WE ARE ESSEX Postgraduate Prospectus 2021 YOUR ESSEX, YOUR WAY Choose Essex Use this prospectus to learn about what for an education we can offer you at that will offer postgraduate level. you far more n As a postgraduate student you’ll receive access to all of our than just a facilities, support and advice. great degree. n You will be immersed in our ground-breaking research You will learn community right from the start. in a stimulating n University life extends beyond lectures and exams, there’s and challenging so much to explore across the county you will never run out of environment “The first thing that brought me to “There’s a stereotype that computer “I stayed at Essex for my Masters new experiences. Essex was wanting to try something scientists have to be nerdy. But I because I loved my course and different to my country, Lithuania. think it can be more fun and can department. At Essex I’ve really and be informed n With over 160 clubs and societies I feel like the University of Essex give the opportunity to create developed as a person, and my to join, your Essex experience will was a very big part in shaping something new. Especially in these confidence has grown so much. by new and be one you’ll remember for the who I am; shaping my confidence, internet days, where everything is I was a Residents’ Assistant in rest of your life. shaping my interests. Not just in moving fast and going online, things my second year, I’ve been elected innovative politics in general, but in life too. I have to change, change is constant. President of the Pole Dance Club, have been involved with so many And I think human beings are best and I work in the Employability and n Life after graduation can be research. activities here. I think Essex gives when they are creative, we have this Careers Centre and as a Student challenging, but we’ll help you you the opportunity to be who you potential in us, that’s what makes Ambassador. I’m really proud of prepare to achieve your goals and want to be, and who you are. It us unique. In my PhD, I’ve tried to myself for taking those steps and give you career support for life. gives you a chance to try and do find my own way of creating the doing something great. I’m much different things.” new out of the old.” less quiet than I used to be.” n As an integral part of our GABIJA DALEKAITE TIMI SALAKO SIOBHAN RALFE community, you’ll have access MSc Conflict Resolution PhD Computer Science MA History to 24-hour study facilities and support services, including our amazing libraries, research study spaces and computer labs. Both our staff and resources are here to support you on and offline. 2 essex.ac.uk/we-are-essex 3 CONTENTS Research impact 6 Research showcase 8 Essex experience 12 Career development 16 Life after graduation 20 OUR CAMPUSES 24 Colchester Campus 26 Colchester facilities 30 Beyond campus – Colchester 32 Southend Campus 34 Southend facilities 38 Beyond campus – Southend 40 Loughton Campus 42 ACCOMMODATION 44 University Quays 46 North Towers 47 The Meadows 48 University Square 49 NEXT STEPS 50 Fees and funding 52 Applying to Essex 56 OUR SUBJECTS 62 Course listings 64 EXTRA INFO 109 Sustainability 110 Visit us 111 Partnerships 112 Extra information 114 Brutalist architecture inside our Silberrad Student Centre 4 5 RESEARCH IMPACT Our researchers ask difficult questions, looking at challenges in new ways, and finding fresh and thought-provoking answers. WHY RESEARCH? EXPERTISE AND IMPACT There are many different reasons to pursue We celebrate our excellent research and the research at a university. You may want to satisfy positive impact it has on people’s everyday your personal and professional curiosity, stimulate lives, in the UK and around the world, with your passion for your subject, or contribute to our annual research awards. Open to all our an ever-growing global bank of knowledge. You academics, researchers and PhD students, might want to change the world for the better, nearly 60 projects were nominated in 2020. develop high-level skills, build networks and enhance your professional development. At Essex, The Awards demonstrate the astonishing you become part of a world-renowned research breadth of our work and show how those in community that will allow you to achieve your different departments look at issues from entirely research goals, whatever they are. different perspectives. We look at issues that affect you both now and in the future – from WHY ESSEX? how your online footprint affects your human We need to find ways to tackle the big challenges rights, to how we can feed the world’s growing we face – whether social, economic or population. Our research shapes thinking and environmental. Being part of our Essex research influences policy. We’ve helped governments community will give you the support and resources model the effects of their economic