The professorship – for which a job advert closed on 19 February – will be based mainly at the university’s forthcoming research centre in Clacton, part of the Essex town’s Civic Quarter Project that has won £20 million from the UK government’s Levelling Up Fund.
Clacton, about 15 miles from Essex’s main campus in Colchester, is in the district of Tendring, ranked as the 40th most income-deprived local authority area out of 316 in England, with life expectancy significantly below the national average. Meanwhile, the coastal village of Jaywick, near Clacton, is ranked as the most deprived of all 32,844 neighbourhoods in England in the Index of Multiple Deprivation, which looks at a range of measures including health.
Essex’s move comes as universities start to think in greater depth about how to extend the benefits of their education and research to struggling communities, including those at geographical distance from higher education institutions.
