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University of Sussex

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Template:Infobox British University

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. It was founded in August 1961, one of several New Universities to be built in the 1960s.

The original buildings are of unusual and varied designs in red brick and contrete by Sir Basil Spence. The campus was intended to blend in with the surrounding parkland, to maintain an established avenue of elm trees, and to provide something of a "village" atmosphere to its inhabitants and users. Most notable are the Grade I listed Falmer House and the circular Meeting House which is designed to be easily transformed for use by different religious denominations.

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, now derelict. Falmer House now accommodates the Students' Union and a nightclub, the "Hot House". The campus also boasts a large number of other eating and drinking venues for students, staff and research companies.

The World University Rankings, compiled by researchers for the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) and published in November 2004, put Sussex ninth in the UK, 17th in Europe and 58th in the world. The latest Times ranking puts Sussex 37th in the UK, a move of 2 places from the year before.

Organisation

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

  • Humanities
  • Life Sciences
  • Social Sciences and Cultural Studies
  • Science and Technology
  • The Sussex Institute (postgraduate studies in law, education, social work, and other areas)
  • SPRU - Science and Technology Policy Research
  • The Brighton & Sussex Medical School, a joint school with the University of Brighton

This organization was introduced as part of a major restructuring on August 1, 2003. The restructuring was highly controversial at the time of its proposal. Sussex was unusual, when it was founded, in adopting special "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."[1] By this time, the original schools had been developed somewhat and were:

  • African and Asian Studies
  • Biological Sciences
  • Chemistry and Molecular Sciences
  • Cognitive and Computing Sciences
  • Cultural and Community Studies
  • Engineering and Applied Sciences
  • English and American Studies
  • European Studies
  • Mathematical and Physical Sciences
  • Social Sciences

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 co-founded by John Maynard Smith, 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 includes 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.

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)

Educational Partners

  • Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) is a partnership between the University of Brighton and the University of Sussex. BSMS benefits from the universities' distinctive traditions and shared strengths in biomedical sciences, healthcare and professional education. The school, which is the first medical school in the South East outside London, opened in 2003.

Alumni

Politicians
Writers, journalists and broadcasters
Scientists
Others

Bibliographic references

  1. ^ The University of Sussex (1990, 1991). The University of Sussex Undergraduate Prospectus 1991 ISSN 0309-1210.
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