Today (Thursday 27 May), the Vice-Chancellor Adam Tickell updated all staff in his regular View from the VC email. You can read the full View from the VC below.

This is the final week in what has been a momentous academic year. I hope you are able to have some downtime this summer.

It feels a long way off but I know that many teams are already making plans for the start of the next academic year, which we all hope will be very different to the one we have just experienced.

I’ve been thinking a lot about transitions and what extra support we need to put in place for our students, who have effectively been de-socialised for more than a year. I am determined that we are prepared to help our students readjust to living in the world.

A major challenge – not just for universities but for society as a whole – is to make sure that mental health services for students and young people are effectively co-ordinated. We have some real expertise in this area with Jayne Aldridge, Director for the Student Experience, on the Ministerial Mental Health & Wellbeing Taskforce, part of a large cast from within the sector, feeding in at a strategic level alongside representatives from Universities UK, Student Minds, and various Government departments. Meanwhile, Therese Reinheimer-Jones, Associate Director for Student Engagement & Achievement, co-chairs a group bringing together NHS trusts and universities in our region, to ensure services are joined up, referral processes are robust and clear, and best practice is shared.

Of course, students’ work and professional opportunities have been severely restricted too. So, the extensive support we give around longer term career planning and employability is going to be absolutely crucial as we emerge from lockdown.

Our Careers and Entrepreneurship team is going to be rolling out an enhanced programme of support this summer. To help finalists catch up on work experience, we will be running a student consultancy, whereby teams of students will work on live briefs for business and community, presenting back their solution to the client.

We are also preparing students to branch out on their own. The Careers and Entrepreneurship team has supported more than 500 student entrepreneurs this year and, this summer, will be working with some of the most advanced ideas to help those students take the leap to launching their business in our first accelerator programme.

And, in true testament to the spirit of the global Sussex community, we will be launching an alumni career mentoring scheme, matching current students with former students already working in their chosen field.

If you want proof of the value these activities can bring to our students, you need look no further than Channel 4’s new show The Money Maker. This week’s episode featured three Sussex graduates who have launched an app-based mobile barber business called Trim-It. Their business idea was born at Sussex, through our annual Start-Up Sussex student entrepreneurship competition and it is fantastic to see them doing so well.

Looking beyond the summer, our plans for Welcome 2021 acknowledge that many students joining us in September will have experienced the majority of their learning online for the last 18 months potentially making the transition to university challenging. One new approach we will be taking is to offer skills and strengths reviews for students to complete. This will help them better recognise the value of their personal qualities and where any skills gaps may be.

Thank you to all colleagues involved in thinking through and designing these important programmes of work. I know there is lots of parallel work happening across our schools and divisions.

I would also like to thank the many colleagues who have contributed their time to taking forward our Race Equality Charter (REC) work. Across our main steering group and three sub-groups, a large number of staff are directly influencing our progress in this important area. It is now one year since the murder of George Floyd – a sad anniversary that serves as a reminder to us all why the REC activity is so important. I know that this week will have triggered painful and distressing memories for some of our staff and students. Please do lean on the support available, if you need it. Through our Employee Assistance Programme, you can speak to somebody completely confidentially, any time of day or night.

In research news, a new centre focusing on the decarbonisation of UK industry, to be co-directed by Benjamin Sovacool in the Business School, received £20 million this week from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). This is truly fantastic news and another feather in our cap as a leading university for sustainability research.

Last week, Crispin Holloway, a technician in the School of Life Sciences, very kindly sent me a copy of the Sunday Times magazine from 1972 and other press cuttings around the same time. All of them profiled the most distinguished Vice Chancellor of Sussex – Asa Briggs. The Sunday Times piece, in particular, is compelling and gives a real flavour of the man who was not only instrumental in creating this University (he persuaded Harold Wilson to fund it before the publication of the seminal Robbins Report, which led to the foundation of the other 1960s institutions), but also the Open University and remained a major scholar throughout his life. Next academic year will mark the 60th anniversary of Sussex’s foundation. Plans are well underway to celebrate our history and Asa’s legacy will be an important component of this. The artefacts are on the way to the archives in The Keep and I am truly grateful to Crispin for giving them to the University.

Finally, I will be holding this term’s open staff forum on Wednesday 16 June. As per the last few, this will be over Zoom and you can book your place now via Eventbrite.

With best wishes,

Adam