Silver jubilee year

(Third) Chancellor the Earl of March (former Treasurer from 1979-82 and member of Council since 1975), is installed at summer graduation

• Silver jubilee celebrations include a service of thanksgiving at Chichester Cathedral; a garden party at Goodwood House, home of Lord March; a touring Exhibition on Sussex at the South of England Show and around the region; congratulatory messages on the side of a number 25 bus; a reception at Bentley House in honour of the University, organised by East Sussex County Council; a 25th anniversary beer produced by Harvey's brewery; and a series of reunion dinners for alumni
• Denys Wilkinson is to retire at the end of 1986-87, to be replaced by Leslie Fielding. His 10-year tenure has been a story of repeated severe cuts. Ten years previously finances were tight but universities were still independent and making their own choices, but now finances are too tight for new developments and freedom for academic manoeuvre has been lost
• The demographic decline continues to hamper development in HE. The development of technology means more people will need to be graduates including in vocational subjects; more women are needed in technological subjects and more access is required for mature students with non-standard qualifications. Continuing and recurrent education is needed to enhance the quality of life and raise the general level and tone of the educated citizenry
• The UGC report includes a two per cent cut in research funding, which will mean a cut of around 40 academic staff by 1990. All reserves are likely to be spent
• The UGC wants universities to rationalise and drop unprofitable subjects. Sussex is trying to comply but doesn't want to compromise interdisciplinarity
• Lord Fulton, first VC of Sussex 1959-67, dies 14 March 1986, aged 83
• The Sussex Opportunity: A New University and the Future (Harvester Press), by R Blin-Stoyle and G Ivey (eds), is published
• Brighton Borough Council sets up a joint scholarship scheme to enable disabled students from the local area to attend the University, and give an initial donation of £10,000
• West Sussex County Council brings 900 school pupils to an Open Day to tour the campus and attend demonstrations and lectures
• A portrait of Lord Shawcross by Bryan Organ commemorates his 20 years as Chancellor from 1965-85
• Exhibition and lectures commemorate the 50th anniversary of Kipling's death using papers lodged in Special Collections
• IDS and SPRU celebrate their 20th anniversaries in 1986
• Education will be changing its name to Continuing and Professional Education, following its merger with CCE. CCE will be increasingly focused on its programmes concerned mid-career professional development
• New School of Cognitive Sciences is established October 1987
• Work begins on the new Sports Centre

Quotes

'...Government itself now addresses the universities directly and tells us the conditions, academic as well as managerial, under which increased resources might be provided. There is no point in us saying that this should not be so; it is so ... It is difficult to be optimistic in these circumstances. And yet I feel that some good is coming out of it all. We are becoming more aware of ourselves across the University as a whole, more aware of our accomplishments and of our operations and our difficulties and of our needs. We are becoming more appreciative of how we work and of efforts and of costs, financial and, more importantly, human. That must all be to the good.'

Lord Fulton was 'a man of many gifts, not least his educational vision, and he has left his mark indelibly on this University'