Postgraduate Prospectus

www.essex.ac.uk | Student life
Modern language study
In many courses at our Colchester
Campus, you can take a language. These
are available in French, German, Italian,
Portuguese and Spanish, catering for a
variety of levels to fit your requirements
and existing skills. You can use the many
facilities offered by our language,
computing and multimedia laboratories:
online computer packages and dictionaries,
accessed 24 hours a day from any terminal
connected to our University network.
All language modules can also be taken
by the public and our Open Language
Programme includes Arabic and Mandarin
Chinese. These can contribute to a Diploma
or Certificate in Modern Languages.
Further information is available from our
Department of Language and Linguistics
E amc@essex.ac.uk
www.essex.ac.uk/linguistics
Resource and research
centres
UK Data Archive
Our UK Data Archive is the curator of
the largest collection of digital data in the
social sciences and humanities in the UK.
With more than 6,000 datasets relating to
society, both historical and contemporary,
we are a vital resource for researchers,
teachers and learners.
Since 2005, we have been designated a
Place of Deposit by the National Archives,
allowing us to curate public records. We
acquire high quality data from academic,
public, and commercial sectors, providing
continuous access, while we also support
existing and emerging communities of
data users. We manage the Economic
and Social Data Service, the UK's flagship
portal for research resources, where we
host key national and international survey
data and qualitative data. We also host data
services like the Census portal and the
History Data Service. Recently we provided
secure access to highly detailed and
sensitive data through the Secure Data
Service and are engaged in a number of
data management initiatives, running the
Rural Economy and Land Use Programme
(Relu) Data Support Service. We manage
the UK contribution to the European
network of data archives, CESSDA, provide
data curation for other organisations, and
regularly win grants from other funders.
Institute for Social and Economic
Research (ISER)
We have a national and international
reputation for longitudinal data analysis
and research on economic and social
policy issues using panel data methods.
We collect and analyse longitudinal data,
and are recognised for the supervision
of doctoral students by the Economic
and Social Research Council (ESRC).
We provide excellent opportunities for
training in research methods and for
substantive research.
We were established in 1989 to study
change in British households. In 1991, we
surveyed 5,600 households (some 10,200
individuals) selected at random, as part
of the British Household Panel Survey
(BHPS), to represent the entire population
of Great Britain. This constant set of people
is interviewed each year and we now work
on Understanding Society, the largest study
of its type in the world, which replaces and
incorporates the BHPS.
Our research allows detailed analysis of
important economic and social issues,
and data collected allows comparisons
with other similar studies carried out in
the United States and European countries.
We represent a major research resource
to which our social science departments,
schools and centres contribute and draw.
History Data Service
Our History Data Service collects,
preserves and promotes the use of digital
resources, which result from or support
historical research, learning and teaching.
We are a successor service to AHDS
History which, from 1996 to 2008, was
one of the five centres of the Arts and
Humanities Data Service. We are housed
within the UKDA and provide access and
support for a range of historical datasets,
promoting and facilitating increased and
more effective use of data in research,
learning and teaching. For further
information, visit: http://hds.essex.ac.uk.
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