Building the future: campus construction continues
Recent visitors to Sussex will not have missed the many building projects currently underway on campus. Fulton, a new teaching building adjacent to Swanborough, was opened in summer 2010, offering state-of-the-art teaching space across three floors. Meanwhile, the new residential complex, Northfield, is on course for completion by September 2011, providing 777 study bedrooms and a social centre.
The Library has been transformed by its recent refurbishment, including a new ground-floor café and social space, and improved facilities for PhD and postdoctoral researchers. Arts D and E and the Russell Building have been demolished to make way for the major new academic building (see images above), which will house a new lecture theatre, school offices, and much-needed academic and teaching space. Finally, the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts (formerly the Gardner Arts Centre) is being totally refurbished to give us extensive performance and exhibition space and a new home for the Arts at Sussex. Find out more on the Estates and Facilities Division website.
Outstanding league table results
Times Higher Education – World University Rankings 2010
8th in the UK
16th in Europe
79th in the world
During a challenging period of cost-cutting and belt-tightening, Sussex saw a rise in its stock off the back of a run of positive facts and figures. In February the University announced that applications had rocketed by 32 per cent – well above the national average – while the new national survey of student opinion, the Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey, ranked the University 6th in the UK for its teaching and learning.
Sussex shone in the other league tables, ranked 21st (up 14 places from 35) in The Times Good University Guide 2011; 15th in the Guardian University Guide; 19th in the Independent’s Complete University Guide; and placed 8th in the UK, 16th in Europe and 79th in the world in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2010.
And in August, the 2010 National Student Survey revealed that 90 per cent of University of Sussex students were satisfied with their place of study. The result improved Sussex’s place in the rankings from 35th in 2009 to 7th.
Special collections to get a new home
The Keep will be a new purpose-built home for the Special Collections of the University of Sussex, including the Mass Observation Archives, and the archives of East Sussex County Council and Brighton & Hove City Council.
At The Keep, which will be built at Woollards Field near Falmer, just south of campus, the collections of all three partners will be available under one roof for the first time. As well as the University’s extensive collection of archival, manuscript and rare-book collections, it will house all the archives of East Sussex County Council and Brighton & Hove City Council – and the library and headquarters of the Sussex Family History Group.
Councillor Bob Tidy, Lead Member for Community Services at the County Council, said: ‘The Keep will be the new home for over 900 years of historical resources and collections of local, national and international importance. It will house over six miles of archives including written records, maps, plans, films, photographs, prints and drawings.
The Keep is also on course to be the most sustainable archive building of its type in the country. It will include photovoltaics for electricity generation, solar water heating, green roofs, a biomass boiler for heating, thermal insulation and rainwater harvesting.
Following planning permission being granted in December 2010, construction will start this year and The Keep will be open to the public in 2013.
New app puts Sussex on your phone
Launched in September 2010, SussexMobile gives students with smartphones instant access to course and timetable information, as well as access to their Library accounts, a staff directory, up-to-date news feeds and general information about University services.
The app also has a feature to obtain live information about which PCs are free in IT Services clusters across campus, and links to a GPS-enabled campus map to help visitors find their way around.