Broadcast: News items

Today the Vice Chancellor, Adam Tickell, wrote to all staff. You can read the email in full below:

Dear colleague,

This will be my last message before we return in September and there are a few things to pick up on. 

First, we held the Pitch for the Planet competition on Wednesday at the ACCA and online. This event solicited ideas from students for funding and mentoring towards social enterprises or businesses which would make a positive contribution to local and global sustainability. Although the call for entries was launched at the beginning of July, the panel had to choose between eight brilliant pitches.

We were committed to dividing the £20,000 prize money, sponsored by the Higher Education Innovation Fund, between just four of them. The winners’ workable solutions for encouraging green initiatives for our community included developing a rewards-based app to encourage behaviour change, a sustainable fashion business, an aquaculture initiative and a group who will revive the practice of creating biochar (charcoal fertiliser) from organic waste (read more about them here). 

The ‘Pitch’ was a great example of how we can work together as a community to become one of the most sustainable universities in the world. As I’m sure most of you are aware, we launched our Sustainable Sussex strategy this month, which sets out our plans that include setting aside half of campus for nature conservation.

At the event, I was also pleased to announce that the University has adopted Surfers Against Sewage as our charity partner for the coming year. Surfers Against Sewage both campaigns to reduce effluent discharges into rivers and seas (they have brilliant app which provides alerts when it happens on our beaches) and also works to reduce and clean up plastic waste. As part of our partnership, we will be encouraging staff and students to volunteer with them in the coming months.
 
With our recent top ten position in Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2021 for delivering on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the news that our Sussex Sustainability Research Programme (SSRP) has partnered with an All Party Parliamentary Group to run an inquiry on the UK’s overall progress in aligning SDGs and the Paris Agreement in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, I think we are on course to achieve our ambition.
 
Indeed, our SSRP organised an online symposium last week that involved academic experts and key stakeholders from 40 countries discussing and debating crucial sustainability issues – from climate and environmental justice, to the challenges of energy transition. These outputs will feed into influential international events, including the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow in November 2021.
 
From a broader perspective, all universities should be at the vanguard of sustainability. We are best placed to carry out the research that highlights what needs to change, and to encourage that change within our communities. Furthermore, we host a generation that cares about the environment and its future because it is their future. We can also present a sustainability model that other organisations can look to. Our purpose is education, but sustainability has to be at the core of what we do.
 
On other matters, campus life will be returning to a semblance of normality in September. Under our new flexible working policy, if you don’t have to be on campus to do your job, you will be able to work from home for half of the week. Please do talk to your manager to ensure that you can find a pattern that works best for you and for your colleagues. This isn’t, of course, compulsory and I know that many of you will, like me, want to be in the office as much as you can be. To facilitate this, we will continue to have a heightened emphasis on health and safety and on Covid-security and our measures will take the results of the staff survey into account.
 
Our new Provost, Rachel Mills, starts work on Monday and is very much looking forward to meeting as many people as possible during her first months. Additionally, on Monday we hope to be able to announce the name of the permanent PVC Culture, Equalities and Inclusion. We expect them to join in October and they will work alongside Kevin Hylton until Christmas.
 
Although this will be my last message for a while, I will ask Stephen Shute to provide a brief update to staff on the admissions position at an appropriate time in August.
 
Finally, I wanted, once again, to thank everyone for your tremendous efforts during the last year. I know that some staff will not be returning to us and I wanted to give particular thanks to you. Some of you I know personally but because I don’t know everyone I have decided not to thank anyone in particular. Although the next month will be quieter than normal for most staff, for the admissions teams in academic departments and professional services, and for members of the finance team working on our year end, it will be frantic. I hope that everyone is able to take a proper break at the most appropriate time.
 
With best wishes,
 
Adam