Essex, University of

We are Essex.

We are home to the daring and tenacious.  We are a place for the ambitious and bold. We are a close-knit, supportive and welcoming community, with a powerful and pioneering global outlook. We are 12th in the Guardian University Guide 2026 and top in the East of England for overall student positivity (Broad Discipline Institutions in Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk, THE, National Student Survey 2025).

With students from more than 140 countries, we are one of the most internationally diverse universities on the planet and are 14th for international outlook in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2026.

You’re taught by world-leading academics in a supportive and research-intensive environment. Our trailblazing research continues to change the world for the better and we are proud to have provided excellence in research and education for 60 years. Essex is a centre of world-leading excellence in social sciences with four of our social science subjects in the UK Top 10 for research quality (Grade Point Average, REF2021) and three 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.

Whether you study in the beautiful historic parkland of our Colchester Campus, or at East 15 Acting School at our Loughton Campus on the edge of London, this is your chance to become a member of our international and change-making community.

The flexibility and module diversity that many of our courses benefit from gives you the power to pursue the things that matter to you most.

Now’s your chance to join Nobel Prize-winners, award-winning directors, presidents, well-loved actors, astronauts, and over 125,000 other alumni who have gone on to shape the world and share their Essex spirit.

If you want to be challenged and make an impact on the world around you, welcome home.