Offer Holder Days

The Colchester Offer Holder Day dates are:

• Saturday 15 February
• Saturday 8 March
• Wednesday 16 April
• Saturday 3 May

 

Time	Activity
9.30am	Check-in
10.00am - 10.30am	Welcome talk You'll receive a warm welcome and an overview of the University of Essex. Following the talk, you and your guests will be split into individual subject area groups and guided to your department's activities.
10.45am - 12.30pm	Department activities There is the part of the day where you'll spend time with your department, find out more about your course and meet your future classmates.
12.30pm - 1.15pm	Lunch  You’ll be invited to join your department for lunch (on the house) along with academics and guests from the wider faculty, allowing you to take in your surroundings, ask any questions and socialise in a more informal setting.
1.15pm - 4.00pm	Life at Essex This your chance to: Take a look at our campus on a Campus Tour with one of our Student Ambassadors. Tours last around 30 minutes. Head to the Tour and Accommodation Zone to find out more and join a tour. The last tours will depart at 3.30pm. Say hello to our Student's Union and see what student life at Essex is really like Meet our Student Services' teams and find out how we support you during your studies. We have a range of teams to chat to on a one-to-one basis, including; Accommodation, Student Development and Campus Security. Attend the accommodation talk (1.30pm - 1.50pm): we'll give you an overview of each type of on campus student accommodation available to undergraduate students and let you know what is available to see on the day.
4.00pm	The event ends at 4pm and we'll say goodbye (for now). You will find signage from the ICLH guiding you back to the car park. If you have travelled by train, we have a free coach service, departing at 4.10pm, which will take you back to Colchester North Station.

Travelling by car

Whether approaching our Colchester Campus from London and the South or Ipswich and the North via the A12, take the exit marked Colchester (A133). Follow the A133 towards Clacton-on-Sea, ignore the entrance to the Knowledge Gateway, continue along the A133 then take the B1028 for Wivenhoe before turning right onto Boundary Road.

Parking

Please follow the event car parking signs which will lead you to our allocated visitor parking, in Valley Car Park. Parking during our event is free. The address of our Colchester Campus is:

University of Essex
Wivenhoe Park
Colchester
CO4 3SQ

If you are using a SatNav, please use the following postcode, CO4 3FA as this will direct you to the south side of our Colchester Campus, where you'll find Valley Car Park.

Please note, the parking charges will be suspended for all Offer Holder Days. 

Travelling by bus or train

There are frequent trains from London Liverpool Street Station to Colchester with connections to Ipswich, Norwich, Felixstowe, Harwich and beyond.

We have three train stations in Colchester: Colchester Town, Colchester Hythe and Colchester North Station (also referred to as Colchester Main Station). Colchester North Station is the largest and has the best bus and taxi links so we recommend using this station. There is a taxi rank and bus stop at the station. The following buses will lead you to campus:

Route 87

Route S1

Further information about bus travel in Colchester can be found on the First Bus website and more information about travelling to our Colchester Campus can be found here.

The Southend Offer Holder Day dates are:

• Wednesday 9 April – Health & Social Care
• Friday 11 April – Essex Business School
• Saturday 10 May – Health & Social Care

Our Southend Offer Holder Days for Health & Social Care run from 10.00am - 2.30pm.

Time	Activity
10am	Check-in
10.15am - 10.40am	Welcome talk You'll receive a warm welcome and an overview of the University of Essex. Following the talk, you and your guests will be split into individual subject area groups and guided to your department's activities.
10.45am - 12.45 am	Departmental Activities & lunch This is the part of the day where you'll spend time with your department, find out more about your course and meet your future classmates. You’ll also will be invited to join your department for a free light lunch (on the house) along with academics and guests from the wider faculty, allowing you to take in your surroundings, ask any questions and socialise in a more informal setting.
1pm - 2.30pm	Life at Essex This is your chance to: Attend the accommodation talk,1pm - 1.15pm. We'll give you an overview of each type of student accommodation available to undergraduate students and let you know what is available to see on the day. Take a tour of our campus and accommodation with a Student Ambassador to see if you could imagine yourself living and studying at our Southend Campus. Speak to our SU, our library team, the Faith Centre, our Queer Society and our Student Wellbeing and Inclusivity Service. Say hello to our Student's Union and see what student life at Essex is really like.

