Rosemary Martin
I am pleased to provide this update for the Sussex staff community following the meeting of Council on 12 July 2024. As the University’s governing body, Council’s role is to approve the University’s strategic objectives, to meet the University’s responsibilities in relation to legal and regulatory requirements and those deriving from the Charter and Statutes, and to monitor the institution’s (and its own) effectiveness and performance.
July meetings always have a large, substantive agenda and this year was no different. My update will summarise the main items we covered last week.
Council has approved Sussex 2035: Creating Progressive Futures – flourishing, sustainability, and progress for the whole world
It does not seem very long ago that Council had its first discussion of the next University strategy and I know many of you, as well as students, alumni and other stakeholders, have been involved in the development of the strategy. The consultation and engagement with the University community has been extensive.
Sussex 2035: Creating Progressive Futures – flourishing, sustainability, and progress for the whole world sets an ambitious direction for the University – one that fits very well with our values and history, and Council was very pleased to approve it. The strategy is framed around the strategic themes of environmental sustainability, human flourishing, and digital and data futures. These themes are global, comprehensive, and central to the challenges we will face over the coming decades. Council looks forward to the publication of the strategy and the development of the underpinning strategic plans that will deliver its ambitions.
Finances and student recruitment
As many of you will know, and as I mentioned in my March update, like many universities, Sussex is facing challenging financial headwinds – with the Office for Students reporting that 40% of universities are predicting a deficit in 2023/24. As I said in March, the 2024/25 financial year will require careful cost management across the University, and we will need to use our resources strategically to support longer-term success while continuing to ensure high-quality provision for our students. Council discussed, and approved, the 2024/25 University budget on this basis. People have worked very hard to identify very significant savings, so thank you all.
The central message remains true: Sussex needs to attract more students and to provide an excellent student experience so that our students can flourish both while they are with us and in their lives after Sussex. We are fast approaching a key moment for recruitment: Clearing and new year enrollments will give us clarity on our student numbers for 2024/25.
Student matters
The student experience at Sussex is one of Council’s major focuses, and a core element of this is the report we receive from the Students’ Union; it contained some very good news, including Sussex’s eighth successive victory in the Varsity, the Badger student newspaper winning five awards at the Student Press Association National Conference, and an increase in Student Union (SU) election voter turnout of 6%, which runs against the national trend. The more students who engage with SU elections, as well as the SU more generally, the better.
This is also true of the National Student Survey (NSS), so not only was it good news that the NSS response increased this year from 68% to 74%, but it was also with some pleasure that Council received the results of this year’s NSS. The University has continued to build on last year’s progress and received improved results for every theme with the exception of ‘assessment and feedback’, where there was a steep decline in our ranking within the sector, very likely due to last year’s marking and assessment boycott. See the Staff Hub for more details.
Governance changes
Like any governing body, some of Council’s key work is about governance changes. These changes are important for the proper functioning of the institution.
At July 2023’s Council meeting, we approved the establishment of Faculties and last week we approved a variety of governance changes necessary for Faculties to come into existence in August. Some of these changes were technical changes to University regulations, others were more substantive changes to how Senate will operate, in particular to Senate’s membership now that Executive Deans will become ex officio members of Senate. Council approved all the proposed changes, as recommended to us by Senate after Senate approved them last month.
Also at last week’s meeting, Council considered, and approved, a proposal in relation to Council’s Student Experience Committee. This Committee was intended to apply a student-focused filter to the work of the University and reflect this back to Council, but we have decided that there are better ways to do this. As a result, Council agreed that the way forward is to ‘retire’ this committee, and instead adding an independent Council member and an academic Council member as observers at Senate’s existing Student Experience Forum.
Nominations and farewells
Council also said a warm ‘farewell’ to several long-standing and diligent independent members: Katie Ghose, who has been a Council member since 2015, Aleema Shivji, who has been a member of Council since 2018 and Paul O’Prey, who joined Council in 2021. Following a rigorous and competitive appointment process, we appointed Stanley Alozie, Ashtar Antoine, and Sherene Sera Jose as new independent Council members. They will join Council in the autumn, and I am sure their ability and experience will enormously benefit Council.
Finally, may I take the opportunity to thank staff across the University for all your hard work throughout 2023/24 and to wish you a wonderful summer break, when it comes.
Rosemary Martin
Chair of Council