On Friday 29 January the Vice Chancellor wrote to all staff. You can read the full email below:

Today’s is a much longer ‘View’ than usual and I can only apologise. I know that some people don’t like long messages, but a lot has happened over the last week.

I am going to start with external developments. Quietly embedded within the Government’s decision to keep schools closed until – at least – 8 March was that universities should continue as they are until – at least – the same date. As you’ll have seen, Covid rates are falling (and particularly rapidly in Brighton and Hove and surrounding areas), but it is the lockdown that has achieved this so far. Consequently, our teaching will remain largely online until this date and we shouldn’t be surprised if it extends beyond it too.

Last Thursday, the Department for Education made a series of major policy announcements that will undoubtedly affect the University. These included:

First, a commitment that the Government would respond to the recommendations of the Augar Review at the time of the next Comprehensive Spending Review and, in particular, decide policy on what the maximum tuition fee should be; on whether students should achieve minimum entry grades before being allowed to take a university path; and whether funding should be available for students to study for a foundation year. As someone who strongly believes in the transformative power of education, I worry a lot about the last two of these. The evidence is that foundation years disproportionately allow students from less traditional backgrounds to thrive and also that ethnicity, socio-economic background and geography are the best predictors of A-level outcomes. As the Vice Chancellor of Sussex, I am very concerned that either a cut in tuition fees or the loss of income from our outstanding foundation year programme would require a very difficult response.

Second, the Government has asked the Office for Students (OfS) to redistribute the small amount of teaching grant available to universities and to prioritise teaching in healthcare, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects and other areas of ‘particular labour market need’ by reducing funding for other subjects that are expensive to teach, including media and creative and performing arts. Although the financial impact will be small (there is, in the big scheme of things, not enough funding of arts subjects to make an appreciable difference to the sciences and healthcare), I mourn the denigration of the arts and humanities. As John Martin, a cardiologist at UCL put it a decade ago, “Life depends on science, but the arts make it worth living”.

Third, there will be major changes to the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). The Government has, thankfully, abandoned plans for the TEF to be carried out by subject and has asked the OfS to consult on having four, equally weighted, components. These will rely on assessments of the teaching and learning environment, the student academic experience (to replace the simple measure of satisfaction), ‘learning gain’ (how degree outcomes build upon prior attainment), and ‘graduate outcomes’ (graduate jobs and graduate salaries). Whilst I welcome the first two of these, and need to understand how the third will work better, graduate outcomes are so closely correlated to choice of degree, perceived ‘brand value’ of the university, and pre-existing advantage that this metric risks undermining aims to reduce inequality. It may also encourage universities to close programmes where students graduate to lead fulfilling, but less well paid, lives.

Fourth, the days of students getting offers from universities before they know their results will soon be over. The Government has committed to a post-qualification admissions system and will consult on the best approach to this. Personally, I support the principle behind this: we know that students from less advantaged schools and colleges suffer in the current regime. However, when this happens it is likely to require major changes to our practices and may affect the whole university cycle.

And finally, the Government has launched a White Paper on skills. This is largely aimed at Further Education colleges but has two areas of interest to universities: that we should work as closely as possible with local colleges and that they want to introduce a lifelong four-year loan entitlement that students can take flexibly – a module here or a year’s study there.

I will, of course, engage with government both directly and through UUK on these matters but if there are particular things of interest to you, you can raise any concern or support with your local MP.

Moving on, then, to matters within the University. On Tuesday, the Provost, Saul Becker and I, briefed Senate on the University’s emerging programme to determine our future size and shape.

I wrote to you at the end of last term to let you know that we would be moving into a period of intense planning, as we aim to get Sussex into the best possible shape to navigate our immediate and future challenges. That planning is now well and truly under way.

The Size and Shape programme is comprised of five key projects to ensure that we can be a university with the best possible environment for research and scholarship and that our education is both outstanding and responds to what people want to study. It will also ensure that we generate sufficient surpluses to invest in our physical and digital infrastructures and help us get closer to our strategic goals and ensure we meet a surplus next year.

You may recall that, while it is likely that we will end this academic year in deficit, Council requires us to return to a comparatively small surplus in 2021/22. This really is the minimum we need for the investment the University urgently requires and to enable us to weather any future shocks, of the kind we have experienced multiple times in the past year. To reach a £5-10 million surplus, we need to make savings of around £15-20 million.

While no decisions are being made at this stage, Council will expect us to bring forward firm proposals the next time our full governing body meets at the end of March.

Between now and then you will be hearing a lot about this programme and the five key projects that sit within it. These are: budgetary planning, central cost savings, pay bill cost savings (such as potentially another voluntary severance scheme), One Professional Service (or 1PS), and a portfolio review. Your Head of School or Divisional Director will be taking you through these plans in the near future and I will provide more detail in my spring term Open Forum for staff on Tuesday 9 February. You can book your place now.

One project I would like to share more information with you on today is the Portfolio Review. This is something we have done very rarely at Sussex – and as such some of you may not be so aware with what we are aiming to achieve.

Between now and March, we are reviewing the whole of our taught portfolio of courses, to establish how we deliver a simplified, targeted and more attractive offering for applicants. We need to do this to boost student recruitment and reduce pressure on timetabling, exam boards and teaching spaces, by improving how we use our resources. We’re working with one of the sector’s leading consultancies in this space to provide independent insight, The Knowledge Partnership, following a competitive procurement process.

I recognise that especially during these challenging times, some colleagues may be concerned about the eventual outcomes of the review and I am aware that some may interpret it to be a blunt cost-cutting exercise – this is not the case.

A University course portfolio should constantly evolve and change to meet the demand from students and the needs of society. Our review will provide an evidence base to help us identify opportunities for enhancement and student growth. It will enable us to futureproof the University, equipping us with a portfolio that is fit for the 21st century. Portfolio reviews are something that all universities regularly do to remain relevant. Due to the impact of Covid-19 and the existential pressures and threats within the Higher Education sector, this review is something that we must now do at pace. Once the review has concluded the findings will then be shared across the University and their implications considered by Schools.

Please do attend School or Divisional meetings where the Size and Shape programme will be covered, and come to the Open Forum, where I will talk through all the programmes in more detail.

An intervention we made to protect the University in the early weeks of the pandemic was to bring in controls via the Financial Review Guidelines. We have just reviewed these and, in light of the continued financial uncertainty, judged that they need to remain in place for now. However, we want to make sure that the University can continue to operate as normally as possible, so we have loosened controls in some strategic areas. You can read more about these on the staff web pages.

As an extension of this, we have also written to all academic staff this week to let them know that the academic promotions process will open on 1 February. This has been paused during the pandemic and, while our financial challenges remain very real, we feel it is important to continue to recognise and reward our staff. Unpausing this process and giving Discretionary Pay Review payments to staff on eligible grades are both key components of this.

I’d like to finish with two positive pieces of news. First, our partners at the Institute of Development Studies have, for the third year in a row, been named as the best International Development Think Tank in the World - and our joint work with them is third in the world - by the influential Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania.

And second, I’ve been delighted to have correspondence this week with the new Director of Public Prosecutions of Malawi, Dr Steve Kayuni. Dr Kayuni has an LLM and a PhD from Sussex and credits much of his success to the time he spent with us.

Congratulations to both.

Apologies, again, for such a lengthy message and I hope that you have a restful weekend when it comes.

Best wishes,

Adam