On Friday 18 December the Vice Chancellor wrote to all staff. You can read the full email below:

For the first time, this year, the Oxford English Dictionary has decided not to choose a word of the year, saying that no single word can encompass 2020 (although, personally speaking, ‘unmute’ has certainly been a close contender!).

Though, as a centre for knowledge and discovery, it has been interesting to witness a 1,000 per cent increase in usage of the term ‘following the science’, in a year in which scientific principles, such as the R number, entered the common lexicon.

As in most organisations, the Covid-19 pandemic has undoubtedly been the story of our year but it is not the only one.

In this final ‘View from the VC’ of 2020, I want to look back at an unforgettable 12 months.

Our Covid response

I will not linger too long, I promise, but I have to start with our response to Covid-19. Right across the University, the reaction has been quite incredible. From our mass testing of students this month to our monumental effort to provide blended learning this semester – and of course all the work in the summer to get there - it has been anything but business as usual. In addition, engineers created and donated PPE, medical students graduated early to join the NHS frontline, colleagues set up mutual aid groups, the University funded new research activities through our CRES task force and we massively upscaled our technological capabilities in a matter of days. Our community has been tested like never before and, in my eyes, we have passed with honours.

Work is already under way to prepare for the return of students in January and the resumption of our mass testing programme. I should say at this point that these tests will again be made available to staff. In addition, anyone over 50 can now get a free flu jab, either from their GP or from a participating pharmacy. The pharmacy on campus has stock available and you don’t need an appointment. Staff under 50 can reclaim the cost of a flu jab through expenses.

Our support for students

Students and young people have been among the hardest hit by the pandemic, in all sorts of ways, and we have focused our energies in giving them the best possible support. We’ve provided round-the-clock services for students on campus, waived rents for those students who vacated their rooms in the spring, and introduced a sector-leading package of support for students in self-isolation, including money towards food, free laundry and cleaning, and daily hot meals for those who test positive for Covid. We’ve done everything possible to look after their mental health, bringing in exceptional academic measures, introducing new tools and providing opportunities for engagement and socialising. We’ve also created new employment opportunities for students wherever possible, through schemes such as the student connectors, summer internships, and assisting with our mass testing operation.

Inspirational teaching

Our postponed Education Awards finally took place (remotely) this month. While the nominations and deliberations all take place before Covid, they illustrate perfectly the innovative pedagogic practices that are part of the fabric of Sussex. Since March, I have been inundated with examples of colleagues making the most of what teaching technologies can offer, in fun and creative ways. Through our Pedagogic Revolution initiative, we will be exploring ways to better share best practice, wherever it occurs in our institution.

Major research wins

Despite everything we have faced this year, we have continued to bid for and win significant research funding. We have received a number of major awards, including £2.3 million for a project examining how long-term displaced peoples engage in economic activity, led by Professor Mike Collyer in Global Studies and the Sussex Centre for Migration Research. Meanwhile Professor Tom Baden in Life Sciences has been awarded more than £2.2 million to continue his research into how the eye and the brain connect. And we are delighted that Sussex is among a consortium awarded 19 doctoral studentships in a multi-million-pound BBSRC investment in bioscience. Alongside, we continue to progress our commercialisation agenda and, in the summer, a spin-out from one of our major research areas – quantum computing – kicked up a gear. Universal Quantum, led by Professor Winfried Hensinger and Dr Sebastian Weidt, announced £3.6 million of seed funding from some of the biggest investors in the tech world.

Covid experts in the media

Sussex academics have had a stellar year in the media, informing and dissecting the many and varied public debates about Covid. Since the start of February, Sussex academics have featured in just shy of 4,000 articles, reports and broadcasts about coronavirus. Three academics – Dr Joshua Moon and Dr Ohid Yaqub in the Business School, and Dr Jenna Macchiochi in Life Sciences – have clocked up an incredible 1,200 media appearances or mentions between them. Meanwhile, Professor Sam Cartwright-Hatton (pictured) in Psychology was interviewed across the BBC in April, talking about the impact of Covid on children and giving advice for parents. This work is absolutely invaluable for a connected and engaged university, such as Sussex – and provides a much-needed societal service in improving the quality of public discourse.

Summer internships

Using funding allocated to us via the Higher Education Innovation Fund and Santander UK, we funded 30 student internships this summer. The students worked in businesses, charities and organisations across our region that have been hit by Covid-19. As well as being an excellent opportunity for local businesses to recruit a new hard-working and enthusiastic member to their teams to help them bounce back from the pandemic disruption, this programme gave our students a paid internship at a time when they may otherwise have struggled to find summer work experience and employment opportunities in the current economic climate.

January starts

Among the innovations we introduced this year was January starts for some of our Masters courses. This move has helped to keep the University in a strong position and further supports students who were unable to travel in September. Next month, around 100 new students will join the University to begin courses, mainly in the Business School but in some other academic areas too. We also have 35 new PhD students beginning their studies. We are exploring whether this should become a permanent feature of life at Sussex but, in the meantime, thank you to everybody who worked so hard to make it happen - and indeed to everyone involved in our student recruitment efforts this year.

Inclusive Sussex

This year, we worked closely with the Trans-Nonbinary Staff Network on a new Transitioning at Work policy. This forms part of our commitment to making Sussex an inclusive environment and workplace for everyone – at all levels of responsibility. Our Inclusive Sussex strategy is about recognising that all members of the University community, including those with protected characteristics, should feel able to live authentically without negative repercussions. There will be more to come next year, across the many other strands that form our Inclusive Sussex strategy, including the work of the Race Equality Charter Self Assessment Team. This work will be led by a newly created role of PVC for Equality, Culture and Inclusion.

Sustainability

Just last week, we published our first annual sustainability report on the progress that we are making to achieve all 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. The Building a greener, better world report provides transparency to enable students, staff and strategic partners to engage with Sussex on what we are doing to respond to the climate emergency and build a better world for future generations. We should all take pride in the fact that we are the world’s highest ranked university for the study of development studies - and we lead the sector in some of the environmental measures we’ve taken on campus, such as the largest solar farm and first aerobic digester in UK HE. However, I think we all recognise that we are not doing enough and need to do more.

A hopeful 2021

While we cannot hide from the challenges we face, I believe we have cause for genuine optimism for the coming year. Three viable vaccines have been delivered by science -week by week, month by month, we might begin to return to normality. We remain a fantastic university and continue to live by the values and ethos that make us a unique proposition in UK higher education and we’ve shown this year that we can get through anything – individually and collectively we are stronger and wiser. As we prepare to mark our 60th anniversary in September and can reflect on the profound impact we have had and continue to have. We continue to be guided by our Sussex 2025 strategy and, even though things may turn out differently to our original plans, our overall direction is set.

And finally

I want to leave you with this short video message (below). I wish you good health and a restorative break, when you get there. I hope you find some time to go ‘on mute’ for a while.

With very best wishes,

Adam

Vice-Chancellor