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University of Sussex

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The University of Sussex is an English campus university located near the East Sussex village of Falmer, near Brighton and Hove and on the edge of the South Downs. It is the only university in England which is entirely located in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and runs entirely on electricity from renewable energy sources. The University of Sussex was the first of the new wave of universities founded in the 1960s (see also Plate Glass Universities), receiving its Royal Charter in August 1961.

Contents

History

Establishment

It was established in 1961 as part of government attempts to expand access to higher education. Designed in the main by Sir Basil Spence, the campus buildings include Falmer House, which won one of the coveted medals of the Royal Institute of British Architects in the year it opened (1962) and the striking circular Meeting House based on the design of the traditional oast house which won a Civic Trust award in 1969. In 1993, the buildings which make up the core of Sir Basil Spence's original design were given listed building status. Falmer House was one of only two educational buildings in the UK to be given Grade 1 status of "exceptional interest".

Falmer House was briefly the only building on campus and was used for teaching and dining. Administration at that time was mostly housed at nearby Stanmer House. Falmer House now accommodates the Students' Union and a nightclub, the Hothouse. The campus also boasts a large number of other eating and drinking venues for students, staff and research companies.

Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors

The present Chancellor of the university is The Lord Attenborough, who was elected as the university's fourth Chancellor on March 20 1998.

  1. The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley (1961 - 1965)
  2. Lord Shawcross (1965 - 1985)
  3. The Duke of Richmond and Gordon (1985 - 1989)
  4. Lord Attenborough (1998 - present)
The university has had six Vice-Chancellors:

  1. John Fulton (1961 - 1967)
  2. Professor Asa Briggs (1967 - 1976)
  3. Sir Denys Wilkinson (1976 - 1987)
  4. Sir Leslie Fielding (1987 - 1992)
  5. Professor Gordon Conway (1992 - 1998)
  6. Professor Alasdair Smith (1998 - present)

Academic reputation

Rankings

The World University Rankings, compiled by researchers for the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) and published in October 2005, put Sussex 13th in the UK, 36th in Europe and 100th in the world. The Guardian University Rankings 2005 place Sussex 16th in the UK. The latest Sunday Times ranking puts Sussex 20th in the UK, a move up of 7 places from the year before. The 2007 Times "Good University Guide" places Sussex in 27th position.

Arts A lecture threatres in 2005
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Arts A lecture threatres in 2005

Campus accommodation, as seen in 2006
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Campus accommodation, as seen in 2006

Research

Sussex is a leading research university, as reflected in the 2001 national Research Assessment Exercise. All subjects at Sussex were rated as either grade 4 or 5, recognising research of national and international standard respectively. Over 90% of staff are researching at this high level, the majority in areas of international excellence.

In respect of teaching quality, 13 of the 15 subjects assessed under the current teaching quality assessment scheme have scored 21 or more points (out of 24), with Philosophy and Sociology achieving the maximum score. Under the previous assessment scheme, Music, English and Social Anthropology were judged Excellent.

International reputation

Sussex has an international reputation for its innovative styles of teaching and for the quality and range of its research work. Academic links with every continent, over 2,300 international students from 100 countries, and teaching staff from 40 nations give the University a strongly international feel. Additionally, one in seven of all Sussex undergraduates spend a year of their degree outside the UK.

Recognition of academics

Sussex has counted two Nobel Prize winners, 12 Fellows of the Royal Society, six fellows of the British Academy and a winner of the prestigious Crafoord Prize in its faculty.

Interdisciplinary focus

Sussex is distinctive both academically and organisationally. The commitment to interdisciplinarity, whereby students are required to broaden their academic horizons by studying topics other than those directly allied to their major subject, remains strong. Reinforcing this approach, the University is organised into Schools of Studies and Graduate Research Centres, rather than more traditional faculties or departments, promoting the cross fertilisation of knowledge between subjects. Over 200 undergraduate and 120 taught postgraduate courses are now offered.

A distinguished faculty

In the sciences Sussex counts among its faculty two Nobel Prize winners, Sir John Cornforth and Professor Harry Kroto. Sir Harry, the first Briton to win the chemistry prize in over ten years, received the prize in 1996 for the discovery of a new class of carbon compounds known as the fullerenes. The University has 15 Fellows of the Royal Society - the highest number per science student of any British university other than Cambridge. In the arts, there are six members of faculty - an unusually high proportion - who have the distinction of being Fellows of the British Academy. Faculty publish around 3,000 papers, journal articles and books each year, as well as being involved in consultative work across the world.

Unique resources

Its consistently high reputation in experimental subjects has ensured that Sussex has an excellent infrastructure of laboratories and academic support services. It has invested heavily in the Library; a major extension was recently completed, including a new computer system. The stock now comprises about 750,000 printed volumes, while access to electronic sources is facilitated by a gateway to the internet that reflects local interests and priorities. The Library is noted for its specialist holdings including the Woolf, Kipling and New Statesman papers, the Mass-Observation Archive, and a European Documentation Centre.

Notable current and former staff

Expansion and budget issues

The university is currently facing a tough financial position. At present, the university finds itself in £3.8 million deficit, which the vice-chancellor has blamed on departmental overspending, despite major cuts. Regular complaints of a lack of funding by academic staff, support staff and students are common.

A new car park in an area of outstanding natural beauty caused further unrest in 2005.

Work is starting imminently on the first phase of a complex and large-scale project to replace the University’s ageing heating network with a new, energy-efficient system.