 

Our Southend Offer Holder Day for Essex Business School runs from 11.00am - 12.45pm.

 

Car and parking

Southend is just half an hour from the M25 via the A13 or A127. For sat navs, postcode SS1 1LW provides the correct route directions. 

There is plenty of city centre parking in public car parks. The closest car park is located underneath University Square student accommodation which accessed via College Way and is payable by phone only.

Blue badge holders with Southend on Sea issued blue badges can park for free. Badge holders with badges issued by other authorities will need to pay the appropriate car park charges, however on street parking bays remain available and free of charge to all badge holders.

Our address is:

University of Essex
Elmer Approach
Southend-on-Sea, SS1 1LW
United Kingdom

Train

There are frequent trains from London to Southend, with journey times of 45 minutes to one hour:

• London Liverpool Street to Southend Victoria (0.3 miles from our campus) - operated by Abellio Greater Anglia

• London Fenchurch Street to Southend Central (0.2 miles from our campus) - operated by c2c

Both London Liverpool Street and Fenchurch Street have underground and bus services available for connections with Stansted, Gatwick and Heathrow Airport.

Bus, coach or taxi

National Express operate services to Southend Bus Station from all over the UK.

As the campus is located in the city centre, most local buses stop nearby. Buses are run by Arrivabus and tickets can be bought online or via their app. Take advantage of their Student Saver tickets, available to anyone in full-time education. There are also a number of local taxi services based in Southend. Below are some of those available:

• 333444 Taxis

• Southend Airport taxi transfer, call 07427 095060

• Steve's Radio Cars, call 01702 559519

If you are a new or current student planning your journey to us, we organise an airport transfer service at the start of autumn term. Transfers are available from Gatwick and Heathrow airports to our Colchester and Southend campuses.

If you have multiple applications, you will be attending the Offer Holder Day for your first choice. The morning section of the day will be spent with your department, whilst the afternoon is your chance to attend a variety of general talks and explore campus.

If you receive an undergraduate offer to study with us in October 2025 and live in the UK, you will receive an email invitation to book onto one of our Offer Holder Days. Double check your junk mailbox and if you don't have an email from us, get in touch to receive your invitation.

If you are an overseas offer-holder, you will be invited to attend one of our virtual events. However, you are more than welcome to join us at one of our in-person Offer Holder Days if you are able to - we will let you know in your invite email how you can do this.

If you have applied for a joint honours degree, please attend the departmental session relating to your first-choice course. You will get an opportunity to speak with academics from your second course over lunch. For example, if you have an offer for Law and Business, please join the Law departmental session.

An Offer Holder Day gives us the opportunity to get to know you, explore your enthusiasm and academic potential. We would be delighted to see you and will issue eligible applicants who attend, a contextual offer to lower the requirements in your current offer by up to two A-Level grades or equivalent. 

We make contextual offers because we understand your grades can be influenced by a range of factors. A contextual offer is personalised to you and your potential to succeed as an Essex undergraduate student – as well as what you have achieved so far.

You don’t need to do anything to be considered and the application process is the same; submit your application and if you’re eligible for a contextual offer, you’ll receive information about this in your offer letter. If you are not eligible for a contextual offer at the point of your first offer but can be made a contextual offer following an Offer Holder Day, your offer will be amended within 5 working days following attendance.

Contextual offers will be made to eligible applicants taking A-levels, a Level 3 BTEC Extended Diploma, a combination of qualifications that hold UCAS tariff points (e.g., A-levels alongside a BTEC) and the International Baccalaureate. Where possible, we may make contextual offers to eligible applicants holding other qualifications. For further information about what a contextual offer may look like for your specific qualification profile, please contact our Admissions team.

Further information, and full eligibility criteria, can be found in our Contextual Offers Policy.

We appreciate that travelling to university events can be expensive and with rising costs, we want to ensure that as many of our offer holders as possible are able to visit us. We are therefore offering a bursary of up to £150 to help with travel costs to our Offer Holder Days.

Take a look at the terms and conditions (.pdf) and travel bursary form (.pdf). You can fill in the form and bring it with you on the day, or we will some available for you to fill out when you arrive.

Hedingham & Chambers bus service are also offering a travel voucher, for more information head to their webpage.