The University of Sussex is an English campus university situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, within the city of Brighton and Hove. It was founded in the 1960s, receiving its Royal Charter in August 1961.
The university is currently ranked 8th in the UK, 16th in Europe and 79th in the World by Times Higher Education. The Guardian university guide placed Sussex 18th in 2010 and 15th in 2011; while the Times Good University Guide placed it 21st. According to the 2010 Guardian university rankings, Sussex has Britain’s best chemistry department. In 2010 the University of Sussex was ranked 156th in the World by QS World University Rankings Sussex is also a founder member of the 1994 Group of research-intensive universities.
History
The University of Sussex initially began as an idea for the construction of a university to serve Brighton. In December 1911 there was a public meeting at the Royal Pavilion in order to discover ways in which to fund the construction of a university. However, the project was halted by the First World War and the money raised was instead used for books for the Municipal Technical College. However, the idea was revived in the 1950s, and in June 1958, the government approved the corporation’s scheme for a university at Brighton, the first of a new generation of red brick universities which came to be known as plate glass universities. The University was established as a company in 1959, with a Royal Charter being granted on 16 August 1961. The University’s organisation broke new ground in seeing the campus divided into Schools of Study, with students able to benefit from a multidisciplinary teaching environment.
Sussex quickly came to be identified with postwar social change and developed a reputation for radicalism which it retains. In 1973, a crowd of 500 students forcibly prevented United States government adviser Samuel Huntington from giving a speech on campus due to his involvement in the Vietnam War.
In 2004 the University started to use a new logo in place of its traditional coat of arms, as part of a wider new ‘visual identity’.
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