The University of Essex

The University of Essex, based at Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, UK, received its Royal Charter in 1965. It is one of the UK's leading academic institutions and has an international reputation for the quality of its research and teaching. The University has nineteen departments spanning the Humanities, Social Sciences and Science and Engineering.

There are currently around 8,800 students at the University’s main campus, 25% of these within the Graduate School. The University is an international community with students from more than 125 countries. In recent assessments Essex has regularly ranked among the top twelve UK universities for the quality of its research, with many of its departments rated as 'outstanding' by international standards.

In the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise the fifteen Essex departments examined were regarded the highest grade of 5 or 5-star, with seven departments improving on their grade from the 1996 assessment. The exercise showed that 99% of the academic staff at Essex work in departments awarded ratings of '4' or '5', placing the University 10th in the national research league tables. Essex was the only University obtaining the maximum 5-star grade for its Sociology, Government and Economics Departments. The University is also housing three major Economic and Social Research Council funded projects:

In recent Teaching Quality Assessments those departments tested all demonstrated the high standard of their teaching. The University was rated among the very best for its teaching with an average score of 22.5 out of 24 for departments assessed up to the end of 2001. In particular, Economics, Electronic Systems Engineering, Government, Philosophy and Sports Science obtained the highest possible mark of 24 points.

Department of Government, University of Essex

Established in 1964 with the intention of becoming the centre of excellence for political research in the UK, the Department of Government at the University of Essex has always given equal priority to ensuring high quality teaching. Today the department is home to some of the most prominent political scientists in the UK. It has developed into a large, cosmopolitan department with 30 full-time staff, around 300 undergraduate students, 60-70 MA students and as many as 100 doctoral students.

In the quality audits conducted by the British government the department has consistently scored highly. It were awarded 24 out of 24 for teaching quality in 2001 and were one of only three politics departments in the UK given ‘six star’ status for the quality of its research.

At the undergraduate level the Department of Government offers a wide range of courses across three years which take students from an introduction to politics to advanced courses in theory, method or the analysis of states or policy making. In addition to core degrees in politics and international relations, it is possible to study politics as part of joint honours programmes along with law, human rights, sociology, economics, history or philosophy. A particular feature of the department’s programme is its insistence that students acquire qualitative and quantitative analytical skills, expertise that many rely on in their subsequent careers.

Graduate students can select from 28 courses grouped into eleven different MA programmes ten of which have ESRC recognition. For some students these courses will be an end in themselves but for others they amount to the first phase in a programme of training which will lead to a doctorate. Departmental research strength in theory driven empirical research provides the foundation for MA programmes in political behaviour, Latin American and European government, political theory and discourse analysis, and international relations.

Every full-time member of staff supervises a number of PhD students who will work in fields adjacent to his or her specialization. The department’s graduate programmes attract students from a broad range of academic backgrounds and nationalities many of whom go on to develop their own academic careers. Each year the Department of Government runs a Professional Development Programme to introduce students to the advanced skills they require to conduct doctoral research. Moreover, there is a rolling programme of advanced courses specifically designed to introduce students to research methods and topics at doctoral and post-doctoral level.

The Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis and Collection has been running since 1967 and is now the biggest programme of its type in Europe, possibly the world. In 2005 there were 60 courses available over the period 11 July - 19 August. Participants came from 308 institutions in 43 countries. The European Consortium for Political Research is located at Essex University, the British Journal of Political Science has been based in Essex since its foundation, and the Electoral Studies, the Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, the Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy (CRISPP) and the Journal of European Integration are edited by members of the department. The British Election Study has been conducted at Essex since 2001 and in 2003 the university launched the Institute for Electoral Affairs to consolidate and develop its work on elections.

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Members of the University directly involved in GARNET

Ph.D. Students