This is an archive page

50 years

August 1983 - July 1984

  • Still awaiting Government decisions on future funding, with vague talk of the Government wanting better and more socially relevant HE at a lower cost
  • The UGC argues for small subject groups/departments to be closed because they are not efficient, but the VC feels that universities should offer a wide range of programmes and defends decisions about the mix of subjects on offer staying with universities and not the Government. Sussex is vulnerable in this respect because of its interdisciplinarity and contextual teaching, and increasing Government focus on vocational degrees
  • There are similar worries about central intervention into research by demanding research strategies which might limit the type of research done. There is a need to find ways to work with the Government without universities being turned into factories
  • Institute of Cognitive and Information Services is established June 1984 with Professor Christopher Longuet-Higgins as Director
  • Sussex receives £4.8 million in research grants and contracts
  • CCE represents an expanding area of University activity with 4,700 students taking programmes – more than the entire full-time student body of the university, which is an increase of 12 per cent from the previous year. CCE is to be amalgamated with Education in order to secure finances and strengthen the field
  • An admissions video is made to improve the University's image, with Richard Attenborough as executive producer
  • New-style prospectus is launched
  • A higher level than usual of student intake for students and for the first time ever science bettered arts and social sciences
  • November 1984 the Government decides to abolish the minimum student maintenance grant and increase the scale of parental contribution; 'a blow to the aspirations of many young people'
  • There are beginning to be second-generation Sussex students as children follow parents

Student numbers

5,238 students: 3,566 undergraduates (3,556 full-time and 10 part-time students), 1,672 postgraduates (975 full-time, 297 part-time and 400 continuation)

Gender ratio

Full-time undergraduates

1,901 men: 1,655 women

Most women undergraduates in arts and social studies took English; the least took Human Sciences

Most men undergraduates in arts and social studies took Economics; the least took Religious Studies

Most women undergraduates in the sciences took Biology; the least took Electrical and Mechanical Engineering

Most men undergraduates in the sciences took Mathematics; the least took Applied Science with the Management of Science