University of Sussex

Overview

The University of Sussex is a post-Second World War public university established as a research-intensive institution in Falmer, Sussex, England. Created as a company in 1959, it received a Royal Charter two years later. Today, it offers more than 500 bachelor’s and postgraduate studies. It is notable for offering a cross-disciplinary approach, where students learn “contextual” knowledge alongside their specializations. Science students, for example, take art subjects in their first year.

About an hour drive from London, its main campus is nestled in the South Downs National Park, making it the only university in England located in a protected natural park. The university is a founding institution of a coalition of United Kingdom research-focused universities in 1994.

Despite being recently established, the University of Sussex has notable alumni, including five Nobel Prize awardees, 24 fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences and 15 fellows of the Royal Society. Specifically, its alumni excel in the fields of politics, foreign relations, business, literature, science and, uniquely, civic duty. These include Ian McEwan (novelist, screenwriter), Keith Skeoch (CEO of Standard Life), Festus Mogae (president, Botswana), Thabo Mbeki (president, South Africa), Albie Sachs (activist, judge in the Constitutional Court of South Africa), Renée Jones-Bos (Dutch diplomat) and Dimitri Nanopoulos (quantum physicist).

The university multidisciplinary teaching strategy led to its non-traditional structure where departments are organized as “Schools of Study.” The structure arranges faculties into clusters, for instance, linking the faculties of Physics with Management, Science and Engineering with European Studies and Economics with Arts. Its other schools include, African and Asian Studies, English and American, Social Sciences, Cultural and Community Studies, plus the Institute of Development Studies.

Doctoral studies are offered across the schools. Furthermore, postgraduate assistance is provided by the university, such as through its research development program and partnerships. Postgraduate students comprise about one-third of the student body.

The university campus is inspired by a modernist style, which has garnered awards in the past. At the center of the campus lies the main library with numerous other smaller libraries located across the schools. The University of Sussex libraries host notable literary and cultural collections of the 20th century, which include the original manuscripts and first editions of Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf and Rudyard Kipling. The university is also home to The New Statesman Archive and the Mass-Observation Archive.

Recently, the university introduced new course programs, opened additional research centers and refurbished its schools as part of its strategic program through 2015. It is also active in community and civic projects, including children’s activity camps, street cleanups, free legal service from its law school and volunteer programs in partnership with local and international organizations.