University of Sussex women's basketball team playing on our new basketball court

As summer draws to a close, and the new academic year begins, those coming back to campus more regularly will see West Slope enabling works continuing at various locations on site. Behind the scenes, technology updates are bringing improvements for staff - read more below.

Highlights this month include:

• Student Information System (SIS): Following the University Council decision on the 8 July to implement a new SIS, contract negotiations are underway with the preferred supplier. The Project Team is busy preparing for contract finalisation, developing a detailed project plan and will start to set up discovery workshops with key subject matter experts.
• West Slope: Our brand-new children’s playground was given a celebratory opening with campus families coming together to enjoy their new facility. The old playground falls within the West Slope development area, so a new playground was built giving families a new and improved area to play and socialise outdoors. The Sussex Women’s Basketball team also joined on opening day to shoot some hoops in the new basketball court. Our work to install new utilities to support the new development and our existing buildings is well underway, with lots of work happening on campus. You can see all the latest news on our campus development webpages.
• Identity and Access Management System (Okta): LearnUpon, our online learning platform for staff, has been moved onto the Okta single sign on platform, which is part of our new Access and Identity Management System. Find out more about how to sign in to Okta for easy access.
• Telephony Modernisation (Unified Communications) project: Following meetings with School and Divisional senior management teams, a network of change contacts is now in place, ready to respond to feedback and questions on the proposed modernisation of our telephony system. The Business Case will be submitted to the Project Review Group (PRG) during September and we hope to be able to share more information early in October.
• Research Management System (RMS): Following a comprehensive procurement exercise, a preferred supplier has been selected to deliver the core RMS, which focuses on the pre-award research funding process, including contracts. Pending approval of the Final Business Case and contract, implementation will take place throughout 2023, and roll out of phase one is planned for early 2024.
• Cyber Security Programme: Implementation of a key piece of software is continuing across the University IT estate, and over 3,000 Windows PCs and 100 servers have been installed remotely so far. This will continue and instructions will be issued to staff, where required, on how they can self-install the software themselves via an easy-to-download package.

To find out more about how we’re investing in a better Sussex, you can watch our introductory webinar, and our campus development webinar.