- Harry Kroto is knighted in the New Year's Honours list
- Twelve new professors are appointed: five internally and seven externally
- Work on Essex House, the Innovation Centre and Kings' Road is nearing completion
- The Government continues to cut funding year on year – 28 per cent has been cut over the last six years, plus a cut of £700,000 from the grant for buildings and equipment
- Student numbers have doubled from 4,500 in 1985 to 9,100 but staff numbers have only increased by 28 per cent
- Students are finding the move towards student loans very difficult and the VC feels the present scheme isn't working
- The Dearing Committee is set up in February 1996 to report on the long-term future of HE in UK. It is due to report in September
- Sussex needs to lead in new technologies and enable students to employ them, in sectors including IT, genetic engineering, new energy technologies and robotics
- Unemployment will continue to be an issue if society does not educate itself technically
- Construction begins on an extension to Library which will increase space by 25 per cent. The Library is also awarded nearly £100,000 to improve access to the Mass Observation Archive
- The Rolls Royce University Technology Centre is established in Engineering
- Sir Lindsay Bryson retires as chair of the University Council after 10 years' service on the Council, six as Chair. He is awarded an honorary degree in the Summer Graduation
- CCE celebrates its 25th anniversary and is awarded nearly £600,000 by Higher Education Funding Council (HEFC) to develop non-award-bearing education. The Centre also holds its first awards ceremony in which 62 part-time students are awarded Certificates and Diplomas
- Geoff Lockwood, Registrar, retires after 34 years at Sussex
- The University goes online, with information about Sussex now available on the internet
- Lord Attenborough, Pro-Chancellor and President of the Gardner Arts Centre opens the new 400-seat cinema at a Gala evening. Oh what a Lovely War! was screened, his directorial debut in 1968
- Thabo Mbeki, a former student, receives an honorary degree
- Work begins on the Sussex Innovation Centre
- Steve Bell is awarded an honorary doctorate and has a retrospective exhibition of his work in the Gardner
- Stephen Spielberg donates US$100,000 of proceeds from the film Schindler's List to the Centre for German-Jewish Studies at Sussex
50 years
