page_title: University of Essex
section_title: The 2000s
hierarchical_section_title: University of Essex / History / The 2000s
caption_attribution_description: English: Main Psychology building, University of Essex. On the right is part of the Psychology building extension, and to the left in the distance is the white Networks Centre housing Computer Science and others.
context_page_description: The University of Essex is a public research university in Essex, England. It was established in 1963, welcomed its first students in 1964 and received its royal charter in 1965. Essex is a plate glass university, a group of universities which were established in the 1960s. Essex's motto, ’Thought the harder, heart the keener’, is adapted from the Anglo-Saxon poem The Battle of Maldon.
  Essex's largest campus is the Colchester Campus within Wivenhoe Park, less than a mile from Wivenhoe and two miles from Colchester. There is also a campus in Southend-on-Sea and East 15 Acting School is based at the Loughton Campus. Essex has 19 academic partnerships in the UK and around the world. UK partnerships include University of Essex Online with Kaplan Open Learning; Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust and University of Essex International College. International partnerships include a franchise arrangement with Kaplan Singapore and double and dual degrees with several universities in Europe and Asia. This includes a double degree with Northwest University in Xi'an approved by the Chinese Ministry of Education.
context_section_description: On 25 November 2004, Her Majesty the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visited the university as part of its 40th anniversary celebrations (1964–2004). Some of the longest running members of staff were invited to meet them at the presentation including the first student, John M. Dowden. Starting postgraduate research on fluid dynamics at the age of 23 in 1963, John later became a professor of mathematics and was the head of the Mathematics Department from 2001–2005. He retired in September 2008.
  The university continued to expand. At the Colchester Campus, the Network Centre building opened in May 2004 housing the Department of Electronic Systems Engineering and parts of the Department of Computer Science (which merged in 2007 to create the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering). University Quays, a student accommodation complex housing 770 students, opened in September 2003.
  The Ivor Crewe Lecture Hall, with a 1,000 seat capacity, opened in 2006. The building was designed by the architect Patel Taylor and attracted a mixed response. Prince Charles referred to it as 'like a dustbin', while the Civic Trust, a charity of which he is patron, awarded it a Civic Trust award (2008) for making 'an outstanding contribution to the quality and appearance of the environment'. The building was named after Sir Ivor Crewe in April 2007, to mark his retirement from the position of vice chancellor, a position he had held since 1995.
  The Gateway Building at the Southend Campus was opened in January 2007, providing facilities for Essex Business School, East 15 Acting School and the School of Health and Social Care plus a business incubation centre. The university also converted a former church into the Clifftown Studios to provide East 15 students with a theatre, studios and workshop spaces. This means the university has an operating theatre at each of its three campuses.
  Social Science Research Centre was completed in February 2007, housing the Institute for Social and Economic Research and the UK Data Archive. A new building for the health and human sciences was opened in 2008, now named the Kimmy Eldridge Building in honour of Kimmy Eldridge who joined the university in 1994 to establish the Nursing and Health Studies Unit, now part of the School of Health and Social Care. The Centre for Brain Science opened in 2009 providing a new home for the Department of Psychology.
caption: The Psychology building
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