Vice-Chancellor’s
open staff forum
Making the Future: Delivering our strategy
17 November 2015
Agenda
• Delivering our strategy
•
Research and knowledge exchange
•
Teaching and learning
•
Our campus
•
External engagement
•
Economic and social impact
•
Sustainable operating
• Comments and questions
Research and knowledge exchange
Launch of Sussex Humanities Lab:
• Supported by £3m of funding over next four years
• Looks at how digital technologies are shaping culture and society
• Interdisciplinary research centre - notably MFM, HAHP,
Engineering/ Informatics, the Library
• Stakeholder launch - Royal Society of Arts – 3 December
Strengthening international research links:
• Reps from BMEc visited Renmin’s Business School in Beijing
• Agreement and new research collaboration focusing on innovation
management/entrepreneurship
• Joint workshop examining entrepreneurship and its role in university education
Teaching, learning
and the student experience
2015 NSS results:
• Record 2,196 final-year students took part
• 87% of students happy with Sussex experience
• Finalists’ overall satisfaction up by 2% compared to the previous year
• Scores up for learning resources, organisation/management –
Sussex in top quartile
• Satisfaction with learning resources moving from lowest to top quartile over a
five-year period - shows investment is working
Growth in student numbers for 2015-16 intake:
• Risen from 14,000 to 15,000
•
•
Nationally an average 3% rise in UG applications compared to 4% for Sussex –
actual UG student numbers at Sussex up by 20%
Sussex one of only two universities to experience
year-on-year growth in UG numbers since 2006
Teaching, learning
and the student experience
Top 20 in UK and world rankings:
• Sussex up to 19th in Times Higher Education’s ‘table of tables’
• In all three tables we’ve moved up:
•
•
- CUG (21st, up from 38th)
- Guardian (19th, up from 43rd)
- Times/Sunday Times (19th, up from 25th)
Driven by big improvements in student employability and retention
Retained world top-150 position
for sixth successive year - 140th in the THE World Rankings
Teaching, learning
and the student experience
China internships:
•
•
First cohort of students visited China in summer – fantastic feedback
15 students worked in companies such as: Studio-output, Green Earth
Volunteers, OASIS Healthcare, Royal Law and Xin Public International Travel
Service
•
•
Work experience, cultural understanding and language training
Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong
“I was extremely happy with my internship since the law firm I worked in is one of
the largest in Asia. It has made me fall in love with China and Asia: the people are
amazing and the culture gives you so much that is different to explore.”
Teaching, learning
and the student experience
Syrian scholarships:
•
•
Launched in response to refugee crisis
English-language short courses
•
•
•
•
Open to 18-25 year-old Syrians already in the UK
50 scholarships, worth up to £10K, for each applicant who matches criteria
Online applications – open 16 Nov until 1 Dec; courses start Jan 2016
Already received more than 50 inquiries
•
DARO appeal for donations to a hardship fund has so far raised £40K
Teaching, learning
and the student experience
Launch of Malaysia office:
• Hub for activity in South East Asia
• Opened in November with two staff
•
•
•
Support institutional partnership work – research and study exchange
Student-recruitment activity
New scholarships for Asian students to come to UK
and for First Generation Scholars to study in the region
Times Higher Education Awards:
•
•
Shortlisted - Outstanding International Student Strategy
International Office’s ‘Together with Us’ Campaign (2013-14)
•
•
Fourth time in five years Sussex shortlisted for a THE Award
Winner announced on 26 November
Teaching, learning
and the student experience
Student success:
• Best ever result in Formula Student motorsport competition – 9th in UK
• Blind UG Daniel Hajas invented electronic device –
presentation to MPs next spring
• Anthropology student Camilla Devereux won an international award for
coursework exploring origins of hip-hop
• Doctoral student Eleanor Careless awarded prestigious international fellowship three months research in America’s Library of Congress
• Student entrepreneur George Lengyel developed social networking app;
now used by local businesses
Our Falmer campus
Plans in development:
• Masterplan approved by Planning Inspectorate in July
•
•
•
•
£60m new Life Sciences building – architects currently working up designs
East Slope housing and new SU building – planning well under way
Looking to submit planning applications in spring 2016
Improving and enhancing campus vital to maintain status in world’s top 1%
Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts:
• Last elements of installation (such as café, lighting) due to be completed
• Series of staff tours held in the summer
• Creative Director Laura McDermott took up her post this month
• Launch of public performance programme spring 2016
External engagement
Opening of Lewes Road presence:
• Permanent showcase for Sussex offering as well as city centre housing office
• Series of events to mark the opening during Nov/Dec
• Inviting stakeholders from community organisations, the council, local
businesses, agents, neighbours, staff and students
• Want to help spread awareness of new space
Economic and social impact
Sussex Innovation Croydon:
• First off-campus business incubation hub
• Officially opened 29 October
by Minister of State for Small Business, Industry & Enterprise, Anna Soubry
• High-profile event - potential Croydon members, local businesses, regional
business groups, local MP, mayor and Sussex academics
• Aims to house 30 high-growth potential companies; will support more than 70
businesses through its network
• Expected to generate £6 million turnover and £1 million in investment
• Will create more than 300 jobs over the next three years
Sustainable operating
Success in carbon reduction:
• Sussex ranked in 50 most environmental/ethical universities in UK
• 43/151 in People & Planet University League 2015
• 21/361 worldwide universities in the UI Green Metric 2014
• Working towards reducing carbon footprint by 44% - equates to almost 10,000
tonnes of CO2 or £1.5 million cut to annual electricity bill
• Over coming year - delivering “big ticket” energy-saving projects
and improving energy awareness
Sustainable operating
Staff engagement:
• Successful Staff Freshers’ Fair in October – 300 people attended
• Continued delivery of action plan since staff survey
• Mini survey closes Friday (20 November)
Professorial promotions:
• David Barnett – Professor of Drama
• Cherith Moses – Professor of Geomorphology
• Maria Roth-Lauret – Professor of American Literature and Culture
• Yusuf Sayed – Professor of International Education and Development Policy
• Steven Sorrell – Professor of Energy Policy
• Ian Wakeman – Professor of Software Systems
Open discussion
Comments and
questions?
Please wait for the microphone so all can
hear – including those using the hearing
induction loops