pdf) outlines how we aim to make the University a place where diversity is respected and valued, and where members of our community feel able to challenge unacceptable behaviour in an appropriate way. It commits us to ensuring that diversity and inclusion are embedded in our decision-making processes and continuing to improve our equality performance through identifying, implementing and sharing best practice.