Welcome to the March issue of Transforming Sussex, highlighting the projects and initiatives that are changing Sussex. Included this month: 

• Campus short-stay rooms will be available for guests to book for the first time ever this summer 

• Sustainability by design – how colleagues and students contributed towards sustainable solutions

• New University website receives the go-ahead.

Read on to find out more, or click below to head to a particular section. 

• Better Campus

• Better Ways of Working

• Better Education

• Better Research

• In other news...

• View our photo gallery - our projects in pictures 📷

• Meet the Changemakers - get to know the people transforming Sussex 👥

• Connect with us for quick updates 🔗

Stay with US this summer

For the first time ever, this summer we will be offering guests the unique opportunity to enjoy an affordable short stay on campus. As part of the Stay with US commercial initiative, we are launching 106 rooms in East Slope for summer B&B stays. This will provide an affordable and convenient accommodation option for conference guests, reunions, graduation attendees, and more. 

Prices for a one-night stay start from £72.60 per room, and the competitive pricing has been benchmarked against Travelodge and Premier Inn. By utilising campus facilities during the summer, we aim to generate additional revenue and maximise the use of our campus resources during the off-peak season.

Find out more.

West Slope: Campus Travel Plan

Following the Travel Survey last year, the team coordinating our new Campus Travel Plan came along to our Sustainable Travel Day and spoke to over 50 staff and students about their travel to and from campus. The feedback collected will contribute to the new Campus Travel Plan, which is due to be submitted to Brighton & Hove City Council this summer and must be approved ahead of our first West Slope buildings opening.

West Slope names revealed

The names of our new West Slope buildings have been revealed. In keeping with the tradition of naming buildings after local Sussex communities, all our new West Slope buildings have been named after Sussex towns and villages. Read our article to find out the names and check out our gallery to see some new architect images of West Slope.

Western Ring Main to supplement the University’s existing high voltage network

A Ring Main is a system of cables and equipment that distributes power in a looped configuration within a localised area. The University currently has two (North and South) Ring Mains that distribute high voltage 11,000-volt power around campus. When power is stepped down by numerous transformers and distributed by various switchboards, they power everything from pumping systems to plug sockets.  

A new project is underway to upgrade the power network by introduction of the University’s Western Ring Main. It aims to increase our network’s capacity, and combined with the existing two Ring Mains, facilitate balancing our electrical supply loadings for greater resilience, particularly to meet the increased requirement for electric vehicle charging. The introduction of new electrical services equipment will also promote greater energy consumption efficiencies and contribute to our Net Zero targets.

Topographical and ground radar surveys have been taking place across campus to create a detailed map of terrain and infrastructure ahead of cable installation ground works starting in the summer.  

West Slope public artwork

The University has a strong tradition of public art on campus and is seeking an artist to create a functional art installation on Sussex Lawns - a green open space at the centre of the West Slope development. Calls have been made for expressions of interest and shortlisted artists will be invited to exhibit their ideas on campus in May. Read more on the Staff Hub.

Sustainability by Design: collaborative workshops contribute to sustainable solutions

Recent 'Sustainability by Design' workshops united students and staff from across the University to design solutions for the Sustainability Programme business case. The events saw valuable contributions and innovative ideas from key stakeholders across disciplines, creating a dynamic and engaging atmosphere. Participants delved into topics such as food, biodiversity, waste, and travel, exploring both big and small ideas and complexities and barriers to develop realistic, impactful solutions.

The mix of visionary thinking and practical problem-solving made for an inspiring session, and insights from these workshops will directly inform our ongoing sustainability initiatives.

Student Food Takeover brings international flavours to campus

Sussex Uni Food chefs are bringing student-inspired dishes to life for the second year this term, following the great success of the Student Food Takeover’s debut year. Save the dates and join students as they share a piece of their culture with us.

The winning recipes are: Canadian poutine, a golden dish of french fries and cheese curds topped with gravy; Kuwaiti chicken machboos, an aromatic rice dish with chicken; and Venezuelan arepas, mouthwatering, crispy flatbread served with a variety of fillings.

Coming up next are the Kuwaiti chicken machboos, which will be served in Eat Central on 2 and 3 April for only £2.

Students discuss marketing and engagement in latest Foodie Forum

The first Foodie Forum of 2025 took place last month in the revamped Library café, where students gathered to share their views on all things Sussex food with peers and staff. Their ideas on marketing and catering activities will be shared with Sussex Uni Food to help shape our catering service, making it the best it can be.

