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The Governance Team will be running elections this year for Senate roles, as follows:

• Elected Academic Representatives for the Faculty of Social Sciences
• Elected Academic Representatives for the Faculty of Science, Engineering & Medicine
• Elected Academic Representative for the Faculty of Media, Arts & Humanities
• Elected Academic Representative for the University of Sussex Business School
• Elected Professional Services representative

In June 2024, Senate approved revision to its composition as set out in Regulation 4: Senate. The academic elected membership of Senate has moved from School representation to Faculty representation with equal representation for each Faculty. Each Faculty has five elected members.

The existing staff members of Senate are:

• Faculty of Media, Arts and Humanities: Prof Sara Crangle, Dr William McEvoy, Mr Benoît Guilbaud, Prof Pollyanna Ruiz and Dr Gerhard Wolf
  
  
• Faculty of Social Sciences: Prof Michael Collyer, Dr Ida Danewid, Prof Kristine Langhoff, Dr Ben Fincham and Dr Charlotte Skeet
  
  
• Faculty of Science, Engineering & Medicine: Dr Alessandro Bianchi, Dr Lily Asquith, Dr Mei Trueba, Prof Andy Philippides and Dr Kathryn Lester
  
  
• University of Sussex Business School: Professor Paul Nightingale, Dr Maria Holgado Granados, Mark Fisher, Rene Moolenaar and Prof Sambit Bhattacharyya
  
  
• Professional Services: Kit Eves and Gemma Harman

Senators are elected for a term of three years and can be elected for a maximum of three terms

A wide and diverse representation from across the Faculties and Professional Services is welcomed, in terms of academic discipline and career stage, alongside reducing the gaps in representation between those with protected characteristics that are under-represented or disadvantaged, and others. A full induction programme will be provided for all new Senators, alongside training and mentoring support.

Senate is responsible for academic standards and the direction and regulation of academic matters of the University. This encompasses teaching, examining and research as well as oversight of quality assurance and standards of the education provided by the University. Academic members are elected by and from the teaching staff (Lecturers, Senior Lecturers, Readers and Professors), and serve a term of three years. The Professional Services representative is elected by and from Professional Services staff.

Election procedure

The first step is the nomination of candidates. Nominators should check that their nominee is willing and eligible to serve. Self-nomination is permissible. Nomination forms and information to check if you are eligible to nominate yourself, be nominated and vote, will be available on the Governance website at the end of April.

Timeline

• Nominations open: Tuesday 6 May 2025.
• Deadline for nominations:  Friday 23 May 2025.
• Election emails: All staff eligible to vote will receive an email in the week commencing 9 June 2025, providing details of nominees and instruction on how to vote electronically.
• Voting: Will take place between 9 June and 20 June 2025, with results due w/c 23 June 2025. 

We work with the Electoral Reform Society (Civica) to manage voting externally and confidentially.

Notices of all live elections and previous results are published on the Governance website. 

Find out more

For more information, do consider reaching out to current Senate members or contact Emma Potts, Interim COO and University Secretary: e.potts@sussex.ac.uk. Lisa Glandfield, Governance & Compliance Manager, will be coordinating the election process and can be contacted at: lg476@sussex.ac.uk.