policies needed to help to make a difference. The impact and have shaped the global debate on mental of our research is worldwide. You’ll receive world- health law reform. class support, training and supervision, and we’ll essex.ac.uk/research/celebrating-our- keep pushing you to reach your potential. researchers The Quality Assurance Agency recognised the high-quality research environment and opportunities for professional development in their last review. Green exercise was founded at Essex – we’re always developing new ground-breaking research 6 essex.ac.uk/research 7 RESEARCH SHOWCASE Across our academic departments, students and staff are creating new and innovative research which challenges the status quo. Here’s a snapshot of the work that we’re involved in right now. THE TRUE COST OF WAR PIONEERING IMPLANT Essex students used social media to help TECHNOLOGY challenge official accounts of the bombing of A Swedish woman, who has an amputated the Syrian city of Raqqa. The students, members hand, became the first recipient of an of the Digital Verification Unit (DVU) at our ‘osseo-neuromuscular implant’ which offers Human Rights Centre, provided research for a to control a dexterous hand prosthesis. In ground-breaking, immersive report, published by pioneering surgery, titanium implants were Amnesty International. ‘War in Raqqa: Rhetoric placed in the two forearm bones, from which Versus Reality’ alleges that in 2017 bombing electrodes to nerves and muscle were extended by the US-led Coalition resulted in over 1,600 to extract signals to control a robotic hand and civilian casualties, over ten times the Coalition’s to provide tactile sensations. This makes it the own figure. The students applied geo-location first clinically viable, dexterous and sentient and verification techniques to photo and video prosthetic hand usable in real life. The new content shared from the city to build a detailed implant technology was developed in Sweden. picture of where bombs and artillery shells fell. Dr Luca Citi, who is leading the Essex side of the project, said: “Our team contributed to THE EFFECTS OF the development of algorithms which could CLIMATE CHANGE decode and understand the neuro-muscular The warming of the Arctic Ocean due to climate signals from the user’s brain about what they change means sea ice cover is becoming intended to do and then send those commands increasingly seasonal, and it is predicted to the robotic control of the prosthetic hand”. that it will completely disappear every year during the warmer months. The knock-on THE SECRETS OF AN effect of this means organic matter which ACTOR’S ANCESTORS was previously contained within the ice is now Interest in our ancestry is opening new doors being released into the surface water. Through for historians and giving their work greater experiments carried out in the High Canadian exposure according to Professor Lucy Noakes Arctic, Essex’s Professor Graham Underwood of our Department of History, who recently demonstrated that different organic carbon helped actor Helena Bonham Carter discover compounds released from the sea ice modify her grandmother’s wartime experiences for the abundance, activity, and composition of Channel 4’s documentary ‘My Grandparent’s War’. surface water microbial communities. This Professor Noakes uncovered and described the significant research shows the impact on the experiences of Violet Bonham Carter when she microbial communities in the Arctic and the was working as an air raid warden during the impact on the food chain and water column Blitz. She said: “It was great fun working with carbon cycling in areas where seasonal ice is Helena Bonham Carter – she was very interested replacing permanent ice cover. in her family’s history and the history of the war more widely and asked loads of good questions.” Photo credit: Amnesty International. The ruined Syrian city of Raqqa 8 essex.ac.uk/research/showcase 9 ORGANISED CRIME AND BOOSTING FOOD PRODUCTION CRIMINAL NETWORKS Our scientists, including plant biology expert, An Essex-based research project aims to advance Professor Christine Raines, are using advanced our understanding of why large seaports across tools to develop crops that give farmers more the world are hotspots for organised crime and options for sustainably producing more food open to exploitation by criminal networks. on less land. To do this, thousands of plant prototypes must be carefully analysed to The project is led by organised crime expert figure out which genetic tweaks work best. Dr Anna Sergi, from our Department of Sociology. New technology can more quickly scan an Anna said: “Ports are unique environments entire field of plants to capture improvements and crimes such as drug trafficking and the in their natural capacity to harvest energy smuggling of illegal goods are rife within them.