Rachel Mills, Provost
On Wednesday 6 October, the University's Provost, Rachel Mills, wrote to all staff with an update. You can read the message in full below.
Dear colleague,
Starting today, we are entering into an important phase of seeking your feedback on the Size and Shape programme and our draft proposals. I am writing to you today with an update so that you are fully up to speed with what is happening across the University.
Progress over the summer:
Over the summer months there was an incredible amount of work in Schools and Divisions to produce draft proposals that will help us to deliver on our key aims from the Size and Shape programme:
- Provide degree courses that are distinctive and stand out in the sector, giving the very best student experience
- Be more competitive in the UK and internationally in research
- Invest in our campus infrastructure to enable our students and staff to achieve their goals
Whilst the work on the draft proposals continued, so of course did our recruitment activity for this academic year. Thanks to a concerted effort across the University we have performed better than we had hoped. I’m sure this is also partly down to our public commitment to provide as much in-person teaching as possible.
However, this improved performance has exacerbated the existing issues we have with our ‘shape’.
As predicted, the areas where we have exceeded our targets are, once again, in our most popular disciplines and the rise in student numbers is not evenly spread across our portfolio.
This means that in order to sustain higher student numbers in many of these popular disciplines we urgently need funds to invest in them to ensure that the student and staff experience is of a high standard.
The Size and Shape Programme will help to ensure that we invest where the need is greatest, putting Sussex in the strongest position to grow areas of academic excellence and transform the experiences of our students and staff.
Sharing draft proposals with you:
I’m extremely pleased that we’re now ready to share the Size and Shape draft proposals with you – as part of a month-long period of information sharing; discussion and feedback in Schools and Divisions on what is next for the Programme.
From today you will be invited to attend a Town Hall session with your Head of School or Divisional Director. At this session they will share their draft proposal with you – and there will be ways in which you can share your response and ideas, including using this online form.
Please remember these are draft proposals, they have not yet been shared with our Council and we are not moving into a formal consultation on any of the changes suggested. We are seeking your feedback so that we can be collectively confident that the decisions we are proposing are the right ones.
Seeking voluntary means to find savings:
Where we have identified that savings do need to be found in order to enable us to release funds to provide critical investments in securing the future of the University, we will continue to seek all voluntary means to do so.
If such savings apply to your School or Division, your Head of School or Divisional Director will update you on how we plan to do this.
What’s next?
Please do attend your School or Divisional Town Hall and provide your feedback into this process.
If you want to re-familiarise yourself with the background to the Size and Shape Programme you can visit the webpages – where you’ll also be able to access the online feedback form.
I will also continue to keep you updated on the overall Programme. I’m keen that we come together later this term to share some of the emerging themes and potential outcomes before any proposals are finalised.
With best wishes,
Rachel