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► Campaigns

Students against Sexual harrassment

The Students Against Sexual Harassment campaign group (SASH) aim to work with Sussex University, the Students' Union and existing services in Brighton and the surrounding area to prevent, raise awareness about and provide support to survivors of all forms of sexual harassment, sexual violence and domestic abuse.

Hope Beyond the Slope

With tuition fees set to rise from 2012 and the cost of Higher Education increasing rapidly, the Students' Union is coordinating the 'Hope Beyond the Slope' campaign to make sure that accommodation at Sussex is affordable.

2010 NSS boycott

The National Student Survey (NSS) is an annual survey of final year undergraduate students. In 2010 USSU asked final year undergraduates not to participate

Why should we decline to participate?

USSU is asking final year undergraduates not to take part in the NSS in protest at university management cutting 115 staff across the campus. Find out more in our news section

Proposed cuts

University management are proposing to make 115 staff redundancies, in addition to other cuts across the university, summarised as follows:

Redundancies in the schools of Life Sciences, Informatics, English, Engineering & Design, Informatics, the Centre for Continuing Education, and History
Redundancies or reduced staffing levels in the Library, IT Services, lab technicians, portering and catering
Cuts to the students' union annual funding
Closure of Unisex, the sexual health and drug/alcohol awareness service
Redundancy for 11 out of 16 of the university's student advisers
Closure of the subsidised childcare service
Closure of Inqbate, a pioneering high-tech learning space

Programme withdrawals

USSU and UCU have compiled the following list of programme withdrawals which form part of University management’s proposed cuts. Please note that this list does not other include programme withdrawals which may be under discussion or implementation but are not directly specified in the December 2009 proposals.

Life Sciences
BSc Human Sciences
BSc Environmental Science
BSc Environmental Science with Development Studies

Informatics
BSc Internet Computing
BSc Human Computer Interaction Design
MComp IT with e-Commerce
Supervision for current DPhils known to be at risk

History, Art History & Philosophy
BA American Studies and International Relations (not directly as a result of current plans but noted for completeness)

Engineering & Design

BEng Robotics
MEng Robotics
MSc Turbomachinery
Supervision for current DPhils known to be at risk

Impact

These short-sighted proposals will hit students hard, taking away services students rely on in times of need, closing many important courses and undermining the quality of those that remain. Access to money, welfare and academic advice will be severely restricted, and students and staff will no longer have subsidised access to childcare. It is hard to imagine cuts that would have a more devastating impact in students' welfare and on standards of teaching and research at Sussex.

In addition the Students' Union is threatened by a 5% cut to our annual funding from the University. Without proper financial support we will be unable to provide the level of services that students need.
University management have indicated that this is only the first round of cuts, with another major proposal to be announced in the first three months of 2010.

The Vice-Chancellor claims the cuts are unavoidable given reductions in government funding. However this hasn't stopped pay rises for senior management, with the latest increases bringing the Vice-Chancellor's salary to £227,000. There are now more senior managers on six-figure salaries than ever before, with the wage bill for the twenty top paid staff exceeding £2.6 million. Meanwhile millions of pounds are being spent on a new buildings programme designed to project a good brand image to prospective students.

Although USSU welcomes improvements to learning facilities on campus, it is staff who are the University's most valuable asset. The University should be focussing on achieving a good reputation on the basis of academic excellence, not just buildings that look good in a prospectus.
University management say the changes are about creating a sustainable future for Sussex, but the vision proposed by the Vice-Chancellor will ultimately only lead to more cuts. We are opposed to a university funded increasingly by corporate research contracts, as this would leave us even more vulnerable to market forces, not to mention further away from the University's purpose as an academic institution. Sustainability will only be achieved by resisting these attacks on our education.
The 'consultation' promised by University management is a sham, as they have made clear to union officers that they are not prepared to negotiate over the principle of staff cuts, only the details of how they are implemented.

Stop the Cuts campaign

We need to demand a change in direction that serves the interests of students and staff. At a time when all public services are under threat, it is more crucial than ever that we stop these attacks on Higher Education, to send a message to the government that we will not accept cuts to public services. Sussex staff and students have fought back successfully against bad management proposals in the past, such as in the 2006 campaign to save Chemistry, and that is a success we intend to repeat. By defeating these proposals locally and by working with students' unions around the country we can put real pressure on government to increase investment in universities.
USSU fully supports the staff-student Stop the Cuts campaign and we look forward to participating in a joint campaign with the campus trade unions towards these aims. We will in due course be announcing further measures to put pressure on University management to maintain staffing levels, subject to decisions made by students through the Union's democratic processes.

To receive updates or get involved the campaign send an email to sussexstopthecuts@gmail.com.

Facebook - Sussex Stop the Cuts group

Defend Sussex blog