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The Governance Team will be running elections this year for Senate roles, as follows:

• two vacancies to represent the Faculty of Social Sciences
• three vacancies to represent the Faculty of Science, Engineering & Medicine
• one vacancy to represent the Faculty of Media, Arts & Humanities
• one vacancy to represent the University of Sussex Business School
• one vacancy to represent Professional Services

The existing staff members of Senate are:

• Faculty of Media, Arts and Humanities: Prof Sara Crangle, Mr Benoît Guilbaud, Prof Pollyanna Ruiz, Dr Gerhard Wolf and Dr Daneil Molto
  
  
• Faculty of Social Sciences: Prof Michael Collyer, Prof Kristine Langhoff, Mr Paul Eden, Dr Birgul Kutan and Dr Kamran Matin
  
  
• Faculty of Science, Engineering & Medicine: Dr Alessandro Bianchi, Dr Lily Asquith, Dr Mei Trueba, Prof Andy Philippides and Dr Kathryn Lester
  
  
• University of Sussex Business School: Professor Paul Nightingale, Dr Maria Holgado Granados, Mark Fisher, Rene Moolenaar and Prof Sambit Bhattacharyya
  
  
• Professional Services: Kit Eves and Helen Basterra

Senators are elected for a term of 3 years and can be elected for a maximum of three terms.

A wide and diverse representation from across the Faculties and Professional Services is welcomed, in terms of academic discipline and career stage, alongside reducing the gaps in representation between those with protected characteristics that are under-represented or disadvantaged, and others. A full induction programme will be provided for all new Senators, alongside training and mentoring support.

Senate is responsible for academic standards and the direction and regulation of academic matters of the University. This encompasses teaching, examining and research as well as oversight of quality assurance and standards of the education provided by the University. Academic members are elected by and from the teaching staff (Lecturers, Senior Lecturers, Readers and Professors) and serve a term of three years. The Professional Services representative is elected by and from Professional Services staff.

Election procedure

The first step is the nomination of candidates. Nominators should check that their nominee is willing and eligible to serve. Self-nomination is permissible. Nomination forms and information to check if you are eligible to nominate yourself, be nominated and vote, is available on the Governance webpages.

Timeline

Nominations open: Monday 13 April 2026.

Deadline for nominations:  Midday Friday 24 April 2026.

Election emails: All staff eligible to vote will receive an email in the week commencing 11 May 2026, providing details of nominees and instruction on how to vote electronically.

Voting: Will take place between 11 May and 29 May 2026, with results due w/c 1 June 2026. 

We work with the Electoral Reform Society (Civica) to manage voting externally and confidentially.

Read notices of all live elections and previous results.

Find out more

For more information, do consider reaching out to current Senate members or contact Amy Rogerson, Deputy University Secretary: A.Rogerson@sussex.ac.uk. Lisa Glandfield, Governance & Compliance Manager, will be coordinating the election process and can be contacted at: lg476@sussex.ac.uk.