Dear Candidate

Thank you for expressing an interest in joining the University of Sussex as Director of Strategic Planning and Performance.

The distinctive ethos with which Sussex was established over 60 years ago still animates our work today. From the start, Sussex challenged convention and fostered critical, and at times dissenting, thinking. Sussex set out to disrupt traditional ways of creating and organising knowledge, and in doing so, developed a distinctively progressive identity which fostered a strong sense of community and purpose. Now in our seventh decade, our early emphasis on innovation, interdisciplinarity, intellectual rigour, and internationalism continues to define Sussex. Our success as a world-leading university is built on these practices and is underpinned by the institutional values that we strive to enact – collaboration, courage, inclusion, integrity, and kindness – and by our foundational commitment to academic freedom and freedom of speech.

The UK higher education sector currently faces a number of challenges, and the role of Director of Strategic Planning and Performance is pivotal to ensuring that Sussex not only adapts but thrives in this dynamic and uncertain financial, cultural, and policy environment. The Director will lead the University’s strategic and operational planning processes, working closely with me, the Chief Financial Officer, Deputy Vice Chancellor, and Chief Operating Officer. Together, we will ensure that our plans are aligned with the University’s strategy and support our financial priorities and objectives.

In these challenging times, robust data, insightful analysis, and comprehensive business intelligence is essential to support decision-making. You will leverage both internal and external sources to shape strategic and operational plans, enabling the University to make evidence-based decisions that secure our future success and allow us to assess and enhance our operational performance. This is a critical role that will shape the trajectory of Sussex in the years to come.

We are seeking to appoint a candidate with extensive experience in strategic planning, performance management and data analysis, in higher education or a related sector. The successful candidate will have contributed to the development of strategy, planning at policy at institutional level and will have the ability to influence senior colleagues and operate in a dynamic environment.

I believe that the role of Director of Strategic Planning and Performance at Sussex will be both intellectually stimulating and highly rewarding, and I look forward to the new Director joining me, the senior team, and the whole Sussex community in realising our ambitions for this very special University.

I look forward to receiving your expression of interest for this post. For a confidential discussion please contact our executive search partners, Anderson Quigley, who will be happy to support your application.

The University of Sussex received its Royal Charter in 1961 and immediately set about offering an alternative to the traditional higher-education landscape.

From the very start, Sussex was intended to be a new kind of university: challenging convention and fostering critical thinking.

It set out to disrupt traditions, create new ‘interdisciplinary’ pathways, and redraw the map of learning. Today, our courses, research and culture aim to stimulate, excite, and challenge. So, from scientific discovery to global policy, from student welfare to career development, Sussex innovates and takes a lead. And today, in every part of society and across the world, you will find someone from Sussex making an original and valuable contribution to positive social change.

Now in our 63rd year, we have grown to around 18,000 students, and we have established a global reputation. We are ranked 31st in the UK and joint 246th overall in the latest QS World University Rankings 2025, with 10 subjects listed within the UK top 20 QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024 and Development Studies ranked first in the world for the eight consecutive year, reflecting the radically global orientation of our research and education. Given our strong institutional commitment to environmental sustainability, we are also very pleased to be recognised as the 8th most sustainable university in the UK in the QS World University Rankings 2025.

In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework, more than 89 per cent of our research was recognised as world leading or internationally excellent in REF2021 and we have recently been awarded Silver in the Teaching Excellence Framework.

We particularly value our strong sense of campus community, as is demonstrated by our outstanding record for student retention, and we nurture our students to give them the best life chances beyond university.

We also maintain fantastic connections with our alumni from more than 150 countries, who are proudly associated with the University and who frequently tell us how their time at Sussex fundamentally shaped their lives and careers, giving them the courage to stand up for their beliefs.

Their continuing support enables us to provide bursaries and scholarships for a wide range of disadvantaged students, as well as networking and mentoring opportunities.

Looking to the future, we aim to build on our strengths and remain committed to Sussex providing high-quality education, excellence in academic research, and fruitful engagement with our international partners and local communities.

