Today the Vice Chancellor, Adam Tickell, wrote to all staff. You can read the email in full below:
Dear colleague,
I’ve been blown away by the extraordinary generosity of our global Sussex family, who have more than answered our appeal to help support Afghan students as they start to rebuild their lives.
I hope that, by now, you have had a chance to read the moving story of Naimat, one of our Chevening scholars from Afghanistan, and the ordeal he and his family endured to reach the UK. His belief in the power of education is unshakeable and truly inspiring.
In the first 24 hours of our fundraising appeal, launched on Monday, donations totalled more than £30,000.
This is an incredible response and donations have come in from students, staff, alumni, supporters and strangers, from the local area and more than a dozen countries around the world.
Your donations will make a real and immediate difference to Naimat and other students like him and I can’t thank you enough.
I’m pleased to say that, after a lot of work behind the scenes, our scholars with families will be moving to the city in the coming days, after a number of weeks in quarantine hotels and bridging accommodation. I know that they will experience a very warm welcome, both on campus and in Brighton. I would like to put on record my sincere thanks to the University colleagues and Brighton & Hove City Council for everything they have done together to support our students.
As I write this, I have just returned from a beach clean in Brighton, part of our Welcome Week activities for new students. We put on the event with Surfers Against Sewage, our new charity partners, and it was fantastic to do something hands on to work towards our sustainability strategy. There are lots of big developments in the pipeline for the coming months, so please do get involved.
The next event will be a ‘critical mass’ ride to work on Monday morning. Meet me at 8.20am at the top of The Level, by the junction of Elm Grove and Lewes Road, to take part – we will be leaving at 8.30am sharp. Do join us, whether you normally cycle to work or as an exception: it might be start of a habit which is sustainable, cheap and healthy. You can also volunteer to be an active and sustainable travel champion to help lead the cycle trains in the future.
The return of students in large numbers to campus this week has been quite joyful. Just seeing groups walking around, or at the Student Union’s fresher’s fair on Monday, or on campus tours, has lifted our hearts. The efforts that everyone made to provide a meaningful education over the last 18 months were spectacular, but the return to in-person teaching – and everything associated with it – is hugely welcome. I’ve spoken to approaching 100 students and, without exception, they’re looking forward it. I’m hugely grateful to everyone for embracing this, underlining quite how special Sussex is.
I know that concerns about Covid remain. Our ‘vaccination raffle’ appears to be successfully nudging students to get a jab (we have agreed to evaluate this properly for the Department for Education); every teaching space has had a full ventilation audit; and the response to the staff survey on vaccination status has been phenomenal. Already, 1,144 staff have told us that they are double vaccinated and we have had no-one report that they haven’t been vaccinated. If you haven’t yet reported, it would be much appreciated and this can be done on the MyView portal. I also encourage colleagues to reacquaint themselves with all the information on our Covid hub.
A reminder, too, that next week you will be asked for your views about working at the University, when our next pulse survey opens on Tuesday. Your feedback is vital, so please do complete it.
One of our big challenges is to prepare students for life after university – an issue made more difficult by the current jobs market and the fact that many young people have not been able to access the usual professional experiences during the pandemic. This year, we have bolstered our careers and employability services for students, for example by introducing new skills reviews. We are also proud to welcome our first-ever entrepreneurs in residence, Jamal Edwards MBE and Sarah Osterholzer. Both accomplished in their own right, they will provide sage advice and guidance to students who aspire to be entrepreneurs.
Finally, you received an email this week from the Chair of Council about the recruitment of my replacement as VC. This is a really special job and I encourage you to use your voice to help guide the institution as it seeks its next leader.
With best wishes,
Adam