A conference room with people seated at round tables facing a presenter in front of a screen displaying ‘Welcome to Sussex.'
The Vice-Chancellor, Chair of Council, University Executive Team members, and a range of other academic and PS staff from across the University met with stakeholders from across the local community in late June to discuss how they and the University could work together to make Brighton & Hove and Sussex a better place to live, work and study.
The event, held at the conference centre in Bramber House, was a gathering of Court, which is also known as the ‘Sussex Annual Forum’. The aim of Court, part of the University’s governance structure, as set out in Regulation 6, is to promote the research, teaching and interests of the University to the local area, enhance relationships with businesses and local organisations to strengthen placement opportunities, and provide an opportunity for networking. This was the first face-to-face interactive meeting of Court since the pandemic.
The guests included the Lord-Lieutenant and Vice-Lord-Lieutenant of East Sussex. The Lord-Lieutenant is the King’s personal representative in the county. Other guests were attending as leaders or representatives of local councils, businesses, and key organisations in a variety of sectors (including healthcare, education, and justice) from across Sussex.
As this was the first face to face event in recent years, the Vice-Chancellor, Sasha Roseneil, opened the event with a presentation that gave an overview and showcased some of the University’s history, latest news and successes, and the development and ambitions of our new strategy, Sussex 2035, which will be going to Council for approval shortly.
Court is a key forum for our local stakeholders to discuss and collaboratively shape the way the University works with our local partners. Robin Banerjee, our Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Global and Civic Engagement, gave the guests more detail about the University’s existing partnership and engagement with stakeholders in the local community. He introduced numerous examples of how University staff are already engaging positively with a variety of organisations in the public, private, and voluntary sectors, and emphasised the importance of the Court meeting for shaping our future plans for collaborative activity.
In breakout sessions with staff members on their tables, the assembled guests discussed what their most important priorities and needs are, and identified potential ways in which we could collaborate to jointly expand the positive impact of our work in the local and regional community. Ideas were gathered and connections made for future partnership activities in an energetic and productive set of conversations. These included suggestions around building greater community service and public engagement into our teaching, creating new pathways for our research to inform and influence policy and practice in the local area, and facilitating greater direct involvement of Sussex students and staff in the work of external organisations.
After the event Robin said: “It was very rewarding to be part of such an animated conversation with so many influential people from across East and West Sussex, representing employers, fellow educators, and local decision makers. There was huge enthusiasm about the University’s contribution to the future of our local area, and about the potential for expanding and strengthening that positive impact. We have collated lots of notes from the stimulating discussions that took place, and are already working to develop new partnership activities with some of the organisations that were represented at the event.”
Take a look at the photos from the event by clicking on the image below: