• VC continues to berate the Government for its 'short-sightedness' over removing funding for overseas students
• What became known as the 'July' letter from the funding council set out the funding/student cuts. Funding is directed by the Government into certain areas, allowing the University less room for manoeuvre and student numbers have to be reduced by seven per cent in 1980-81. Overall the drop in income is calculated at 22.4 per cent
• A call is sent out to spending units to suggest how each would meet the fall in income to develop a University plan to make 20 per cent cuts across the board
• The need to lose 20 per cent of total University staff is achieved by natural wastage in all areas but faculty. Early retirement and voluntary severance schemes are introduced for faculty and 30 of the 65 job losses are achieved by voluntary means. Some faculty take unpaid leave to help the situation. Losses of staff affect the morale and increase the workload for remaining staff
• There are fears for the future of the Gardner Centre: the University is seeking alternative, additional support from other funding bodies
• University Health Service charges £10 per head per year to students to subsidise shortfall in funding from Oct 1982 for non-NHS-funded services such as counselling. Overseas students will no longer be entitled to free NHS medical care but Sussex still provides free general care for the time being
• The University of Sussex Association is seen as a key partner and Sussex hopes to look to alumni for support
• 19 June 19, the University has it first Open Day. The aim is for local people to see what the University does and how it fits within the local community
• Lord Shawcross (Chancellor) sets up an Appeal Fund which aims to 'raise money to support specifically targeted ventures'
• Brendan Foster (ex student and long-distance Olympic medallist) and Dame Flora Robson (member of the University Court and former member of Council) receive honorary degrees
• Nobel Prize winner and member of faculty Sir John Cornforth becomes one of only four living Fellows of the Royal Society to have been awarded three Royal Society medals (Davey, Copley and Royal)
• BA in Religious Studies is discontinued, and BA in Russian Studies is replaced by BA in Soviet and Eastern European Studies
• Lord Shawcross (Chancellor) and Lord Fulton (the first VC) celebrate their 80th birthdays this year
• Alasdair Smith becomes Chair of Economics. Maggie Boden becomes Professor of Philosophy and Psychology
• Cognitive Studies continues to be a popular contextual option. This is one of the few centres in the country at this time
• A Major in Artificial Intelligence may be soon launched but is dependent on funding being available
• The sciences attract £2.4 million in research grants and contracts despite the recession, but cuts in UGC funding mean that it is difficult to resource the 'well-founded laboratory'. This particularly hits research-active universities such as Sussex
• Government policy demands a rise in student numbers for the physical sciences at UG level including Maths, but Sussex still needs to decrease science faculty by 22 per cent
• History and Social Studies of Science will be transferred with faculty to SPRU or a new area called Science Studies, which includes the Arts/Science scheme
• The School of Education needs to recruit a significant number of overseas students to help balance the books without more stringent measures, but nonetheless needs to reduce faculty and other staff levels. Students numbers for the PGCE are declining
• The crèche is being re-housed in new accommodation and the relocation will be completed by the summer of 1983
• A Sports Injury clinic opens on campus September 1982
• Worship is not well attended but the Meeting House is a popular venue for on-campus meetings
• The Manpower Services Commission funds a Community enterprise Scheme enabling four unemployed people to work in the Mass Observation Archive sorting, tidying, cleaning, labeling and boxing the contents of the archive
• CCE offers 225 open courses this year

Quote

'We deplore the academic and human damage, we lament the frustration of aspirations of youth but until the upturn comes, as surely it must, we must do our best with the resources that are to be allowed us and on that course we must now firmly embark.' (Vice-Chancellor)

Student numbers

Drops in overseas students is predicted as follows:

1979-80: 100 per cent

1980-81: 91 per cent

1981-82: 80 per cent

1982-83: 82 per cent

Arts and social studies

2,633 students: 2,232 undergraduates (a decrease), 401 postgraduates (321 full-time and 88 part-time students)