More sessions are planned for this term, ensuring we continue helping students to have their say on campus food.

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New University website receives go ahead 

In exciting news, the single business case for the New Web Estate project was approved by the University Executive Board (UEB) this month. The project will now progress from the planning and scoping phase into procurement and delivery, with a new, external-facing website scheduled for rollout from early 2026. A new, secure, fully integrated staff intranet will then follow in late 2026.  

An incredible amount of work has taken place to get the project to this point, and consultation with colleagues will continue to ensure that affected University systems are smoothly integrated.

Check out the announcement article on Staff Hub to learn more about the benefits that the new website will offer for staff, students, and prospective students alike. 

Network Replacement Project (NRP) internet improvement works continue across campus 

NRP works to boost campus internet connectivity are continuing at a steady pace. This month, work has taken place in residences with a focus on installing network cabling and trunking in key areas such as storerooms, common areas, stairways, electrical distribution rooms, and selected bedrooms. Drilling on external walls is also underway to allow residential buildings to be connected to the main network.  

The team are working closely with contractors to minimise disruption and are keeping students informed in advance about scheduled works. Students with feedback or queries can contact: bettercampus@sussex.ac.uk. 

Work is also progressing well on a new core network location to support the upgraded system, ensuring better performance, resilience, and security. At the same time, NRP Network Engineers are holding weekly workshops to gather requirements for configuring over 1,000 network switches and 2,000 wireless access points planned for campus-wide deployment. 

Staff are happier with telephony since the introduction of MS Teams Calling

The annual Digital Infrastructure Survey measures satisfaction levels with our digital infrastructure services and helps us track the impact of improvement projects.

The Telephony Modernisation project, which implemented the Teams Calling system to improve our telephony services, was completed at the end of 2024. Satisfaction with our telephony provision increased from 35% in the previous survey to 51% this year.

Feedback on other areas of our infrastructure will be helpful as we consider project priorities in future. Thank you to everyone who completed the survey.

Cloud Transformation project successfully migrates services 

The Cloud Transformation project has recently migrated 266 of our IT servers over to a new private cloud platform called Nutanix, a Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) hosted locally, which will increase our capacity for updates and new services. Work will continue until October to upgrade all our servers to a modern and efficient managed service.

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Student Information System (SIS): next up, student admin processes

This month, the team introduced their 'Winter release' - the third of four main packages of functionality included in the project. The release focuses on UKVI processes for international applicants and alumni scholarships.

With this complete, the team will now shift their attention to the Summer release expected later in the year, which will focus on student admin processes. Testing for this release is scheduled to take place from April onwards.

Read more about the project on our webpages.

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Ethics RM system testing continues

The Ethics Research Manager (RM) project conducted Beta-testing in March to gather feedback from a user perspective. In April, it will move into User Acceptance Training to ensure the system meets all requirements. The team is focused on fully utilising the improved functionality of the new system, including features like auto-reminders and letters available within the system, adding a new screening section to filter out unnecessary applications, and collaboration access for researchers.

Ethics RM will overhaul the existing functionality in Sussex Direct, replacing this with a modern and better supported cloud-based product.

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In other news...

Breaking news: there have been some exciting developments with Unit4 and our quantum computing space expansion projects. Watch this space, as we will be sharing more details in upcoming communications.

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View our photo gallery

Take a look at our digital photo gallery to see what we've been up to.

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Meet the Changemakers

Delivering a project impacting such a large area of campus has been challenging at times, but enjoyable. I am really fortunate to be supported by a great team within Capital Projects, as well as many other Professional Services colleagues across the University. 

Tell us about a change that’s happened in your life.
Joining the University after many years in the private sector has been a significant transition for me. Sussex boasts a diverse workforce and the environment this fosters, along with the high level of professionalism among colleagues, makes it a great place to work. This has allowed me to grow both professionally and personally, and I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here so far. 

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Connect with us for quick updates

Did you know we have a social network to share quick updates and information and discuss matters with colleagues? There are a number of communities that you can join and follow so you can find out what is happening around our University.

Join our Food at Sussex, Campus Travel and Transport, and Creating a Better Campus communities for more news.

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This information is correct at the time of publishing, but please note that all project work is fast-moving, and plans are subject to change.