By Professor Anthony Forster, Vice-Chancellor of University of Essex
We all faced some tough times in 2023 and, looking ahead to 2024, we know there are still many challenges to overcome, but our links with YERUN will be more important than ever.
The ongoing cost of living crisis has made life challenging for many of our students. At Essex we continue to offer an unprecedented support package to help them throughout their time with us and to ensure they can access everything we have to offer.
As we begin our celebrations to mark the University of Essex’s 60th anniversary, we are delighted to have secured record levels of external research funding this year to support our work.
As a powerhouse of social science expertise, I’m particularly delighted we secured nearly £138m of long-term investment from the Economic and Social Research Council in our world-leading longitudinal study Understanding Society and the UK Data Service.
Alongside this we remain the number one university for working with business through the UK’s Knowledge Transfer Partnerships scheme, the flagship Innovate UK programme which connects businesses with research expertise to develop new products and services.
Thanks to YERUN and our other international networks we are proud to boast thriving relationships with universities in Europe and this remains key to Essex being recognised for research and education excellence.
As a founding member of YERUN, we remain committed to its wide range of research-related initiatives, which offer such exciting opportunities for research collaboration and student mobility.
In 2024 we will be looking to nurture and build our excellent international networks in Europe. Thanks to these links we rose to 15th for international outlook this year in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. YERUN will continue to play an important part in supporting our diverse international community of student and academics, helping ensure that at Essex you truly can find the world in one place.
