VC's voice

---

In my earlier two columns this term, I wrote about the new academic developments we hope to see in medicine and in management studies. A third area of potential new development is in Media Studies and Media Sciences.

The Media Studies group is in an enviable position: combining a research rating of '5', strong student demand, and a good record of graduate employment. Media Studies as a subject is periodically the target of ill-judged criticism, most recently from the departing Chief Inspector of Schools, Chris Woodhead, but Sussex should be proud of our success in this field.

There are a number of ways in which the University could build on what has been achieved already. Further expansion of the existing programme is one attractive option.

Other possibilities would put more emphasis on different aspects of media production, an emphasis that would strengthen further the employment prospects of graduates. We should welcome developments that improve the employability of our graduates. I believe that a stronger focus on employability is not at all in conflict with the need for our courses to be intellectually challenging and to develop critical as well as technical skills.

New programmes within Media Studies with an emphasis on production would require new resources, technical as well as teaching, and we are bidding to the funding council both for additional student numbers and for funds to reconstruct the outdated studio facilities in EDB.

The flow of graduates from both of the local universities is now widely recognised as a key factor in the development of the creative industries in Brighton. Computing Science graduates are the mainstay of the local multi-media sector.

New degrees developed in the School of Engineering and Information Technology aim to strengthen our links with the local creative industries and we now aim to extend our range of provision by developing new programmes in Media Sciences, some of them in collaboration with Ravensbourne College, with whom we have a long-standing partnership and which is a leading provider of professional education for the media industries.

These are all very exciting developments, which could lead to the development of a new Centre for Media Sciences at the University. They underline the University's commitment to respond to the needs of a changing world while maintaining our aim of achieving the highest standards of academic excellence.