Printing for students
Our managed print, copy and scan service is free, but is subject to our fair use policy.
All students receive £10 of virtual credit at the start of each academic year. This is not real money, just a virtual balance.
Print costs
Each page you print is charged to your virtual balance as follows:
A4 printing (standard paper size)
| Single side | Double side (duplex) | |
| Black and white (mono) | £0.05 | £0.05 |
| Colour | £0.15 | £0.25 |
It is cheaper to print double-sided if your document is more than one page. For example, a Word document with ten pages would cost:
- £0.25 if printed double sided in black and white
- £0.50 if printed single sided in black and white
- £1.25 if printed double sided in colour
- £1.50 if printed single sided in colour
A3 printing (larger paper size)
| Single side | Double side (duplex) | |
| Black and white (mono) | £0.10 | £0.15 |
| Colour | £0.20 | £0.35 |
Topping up your virtual balance
You can request top-up via MyEssex once every three months:
- undergraduate students are entitled to one top-up of value £2.50 (100 B&W A4 sides) in any period of three months
- postgraduate taught students are entitled to one top-up of value £7.50 (300 B&W A4 sides) in any period of three months
- postgraduate research students are entitled to one top-up of value £7.50 (300 B&W A4 sides) in any period of three months
If you use up all your balance and top-ups
If you use up all your balance and top-ups, you're not able to pay with your own money to get more. This service is not chargeable – the balance is virtual and only used to calculate how much of your printing allowance you have used. If you require additional printing top ups, please speak to your personal tutor.
Specific reasons to print in higher quantities
- Students with a specific learning difficulty are entitled to additional top ups. Your printing will not be restricted if you require it, but you will need to top up your virtual balance once it runs out. If you have already declared this to the Student Wellbeing and Inclusivity team this will be automatically applied to your account. If you should be entitled to this, please contact the Student Wellbeing and Inclusivity team.
- Any other users who need to print more than the standard allowance can be granted additional top ups. You will need to speak to your personal tutor who will be able to authorise this.
How to print
- You can print from any computer on campus, or from your personal laptop, phone or tablet using our mobile print service.
- Printers are conveniently located all over campus, usually in or near to study spaces where there are computers.
- When you print, your document is sent to the printer and held in a secure queue for 8 hours. After then your document is automatically deleted from the queue unless you delete it before then.
- Our printers use a feature called "follow me", which means you can collect your print from any printer on campus.
- Tap your staff or student registration card on the card reader to log in to the printer.
Mobile print service
Our mobile print service lets you send documents to the printer by email:
- Open a new email and attach the documents you want to print to it.
- Send the email to mobileprinting@essex.ac.uk
- Collect your print from any student printer on campus. Your documents are held in a secure queue for 8 hours.
Why we need a fair use policy
In December 2020, the University declared a climate and ecological emergency, recognising the need for urgent action. Our fair use policy will help to reduce the amount we print and ultimately reduce our carbon footprint.
