University of Essex is highly regarded for teaching and research in the social sciences and humanities with the departments of government and sociology ranked as the top in the U.K. and economics ranked fourth. Essex was one of the first European Universities to offer both law and social science degrees in human rights. As the fourth in the U.K. for research excellence, we are a unique community of scholars who live, work and play together, backed by donors such as Sir Winston Churchill who believed in our vision of a new type of university for a new age. With a student population of around 12,000 from more than 137 countries, Essex is the ideal community to experience U.K. higher education. Our academic offerings are varied, and our strong areas include, accounting/finance, business, computer science/gaming, mathematics, psychology, art history, linguistics, sports science, film, theater studies, history, philosophy, criminology and biological sciences.