Brighton And Hove Mayor Puts Theory into Practice

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Jenny Langston is a student at Sussex, about to embark on a 15,000 word dissertation for her Social Policy MA. But she is no ordinary student.....she's also Brighton and Hove's new Mayor.

Installed at the end of May, Jenny has grown used to juggling a career in local politics with a commitment to her own education. After a stint as a governor at Lewes Tertiary College, Jenny decided she wanted to see how the decisions she helped to make impacted on ordinary students. Figuring that the best way to find out was to become a student herself, she enrolled on the college's Access course. "I came from a big family, and a university education was out of the question," she says, "But when I went back to learning, I really got the bug for it. And it helped me understand how students felt, so I became a better governor too."

Since then, Jenny has completed a BA in sociology, overcoming a brain haemorrhage which impaired her memory skills and going on to undertake the MA. At the same time, she has toiled away as a councillor, as a member of the Primary Care Group, and as a tireless fundraiser for charity. But she's found that all these activities flow into each other: "I try not to separate my life into compartments. For example, my MA links very well into decision-making processes I use in my job; it has taught me to think critically about things, to read between the lines of reports instead of accepting them at face value. And it has given me a lot of knowledge which I can use in my work. I tried to tailor my BA to extend the work I do as well, doing projects like looking at how representative councillors are of their community."

Jenny has enjoyed being a mature student, and values the interchange of ideas between younger people with fresh ideas and a more formal education, and older people with life experience. "When I was ill, the amount of support I got from the younger students was amazing," she says. "The teaching at Sussex really gains an extra dimension through encouraging this interaction. There's been a lot of talk about lifelong learning recently, but it's been a characteristic of Sussex for years."

As mayor, Jenny's main ambition is simply to represent people. She is already planning fundraising ventures for cardiac equipment at the Royal Sussex County Hospital and for Avondale Centre in Hove, which helps people with learning difficulties. She says - "It's exciting to think that someone who is active locally and is willing to learn new things, meet new people and look at new ways of thinking can be the first citizen of the town."