This first phase of work, from May to October 2006, involves extensive trenching across campus and the laying of 7 km of insulated pipes to replace the 1960s pipework.

Boiler House car park, and the upper terrace that links to it, will be closed from 30 May. Once trenching work has taken place the Boiler House car park will become the site area for construction of a new student residence opposite Bramber House, so it is likely to remain closed until September 2007 at the earliest.

Organisation of the University

The university is organized into seven schools following traditional departmental lines:

This organization was introduced as part of a major restructuring on August 1, 2003, which was highly controversial at the time of its proposal.

Unusual previous organisation

The University was founded with the highly unusual structure of "Schools of Study" (ubiquitously abbreviated to "schools") rather than traditional university departments within arts and science faculties. The Schools were intended to promote high-quality teaching and research.

In the early 1990s, the University promoted the system by claiming, "Clusters of faculty [come] together within schools to pursue new areas of intellectual enquiry. The schools also foster broader intellectual links. Physics with Management Studies, Science and Engineering with European Studies, Economics with Mathematics all reach beyond conventional Arts/Science divisions."The University of Sussex (1990, 1991). The University of Sussex Undergraduate Prospectus 1991 ISSN 0309-1210. By this time, the original schools had been developed somewhat and were:

Current academic departments (within the schools)

Centres of excellence

In addition to the seven current schools, the university houses several centres of excellence including the Centre for the Study of Evolution (which had John Maynard Smith as a member), the Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics, and the Genome Damage and Stability Centre.

The university is also noted for its work in molecular sciences, with a faculty that once included Sir Harry Kroto, and for its work in computing and cognitive science, particularly Artificial Intelligence and human-computer interaction.

The university library is home to the Mass-Observation project and archives.

Courses offered

Information on undergraduate courses offered by the University can be found [here], and postgraduate courses [here].

Student Life

Sussex is the only university in England which is entirely located in a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Situated on the edge of the Sussex Downs, the University campus is like a large, self-contained village, with lecture theatres, seminar rooms, libraries, labs, accommodation, restaurants, bars, shops and sports facilities all within easy walking distance. Just a few minutes away is the lively, friendly seaside city of Brighton and Hove with its great leisure facilities and its rich, eclectic cultural life.

Student Union

Based in Falmer House, the first of the campus buildings, the Students' Union provides a wide range of student support and entertainment services.

Campus media

Halls of residence

The early campus included five Park Houses (Essex, Kent, Lancaster, Norwich, and York, named for other 1960s universities) and Park Village. The "houses", of which all but Kent were based on a courtyard design, feature several long corridors with kitchens and bathrooms at the end and a social space on the ground floor, very much in the manner of a tradtional hall of residence. Park Village, by contrast, consists of individual houses with just a few bedrooms per floor, arranged in "streets" with a social centre building (including a bar) towards the campus end of the area. Essex House also featured a self-contained flat which was given over to the Nightline confidential listening and advice service in 1992. During the late 1990s, Essex House and its flat were redeveloped into a postgraduate teaching facility. Kent House includes the Kulukundis House wing, developed with easy access for residents with special needs.

Accommodation on campus was expanded in the 1970s with the construction of the unusual split-level flats of East Slope. This development also has a social building with a bar.

In the 1990s, as student numbers rose, further developments were constructed in the corner of campus between East Slope and Park Village. Brighthelm and Lewes Court were constructed in public-private partnership funding arrangements with the Bradford & Northern and Kelsey Housing Associations. The name "Brighthelm" owes its etymology to part of the former name of Brighton, Brighthelmstone, whilst Lewes Court is named after the county town of Lewes.

In addition to these properties, the University has, over the years, managed properties for students wishing to live off-campus, such as Holland House, actually an interconnected row of terraced townhouses, in Holland Road, Hove.

Sport and clubs

The university competes in the following sports:

Team sports
Basketball (men and women), cricket (men), football (men, 1st, 2nd and 3rd; women), (field) hockey (men and women, 1st and 2nd), netball (women, 1st and 2nd), rugby (men and women, 1st and 2nd), ultimate frisbee and volleyball (men and women).
Racquet sports
Badminton (men and women) and squash (men and women).
Individual sports
Archery, fencing and trampolining
Outdoor pursuits
sailing, mountain bike, mountaineering, Ski & Snowboard, sub aqua, surfing and windsurfing.
Martial arts
Karate Jutsu, kickboxing, Shaolin Kung Fu and Wado Ryo.

Societies at Sussex

Educational partners

The Gardner Arts Centre

Housed at the edge of the campus in an eccentric Grade II listed building by Sir Basil Spence, the Gardner Arts Centre was opened in 1969 as the first university campus arts centre. It has a 480 seat purpose built theatre, a visual art gallery and studio space and is regularly used for theatre and dance as well as showing a range of films on a modern cinema screen.

Alumni

Politicians

Writers, journalists and broadcasters

Scientists

Others

See also

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
[Special]

References

  • http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/finance/publications/fin-stmt-04-05/contents.pdf

The 1994 Group (of smaller British research universities)
Bath | Birkbeck | Durham | East Anglia | Essex | Exeter | Goldsmiths College | Lancaster | London School of Economics* | Reading | Royal Holloway | St Andrews | Surrey | Sussex | Warwick* | York
Joining 1 August 2006: Leicester | Loughborough | School of Oriental and African Studies | Queen Mary
* Also a member of the Russell Group

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
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