Plans for the University to establish a new faculty system will be introduced in the 2024 – 25 academic year. The proposal put forward by Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sasha Roseneil, replaces the current structure of ten schools with four larger faculties: the School of Media, Arts and Humanities; the School of Science, Engineering and Medicine; the School of Social Sciences; and the University of Sussex Business School.
This system of four faculties will rearrange the organisational and administrative structure of most of the existing schools. Whilst the new structure largely leaves the departments in media, arts, humanities, and business unchanged, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost Michael Luck stated in November 2023 that the most affected faculties will be in science, engineering and medicine, and social sciences, as currently disparate departments will be operating under one larger faculty.
Heads of Schools will report to the newly created role of Executive Dean for each of the new faculties. The Executive Deans will join the University Executive Team (UET) and will have many responsibilities in relation to the new academic systems.
In the job posting for one of the new roles, the drivers of this change were stated as: “to ensure that all disciplines are represented in the senior leadership team, to provide greater resilience, agility, and capacity for strategic planning through larger academic units, and to better support interdisciplinary research and teaching across the University.” The closing date for applications was 26 January, so we can expect to see some new appointments this spring.
Photo: University of Sussex
