ESTATES SUPPORTING STRATEGY SUMMARY (2014-2025)
Introduction The core purpose of the University of Essex is to contribute to society through excellence in research and excellence in education.’ The University Strategic Plan, 2013-14 to 2018-19 clearly sets out what the University seeks to achieve through the pursuit of educational excellence: “to offer our students a transformational educational experience, encompassing both the academic and the extra-curricular, which provides them with the opportunity to fulfil their potential as individuals by developing themselves within our living and learning community as independent learners equipped to take responsibility for their personal and professional development throughout their lives.” The University’s Education Strategy 2013-14 to 2018-19 recognises the central position of our estate and equipment noting how the University will: “align the development of the University’s physical estate and virtual estate with the nature of the University’s educational provision, providing consistently high quality physical and virtual spaces that support the delivery of excellent educational experiences for our students” This Estates and Equipment Supporting Strategy provides a framework for supporting these aims through estates transformation, so that the University delivers to its students the transformational educational experience to which it aspires, and which our students deserve. The physical University environment is distributed across three campuses. The founding campus at Wivenhoe Park near Colchester (opened 1964); a new campus at Southend on Sea (established 2003), and the East 15 Acting School acquired by the University in 2000 (founded 1963). The estate is a key feature of the student experience at the University and provides the environment and setting within which much of the academic mission and extra-curricular activity of the University are delivered. It is a key attractor to potential students and staff and has received significant investment in new buildings and facilities at all campuses. The main Wivenhoe Park campus has a distinctive feel
attributable to the original vision, layout, and construction of the buildings and landscaped parkland.
The estate was a radical component of the founding vision for the University developed by the founding Vice Chancellor, Sir Albert Sloman, and implemented through the architect for the University, Kenneth Capon, who master-planned and designed the original buildings for the Wivenhoe Park campus. They aimed to integrate a flourishing academic community of 10,000 to 20,000 students with the accommodation for both living and learning close to one another ratherthan dispersed. The concept for the University that Kenneth Capon produced dovetailed together all functions in an extremely compact area, so that no location was further than five minutes’ walk from the centre. The key social principles for Capon’s master-plan included: n Town squares n Design to encourage interaction between staff and students n Keeping social and academic activity at the heart of the campus The central campus buildings at Colchester around the squares accommodate teaching, administration, academic departments and social facilities including the excellent Students Union. Departments are mostly housed along corridors rather than in their own separate buildings, although some specialist buildings have been constructed subsequently. The construction of the historic estate is largely in concrete framed buildings in a modernist style although more recent buildings are in a variety of materials and styles, while the residential Towers are in a blue engineering brick. Although the estate has stood up well to fifty years of use it now presents a number of significant challenges for the University and the recent condition survey undertaken by property consultants Atkins on behalf of the University has identified significant investment needs in order to maintain the estate and replace life expired plant and building infrastructure. In addition to this, changes in pedagogy over the fifty years since the university was founded need to be supported.
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