University Information - Essex

1. University of Essex

General information
The university has one main campus, just two miles from the centre of Colchester. It is set in over 200 acres of parkland, much of it landscaped in the 18th Century. As the University was conceived as a university town rather than a single building it incorporates teaching buildings, student accommodation, shops, banks, a gallery, a theatre, cafes, and sports facilities all on one site. The East 15 Acting School became part of the University on 1 September 2000. This second campus in Loughton is the base for all BA Acting students.

Essex offers a cosmopolitan community of students with students from over 100 different nationalities. Many of the students are from European countries, and University staff maintains active links with colleagues in Europe. These links have now been formalised into networks under the European Union ‘s student mobility and exchange schemes. Through these schemes around 10% of Essex students spend time at one of the 84 European Universities that Essex currently has links with.

For shopping, Colchester town offers a mixture of both large department stores and small individual specialist shops.


Location
The university is situated in a landscaped parkland campus on the outskirts of Colchester, the oldest recorded town in Britain. The village of Wivenhoe is less than a mile away from the campus and, with its lively quayside and variety of restaurants, is a popular choice for students living off campus in their second year.

Colchester is served by excellent transport links, with the A12 running into London and trains to the Capital taking less than an hour. Stansted airport, the home of many of the “budget” airlines, and the ferry port of Harwich are easily accessible making travelling to the rest of Europe easy. Colchester is also linked from the north with Ipswich and via the A14 to Birmingham, the M1/M6 to the Midlands and the north of England.

Accommodation
As a first year student, you are guaranteed a single study-bedroom in University accommodation (provided you return the application form by the specified deadline). Applicants who firmly accept an offer are given priority for accommodation on campus. In your second year you will normally be expected to find private rented accommodation. The accommodation Office helps students to find private accommodation and publishes regular lists of landlords who have registered with the Office. In your final year you will have priority for any University accommodation which is still available after the first year allocations have been made.

Those classified as overseas students will be offered University accommodation for the duration of their course. The University has only a limited amount of accommodation suitable for couples and families. It therefore cannot guarantee accommodation for first year students who are accompanied by a partner and/or children. 

Over 70% of the accommodation is on campus. The off-campus accommodation is in residential areas between 10 and 30 minutes walk away. All properties are currently served by a public bus service, which runs a regular service past the campus. All the accommodation consists of single study-bedrooms, most of which are grouped in self-contained flats of varying sizes, with communal kitchen-dining facilities. Most flats are mixed-sex although single-sex flats are available upon request.

The on-campus accommodation consists of six residential towers that accommodate a high proportion of students and act as a centre for all social life on campus. Each flat has 14-16 bedrooms with a large kitchen and social area, showers and toilets. The rent is approximately £40 per week. The off-campus flats are based on up to ten sharing the kitchen and bath facilities. This accommodation cost approximately £38 per week.


Student Support

Health Centre – There is a health centre on campus which caters for the health needs of all those who are registered with the Practice. Surgeries are held daily with an emergency service outside normal working hours.

Students with a disability – The main buildings incorporate a specific provision for the needs of students with varying disabilities. There are eight specially designed rooms on campus for students who are wheelchair users.

Day Nursery – A large purpose-built Day Nursery caters for children from 6 weeks to 5 years of age. It is run by qualified staff and is open all year round.

Facilities for Worship – The Multi-Faith Chaplaincy Centre has two large worship areas which are open for use by all members of the University. The Islamic Society has daily prayer meetings and a community gathering for all Muslims every Friday in the Centre, which also has rooms for ablution.


Academic Courses
The University offers full-time three or four year courses leading to honours degree awards of Bachelor of Arts (BA), Bachelor of Law (LLB), Bachelor of Science (BSc) and Bachelor of Engineering (BEng). The four-year BA and LLB degrees often involve a year of study abroad, whilst the four-year BSc degree can involve study abroad and/or an industrial placement year.
Part-time degree courses are also offered. The normal length of these is usually six years.

Two special features of Essex degrees are flexibility and choice. In your first year you will usually take four or five courses, depending on your subject. This will include the pre-requisite for your chosen degree. However in many cases you will also have the opportunity to try other subjects such as Linguistics, Philosophy or Computing. Thus, after completing the first year, you will enter the second year into the original subject of your choice but also of a range of other degrees. For example, a BA student who takes Economics, Politics, Philosophy and Sociology in the first year has a choice of at least nine possible single or joint honours degree at the end of the year. You therefore have the possibility of changing degree courses at the end of the first year.


The 16 academic departments offer courses in:

Pre-degree bridging year
This nine-month scheme is designed for those who have overseas education but who need further English Language training before commencing a degree course. All teaching takes place in the University, and you will be entitled to all the University facilities. This also applies to accommodation. Most students on the bridging year come from the Far East, Middle East and Africa.


Accommodation
In 2002 the University intends to be able to offer a Hall place to all first year students that require one. There is a choice of catered and non-catered halls, rooms with en-suite and rooms, which have voice/data links allowing free internal calls.

Second year students often prefer private houses and flats because it offers much more freedom and space. The student housing team will help you find registered accommodation of this type. You can expect to pay approximately £50 per week plus a share of the household bills.

