News

In this update the Vice-Chancellor will cover:

• good news from around the University
• two additional minimum service days for staff
• executive governance and the move to faculties 
• a manifesto for higher education
• developing our new strategy - including an invitation to open meetings

Dear Colleague,

As the new academic year begins, my second at Sussex, it is wonderful to see our beautiful campus once again bustling with students.

Thank you to everyone who attended my Open Forum last week. I appreciate that there are many demands on your time, and that it is not always easy to make space for such events. If you did attend, whether in person or remotely, I would be grateful if you could take a moment to share your feedback. And for those of you who were not able to come, what follows provides some of the key information from the forum. 

Good news
Responding to feedback from previous forums that some colleagues would appreciate more good news, to counterbalance some of the less cheerful analysis of the current political, economic and regulatory context within which we are operating, I spent the first part of the session on some of the many great things that have been happening at Sussex recently. These include:

• improvement in our relative rankings across every area of the 2023 National Student Survey, including a fantastic rise of 52 places for ‘academic support’ (from 106 to 54) and 28 places (from 46 to 18) for ‘organisation and management’. Whilst we are still a very long way from where we want to be, we have moved closer to our benchmarks this year, and are now above benchmark for ‘organisation and management’ and – all credit to USSU – for students’ rating of the Students’ Union.
• small improvements in the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide (up two places to 48^th), and The Guardian (up one place to 65^th), and a rise of 22 places in the QS World University Rankings to 218. I noted that the new metrics being used in the 2024 Times Higher World University Rankings place us in the 201-250 category globally, and 26^th in the UK. We are also 42^nd globally and =26 in the UK for ‘international outlook’, and 82^nd globally and =19^th in the UK for ‘research quality’. Whilst we might not like the approach to universities that is created by the league tables, they matter because they shape the choices of prospective students, and the governments that fund them, and they are an important marker of our performance.
• welcoming 119 new Chevening Scholars from around the world this autumn, many if not all of whom are attracted to study at Sussex because of our long-standing reputation for being a profoundly internationally oriented university, committed to global social justice and environmental sustainability, and ranked number one in the world for Development Studies in the QS rankings.
• receiving accreditation from the Department for Education to enable us to launch our first apprenticeship programmes, as part of the new Surrey and Sussex Institute of Technology, and thereby opening up new ways to diversify our offer and our student body.
• being the education partner for the Turner Prize, which is this year hosted by the Towner Eastbourne – as a university that does not teach fine art and yet has two Turner Prize-winning alumni (Jeremy Deller and Helen Cammock).
• becoming part of the Turing University Network. 

 
Additional minimum service days in December and January 
Recognising how challenging this year has been for all our staff, particularly in the context of extended periods of industrial action that have placed considerable additional pressure on many colleagues, I announced at the forum that there will be two additional minimum service days around the festive period, on Thursday 21 December 2023 and Tuesday 2 January 2024. I hope that this will meaningfully extend the break, at the end of a busy term. As always, my thanks go to the staff who keep the University running on minimum service days. More guidance will follow from HR.
  
Executive governance and the move to Faculties  
I began the forum with an update about the membership of the University Executive Team, welcoming new (and fairly new) colleagues, including Professor Michael Luck, our new Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost, and members taking up new roles: Professor Robin Banerjee and Professor Kate O’Riordan, our new Pro-Vice-Chancellors for Global and Civic Engagement, and Education and Students, respectively. I also noted the decision of Council back in July 2023 to establish a faculty structure, and the work that is beginning, led by Michael, to create the faculties during this academic year. One of the first steps is starting the process of appointing Executive Deans later this month.  

A manifesto for higher education
I also offered an overview of seven policy proposals that seek to address some of the most serious problems facing universities and students that I have recently put forward in a new publication from the Higher Education Policy Institute, Election 2024: Three Vice-Chancellor’s Manifestos. Last week I presented these proposals, and my wider argument that we should return to regarding higher education as a public good, at the Conservative Party conference, and I am doing the same this week at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool. We can but try…

Developing our new strategy
The second part of the forum was about the start of the process to develop our next University strategy, Sussex 2035. A great deal has changed since our current strategic framework, Sussex 2025, was developed back in 2018, including the unprecedented disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2023, we are facing a number of pressing sector-wider challenges, most notably financial sustainability, marketisation and volatile student recruitment, changing student expectations and needs, a discontented workforce, and, above all else, the climate crisis. At Sussex, we also have our own specific set of challenges, including improving our students’ experience and outcomes, dealing with difference and diversity, and remedying structural inequalities within our community, making the University a supportive and compelling place to work, and improving our digital and physical infrastructure, especially the science estate.

Looking ahead, we need both to tackle these issues and to create for ourselves a distinctive future that builds on what we already do best. Sussex 2035 will define a limited number of high-level changes that will make a real difference to Sussex and to the wider world.

Your involvement will be critical in shaping Sussex 2035 over the coming months. The process of developing Sussex 2035 will be collaborative and will offer many opportunities for engagement, but it will start with me putting forward a series of proposals and propositions – my vision – for the future of Sussex, from which we can begin our discussions. The first step in the process is the publication of two Sussex 2035 Strategy Papers (login required – network username – e.g. ABC123, password):

• Sussex 2035 Strategy Paper 1 is focused on the strategy development process
• Sussex 2035 Strategy Paper 2 is about values, mission and purpose, and vision.

Following this will be the first set of conversations amongst the Sussex staff community at open meetings on Monday 30 October and Thursday 2 November. These sessions will be an opportunity to come together to discuss Sussex’s values, mission and purpose, and vision for the future. I encourage you to join this early opportunity to hear more the strategy development process and to feedback your views on the foundational elements of Sussex 2035. 

Booking details:

• Monday 30 October – 12pm to 1.30pm – Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts
• Thursday 2 November – 2.30 to 4pm – Bramber House Conference Centre

Over the coming months there will be conversations around nine further themes:

1. Education and Student Life
2. Research and Enterprise
3. Global and Civic Engagement
4. People and Culture
5. Financial Sustainability
6. Infrastructure (Estates and IT)
7. Environmental Sustainability
8. Human Flourishing
9. Digital and Data Futures

Engagement with these themes will take place in a range of ways, including online surveys, small and large group forums, and gatherings of those with expertise in these areas. We will also consult with students, alumni, and local and global partners. 

I very much look forward to talking with you over the coming months about the future of this great university, and, in the meantime, I hope that the first few weeks of term go well. 
 
With my warmest wishes, 
 
Sasha 
Professor Sasha Roseneil
Vice-Chancellor and President 

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