Broadcast: News items

Today the Vice Chancellor, Adam Tickell, wrote to all staff. You can read the email in full below:

Dear colleague,

We help students stay and succeed at university better than anyone in the country. That’s the official view of The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2022, which, as I’m sure you have seen, has crowned us University of the Year for Student Retention.

As I said in the earlier email about the award, this is a huge vindication for all of you who work so tirelessly to support our students in achieving their goals. This has been especially challenging over the past 18 months – and you have been nothing short of outstanding.

The editor of the guide particularly highlighted our emphasis on in-course support, which is at odds with the sector, who tend to divert more of their access resources towards recruitment. In a public statement, he said: “A supportive student environment keeps the dropout rate at Sussex at around half of its expected level, saving hundreds of student careers and millions of pounds. Good levels of academic and financial support help form a safety net of support through which it is hard for students to fall, more than living up to the university’s stated values of collaboration, courage, kindness, inclusion and integrity.” 

I couldn’t be prouder to read those words and I couldn’t agree more. 

It is particularly rewarding to receive this news the day before we welcome students en masse back to campus. I know we will give them all a very warm welcome.

Campus is already starting to feel busier as staff begin to work more on site. I can’t wait to see campus truly buzzing again next week. We’ve taken every possible step to make people feel as comfortable as possible and will be making it really simple for students to get a vaccine, if they haven’t already. We will have a vaccination clinic on campus next week and will be doing a renewed push on our vaccine prize draw.

As we all celebrate our Times award, there have been other successes this week.

In the space of three days, our Business School rose to second in the UK for research income, according to a new report by the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS), and was shortlisted for Business School of the Year in the Times Higher Education Awards 2021, known as the ‘Oscars’ of higher education. These are both truly fantastic accolades, especially as the School is among the youngest in the country.

Our medical school’s Widening Participation and Outreach team has also been shortlisted in the THE Awards for their virtual work experience programme. Many congratulations and good luck to them.

I wanted to remind you that the Provost, Rachel Mills, is holding an open session for staff this afternoon on the Size and Shape programme, which, at its heart, is all about investing in excellence. There is still time to sign up and I recommend that you do.

Finally, and on a personal note, as you know I will be moving to the University of Birmingham in January and David Maguire has been appointed as interim Vice Chancellor. In order to have a seamless transition, David started working on a part-time basis at the start of the month and will be at Sussex full-time from the start of November. At that point, I will formally hand over the reins to David and provide him with whatever support he needs. I know that David is looking forward to meeting as many staff as possible over the coming months and I hope to have the opportunity to say farewell.

I wish you a lovely weekend.

With best wishes,

Adam