It has produced alumni in several fields across the world; these include Nobel Prize laureates, a head of state, and senior governors and politicians.

[10] The university shield consists of the ancient arms attributed to the Kingdom of Essex and the motto: "Thought the harder, heart the keener" is adapted from the Anglo-Saxon poem The Battle of Maldon.

The first Professors were appointed in May 1963: Alan Gibson in Physics, Ian Proudman in Mathematics, John Bradley in Chemistry, Richard Lipsey in Economics, Peter Townsend in Sociology, Donald Davie in Literature, and Jean Blondel in Government.

Whilst undergoing clearing for construction work, an Appeal Fund was deployed upon a development plan and within six months it exceeded its £1million target with The Queen Mother and Sir Winston Churchill among contributors.

Work started on the first residential tower, Rayleigh, with The Queen approving the grant of Charter to take effect from 11 January 1965 in December.

At the start of the next academic year, the departments of Computer Science and Electronic Systems Engineering accepted their first students, the SSRC Data Bank (later renamed the UK Data Archive) was established and the Lecture Theatre Building and Library opened along with the first phase of the Social and Comparative Studies building, while work proceeded on Tawney and William Morris residential towers.

Amid the worldwide escalation of social conflicts and protests against the Vietnam War, the University of Essex was at the vanguard of the 1960s student uproar.

In a carefully planned demonstration, an indictment was read as Dr Inch began to speak citing chemical and biological warfare activities at Porton Down.

[16][17] Within the frame of the 1970s to the 1980s, the university expanded by installing a health care centre, day nursery, bookstore, exhibition gallery and constructed new student residences.

University Quays, a student accommodation complex housing 770 students, opened in September 2003 and within the campus at 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).

[34] In 2013, Queen Elizabeth II conferred upon the university the Regius Professorship, recognising "50 years of excellence in research and education in political science at Essex".

The objective of the programme is to create 'European Universities' based on cross-border alliances of higher education institutions that share a common long-term strategy in the promotion of European values and identity.

The university's original buildings were also featured in the Futures Found exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2017 which reflected on post-war architecture in the UK.

[42] The Silberrad Student Centre and extension of the Albert Sloman Library completed in 2015 were designed to reflect the Brutalist architecture of the original campus buildings.

It opened in 1989 as the ESRC Research Centre on Micro-Social Change in Britain and now houses the ESRC-funded Understanding Society[49] project, a longitudinal study of the socio-economic circumstances and attitudes of 100,000 individuals in 40,000 British households.

Notable academics linked to the department over its history include Brian Barry, Sarah Birch, R. A. W. Rhodes, Jean Blondel, Sir Ivor Crewe, Peter Frank, Robert E Goodin, Anthony King, Ernesto Laclau and Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, current holder of the Regius Professorship in Political Science.

The School started events management courses in 2019 and has partnered with the o2 Arena for live projects, and the BRIT Awards for student work experience.

Notable academics linked to the school include Tony Brooker, Richard Bartle, Mohammed Ghanbari, Riccardo Poli, Edward Tsang, Ray Turner, and Hani Hagras.

[67] Essex's School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering and Northwest University in China launched a double degree programme in 2017 that was approved by the Chinese Ministry of Education.

[80] On two occasions Essex has been awarded the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education, in 2009 for its "advancing the legal and broader practice of international human rights," and in 2017 for its "authoritative social and economic research to inform the policies of governments for the improvement of people's lives.

[115] Essex is also in the top 20 for 'international outlook' in these rankings[116] – this indicator measures the proportion of staff and students from outside the UK alongside international collaboration on research.

Some of the major music bands to play in Essex's Students' Union include AC/DC, Blur, Iggy Pop, The Kinks, Can, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, The Smiths and The Specials.

[132] The university also works in partnership with Ipswich Town Football Club in delivering support services for their Women's Super League Academy programme.

[134] Essex has established the Knowledge Gateway research and technology park at its Colchester Campus with a long-term aim of providing employment for more than 2,000 people.

The innovation Centre will provide a home to more than 50 start-ups and has been supported with substantial funding from Essex County Council and South East Local Enterprise Partnership.

[citation needed] Other political figures educated at Essex include the foreign ministers of Slovenia (Dimitrij Rupel) and Iraq (Hoshyar Zebari), Conservative Party MPs Virginia Bottomley, Priti Patel and John Bercow, former Speaker of the House of Commons, Labour Party MP Siobhain McDonagh, Labour Party MEP John Howarth, Speaker of Bangladesh's Parliament Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, Pakistani social activist Omar Asghar Khan, South African politician Thozamile Botha, Rob Whiteman Chief Executive of CIPFA, and Singapore social activist James Gomez (MA 1994).

[citation needed] Notable alumni in the field of the humanities and media include Stephen Daldry and Mike Leigh, who both studied at the East 15 Acting School (part of the university since 2001), artistic director William Burdett-Coutts (MA Drama), documentary filmmaker Nick Broomfield, filmmaker David Yates, the TV comedy producer Geoff Posner, the Malaysian poet Kee Thuan Chye, the BBC Correspondent Brian Hanrahan, fashion designer and Fashion Revolution founder Carry Somers, the essayist David Bouchier, the novelists Jonathan Wilson, John Lawton and novelist Ben Okri, a recipient of the Booker Prize.

[140] In her article "Diary: Why I Quit" in the London Review of Books, the novelist and the chair of judges for the 2015 Man Booker International Prize, Dame Marina Warner, compared the University of Essex to "the world of Chinese communist corporatism where enforcers rush to carry out the latest orders from their chiefs in an ecstasy of obedience to ideological principles which they do not seem to have examined, let alone discussed with the people they order to follow them, whom they cashier when they won’t knuckle under".

The review notes the particular responsibility placed on universities to protect freedom of speech within the law, and to ensure that a diversity of voices and views can be heard on our campuses.

The universities public denouncement of the George Floyd incident was cited as a notable example of the institution taking a stand on social media and then refusing to follow through with their commitment to solidarity when students continued to express concerns on being racially profiled by staff.