Studying at Essex - Creating a University episode 5
It was, they say now, “something different”, “very exciting” and even “probably the most positive experience of my life”. In the fifth of our 50th Anniversary podcasts, students who came to the new University of Essex in the 1960s and 70s talk about their memories of campus, classes, teachers and tiddlywinks. “Our first students will still be in positions of influence and responsibility in the first two decades of the twenty-first century.” Sir Albert Sloman, 1963 Reith Lectures It was a place of political awakenings, and one where barriers were broken down – where a politics lecturer could play football with his students. But it was also intellectually challenging, a place where your views were listened to and an opportunity to make lifelong friends and, in some cases, partners. Interviewees - Peter Avis, Maths student 1964-67 - John Dowden, Maths PhD student, 1963-67, the University’s first student and now Emeritus Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences - Peter Haine, Physics student, 1964-67 - Nicolette Hardy, Literature student, 1966-69 - Christine Hinton, Sociology student, 1967-70 - Margery Wilson, Literature student, 1971-74 - Peter Wyatt, Government student, 1966-69