We've just been named University of the Year at the Times Higher Education Awards! Thank you to all our students, staff, alumni and our friends around the world plus everyone at Essex SU. You all played a part in helping us achieve this!
Essex is University of the Year
Date
Fri 30 Nov 18
The inspiration offered by our radical past helped us secure the title of University of the Year at the Times Higher Education (THE) Awards 2018.
Judges praised Essex as “a university that is putting people first”, highlighting the institution’s decisive move to eliminate the gender pay gap for professorial staff by moving women up three specially created pay levels.
“The gender pay gap exists everywhere, but this university said what no one else dared to say: ‘There is an easy way to get rid of the pay gap – spend the money necessary to get rid of it. And do it now,’” said one member of the panel.
Essex also drew on what it described as the “rebellious” heritage of its 1960s foundation when it decided to move graduate teaching assistants on to staff contracts, ensured that it paid all staff more than the Living Wage Foundation’s living wage, and embraced a “systematic” approach to decasualising the workforce.
THE’s editor John Gill said that this year’s winners were an “inspiration” to the UK sector.
He added: “The judges of the THE Awards 2018 found shortlists packed with creativity, bold thinking and action. Indeed, they reported that this year’s entries were the strongest that they could remember.”