This week we’ve published our new University strategy, Sussex 2035: Creating Progressive Futures – flourishing, sustainability and progress for the whole world. The publication of strategy is the exciting culmination of two years of work, developing and testing the ideas that will guide the direction of the University over the coming decade.

Our Vision

Our vision for the University is simple. Over the coming decade we will take strategic action to enable Sussex to thrive as a comprehensive research-intensive, educationally excellent, student-centred university.

Our efforts will benefit the whole world, making a distinctive, inventive, and positive contribution through three areas of focus in particular: environmental sustainability, human flourishing, and digital and data future.

Our transformational themes

Sussex 2035 contains three transformational themes – areas of focus for the next decade that reflect our current strengths while tackling some of the world’s most pressing challenges. The themes are:

• Environmental sustainability
• Human flourishing
• Digital and data futures

These focus areas will be central to the work of The Sussex School for Progressive Futures, our new flagship hub for interdisciplinary research, education and global and civic engagement. The School will offer a compelling, research-led programme of minor pathways and electives around our transformational themes, as well as a programme of events with external speakers, workshops and conferences open to students, staff and members of the public.

The School will be a space for cross-University cooperation, rooted in our values of collaboration, inclusion, and openness. Working within the University’s foundational commitment to academic freedom, as expressed in our Charter and Statutes, and seeking to promote and support freedom of speech, diversity of belief and method, the meaning of ‘progressive futures’ will always be subject to discussion and debate and will serve as an open concept signifying a commitment to innovation for equitable and positive environmental, social, and technological change.

What else is in the strategy?

The full version of Sussex 2035 also includes:

• Our Mission and Values
• The Foundational Principles of the strategy
• Our core themes: education and student life, research and innovation, and global and civic engagement
• Our enabling themes: people and culture, financial sustainability and infrastructure.

Download the full version of the strategy or watch the short video on our strategy website to find out how these elements will combine to provide a distinctive direction for the University, creating flourishing and sustainable futures for the whole world.

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