“The University of Essex was born during a rare moment of national hope and enthusiasm in the early 1960’s, when everything seemed possible and new departures seemed essential.” -Professor Hugh Brogan.
If you’re going to be at the University of Essex in 2014, you can look forward to an extra special year as the university celebrates its 50th anniversary! A lot has happened at Essex in its fifty years, so there will certainly be plenty of great stories from our alumni and lots of exciting events for students to participate in.
You probably already know lots about Essex if you are going to be joining us here in the future, but what about its history? There are many interesting facts about Essex that have made me open my eyes more as I walk around campus, as a lot of what happened at the University in the past make Essex what it is today.
The University of Essex opened in 1964 with just 122 undergraduates, quite unimaginable compared to today’s 11,000 students. The campus itself was designed to be more than just lecture theatres and a library so that students could actually live here too and still feel part of a community, despite being away from home. With its 1960’s architecture mixed with modern designs, the Colchester campus certainly continues to pay tribute to each decade of its existence.
There’s a lot more to Essex than meets the eye, so here are a few facts that I didn’t know before:
· The first student residence to be built was Rayleigh Tower, and was completed in 1966. When they were first built, the towers were the tallest brick buildings in the UK. The first Vice-Chancellor, Dr Albert Sloman, and architect Kenneth Capon, wanted accommodation to be in tower blocks that would symbolise the strength and confidence of the new university.
· In 1967, it cost £230,000 each to build the tower blocks William Morris and Tawney.
· When the university first opened, it had only three areas of study: Physical Sciences, Social Sciences and Comparative Studies.
· The campus shop, which sells groceries and other basic student needs, has been open since 1966.
· The first female professor joined the university in 1968 and was part of the Department of Literature.
· In the 1960’s and 70’s, Essex was well-known for its protesting students. Many students took part in sit-ins on campus and demonstrated against different things from the Vietnam War to the increase of rent in student accommodation. In 1974 there were almost 100 arrests on campus.
· The first Student’s Union bar opened in 1975.
· In 1977, a mortar bomb from World War II was found on campus.
· Queen Elizabeth II has visited the Colchester campus twice; first to celebrate the university’s 21st birthday in 1985, and again in 1994 to celebrate its 40th.
· In 1986, 23% of students at Essex were international students, the highest amount in the UK.
· The University of Essex even made it onto the Berlin Wall in 1990 when two students wrote on it ‘Essex University is against all forms of political oppression’.
· A third year government student won the ‘Miss Nigeria’ competition in 1991.
· The first Summer Ball was in 1994 and over 1000 people attended. (Take a look at our blog further below to see what an Essex Summer Ball is like!)
· Nelson Mandela visited the Colchester campus in 1996.
· The former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto gave a lecture at the university about democracy and the role of women in modern society in 2000.
Even though turning fifty might make the University of Essex quite young compared to other institutions around the world, it has certainly done a lot in its time, and no doubt it will continue to make its mark in the future too. It’s a very exciting time and there’s a lot of fun in store over the next couple of years, so see you at the celebrations!
Amy
For more information on the 50th anniversary and links to the podcast series, go to: http://www.essex.ac.uk/fifty/podcasts/