Lodgings are another means of accommodation. These are rooms in private houses where the landlord/landlady lives on the premises. They are normally family households registered with the University. Cost are usually in the region of £50 per week.

2. Anglia Polytechnic University

Accommodation: 
Ransomes Way Student Village - Rivermead Campus

500 students are accommodated in single en-suite study-bedrooms, with three to six students sharing a small kitchen or kitchen/diner and a telephone connected to the University network. The student village is very close to the Learning Resource Centre and is only 10 minutes' walk from the main teaching campus. 
Ten rooms on the ground floor have facilities for disabled students (with wheelchair access) with alarm system. 

Park Road and local University-owned houses 

Further single study bedrooms can be found in shared houses at Park Road, part of the Central campus. 

Mildmay Halls 

These halls of residence, accommodating approximately 100 students, are about half a mile from the Central campus. 

Private sector 

Accommodation in a shared house or bedsit varies and can include bed and breakfast, half-board or self-catering. Costs range from around £47 - £65 per week. Private sector rents do not include utilities costs.

Location:
Anglia Polytechnic University in Chelmsford consists of two campuses 10 mins walk apart; the Central campus and the Rivermead campus. Rivermead features the new School of Education, which opened in Spring 2000 and houses 750 students and 75 staff in the prestigious Sawyers Building, the student village and a wide range of student facilities, including a bank, shops and Medical Centre, plus the Learning Resources Centre which houses the main library.

In general, the location of Anglia Polytechnic University is extremely convenient as it is situated right in the heart of Chelmsford town centre and therefore one has access to all types of facilities ranging from banks, restaurants, means of transport to shops and leisure. 

It is important to note that before one reads the following statistics about the university, one must acknowledge that it is a recent university that was built in 1995.

Strengths and Weaknesses: 
(The following is the most recent assessment of the university dated September 16th 2001 by the Sunday Times):

Plenty is happening at this multi-site university. Two more subjects have been rated excellent for their teaching in the past year (psychology and theology) and APU’s Rivermead campus in Chelmsford is expanding apace. Other new buildings include its Ultralab facility, a world-renowned communications and information technology research centre. Its location continues proves to be useful for it is within striking distance of London and it is situated within the heart of Chelmsford town centre. Courses are heavily vocational, featuring strong links with local and national business. New job-specific courses for 2002 include construction financial management and ecotoxicology. About half of APU’s students are part-time, many sponsored by employers. The university has embraced open access, with A-levels now a minority passport. Almost a quarter of places last year were filled through clearing but applications this year have risen 13%, one of the sharpest rises in the country.


The Surrounding Area:
The surrounding area of the university includes Chelmsford town centre, Chelmsford Bus Station and Chelmsford Railway Station. All these places are literally 5 minutes walk from the university.

Our Khoja centre: ‘Ali-Reza Islamic Centre’
Our centre is approximately 5-10 minutes walk from the university campus. It is, at present (we are in the process of renovating and expanding), a house which is on the site of the large Royal Mail post office and is directly next to it. If you are walking from the university then you should take the road past Chelmsford Railway station and continue straight until you reach Regina Road which is on your left after the Royal Mail Post Office. As soon as you turn left, you should see an isolated house in front of you – this is our centre. 

The centre holds weekly Thursday programmes with Sura Yaseen, Dua-Kumail and Ziyarat-e-Waritha with sometimes a lecture afterwards followed by fatiah. The Thursday programme starts at 8:30pm and usually finishes around 9:45pm. The centre also holds all Wafat and Kushali programmes regularly, usually with a lecture or majalis and sometimes these programmes also include dinner. The times vary on these programmes and therefore it is better for you to obtain a monthly programme and further details on this number: 01245 357577 (ask for Brother Mohammed Panjwani – Secretary of the centre).
The centre also holds an extensive Muharram and Ramadhan programme. Many Mowlana’s and prominent lecturers attend to give majalis and lectures in these most holy months.


Problems?
If you have any problems or require further information then please do not hesitate to contact me, Imranali Panjwani, on the following telephone number: 01245 460505 or my mobile phone number: 07985 282244. Alternatively, my e-mail address is: ipanjwani@hotmail.com

If you would like further information on the University of Essex or Anglia Polytechnic University, then the best course of action would be to obtain a university prospectus either by filling in an electronic form on their websites

University of Cambridge
If you are considering making an application to Cambridge or already have a place then please read on. If you are applying to Cambridge as an undergraduate from the UK you will need to apply to a particular college. Most other students will also have to choose a college.

The university prospectus (for undergraduate courses), college and departmental prospectuses will help you come to a decision. Copies of the undergraduate prospectus can be ordered from: undergrad-nquiries@cuao.cam.ac.uk. However, these prospectuses often mention very little about issues that are important to Muslims such as the availability of Halal food. To complement the college prospectuses the Islamic Society offers the following on-line Alternative College Prospectus.

Alternative College Prospectus.
We realise that you will have many other questions and will do our best to offer any advice we can about college life here for Muslims, facilities available, the application process or interview techniques. If any of these questions are not answered on this site, send an email to studentinfo@isoc.co.uk