Teaching, learning, and the wider student experience

We recognise the value that human interaction brings to education, and we are deeply committed to face-to-face teaching.

Our goal of delivering a transformative learning experience to our students, as set out in our Sussex 2025 strategic framework, incorporates new ways to make learning and teaching exciting and contemporary.

Across our on-site and online programmes, we continue to pioneer and integrate innovations in educational pedagogy, learning methods and digital technologies. We want our curriculum to challenge our students with rigorous, research-led content, to inspire them to be critical thinkers, and to encourage disruptive, entrepreneurial imagination to meet future global challenges.

Enhancing the student experience beyond the classroom

Our new Student Centre is fundamental to an ambitious transformation in how our students access friendly, consistent, expert, and personalised services across campus and digitally. We want to create a strong sense of belonging and community for all students, creating spaces to build relationships, be creative and share ideas.

Building a new Student Centre is just one of a range of initiatives to transform the Sussex student experience. We are also proud to have launched both The Spirit of Sussex Award, which celebrates students’ extracurricular achievements, and The Connector Programme, through which staff and students work together to improve the student experience at Sussex.

Facts and figures

• Around 18,000 students, of whom 76 per cent are undergraduates, and 24 per cent are post graduates.
• University of the Year for Student Retention in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2022.

Alumni and funding

With a network of alumni in more than 150 countries around the world, Sussex graduates are our best ambassadors and the embodiment of what makes Sussex truly special.

Our distinguished and enthusiastic alumni support the University in many ways. They enhance the student experience through acting as mentors, giving career talks, and sharing their expertise in advisory boards across the University. They act as consuls around the world, supporting our student recruitment efforts, and growing alumni networks locally.

They also generously support our students through the Sussex Fund, contributing towards scholarship and hardship bursaries that benefit the most disadvantaged students. It was particularly heartwarming to see a generous response to support students through the pandemic in 2020/21.

Philanthropic support from alumni and friends of the University also enables Sussex to advance research with societal impact in areas where we are genuinely world leading, such as sustainability, cancer science, quantum technologies, and kindness.

Having recently celebrated the University’s 60th anniversary, the University has ambitious plans for growing the number of Sussex alumni giving back to the University, either financially or through volunteering.

For more information, visit www.sussex.ac.uk/alumni

With our highly cited researchers, five Nobel Laureates, and a founding commitment to interdisciplinarity, Sussex is respected for innovative, high-quality research.

We received excellent REF2021 results. We are ranked by Times Higher Education (THE) as 27th in the UK for research power and market share, up from 34th in 2014, and we are placed 32nd for research impact. 89 per cent of our research is ‘world leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’. 93 per cent of our research impact was assessed to be ‘outstanding’ or ‘very considerable’ – up from 80.7 per cent in 2014.

We have an exceptionally strong international profile to our research, being ranked first in the world for Development Studies in the QS World University Rankings (2023) for the seventh year running. We are also proud to have been named among the top 50 universities in the world for delivering on the UN Sustainable Development Goals in research, teaching, stewardship, and outreach in the (THE) World Impact Rankings 2022, and joint 26th globally in the QS World University Rankings (2024) for sustainability.

We have longstanding strengths in artificial intelligence, anthropology, biosciences, economics, English, gender and sexuality studies, geography, history, media and communication studies, physics, politics and international relations, psychology, science policy and social policy, sociology, and sustainability research. These established areas of excellence are joined by emerging and consolidating strengths in business and management, digital humanities, law, and medicine. Our Business School has received the highest research grant income of any UK Business School over recent years.

We have a number of Research Programmes and Centres that highlight our commitment to interdisciplinary research, and which provide creative opportunities to solve some of our most pressing research challenges in new ways, such as the Sussex Centre for Research on Kindness. We also have several active doctoral training partnerships, including a £17m AHRC grant, funding around 75 studentships, which collectively promote excellence in research, knowledge exchange and postgraduate training.

From questioning the ethics of artificial intelligence to challenging policies that cause poverty and inequality, our researchers are at the forefront of translating research into positive change. Our focus continues to be on how we can advance knowledge to create a better world.

Research facts and figures in 2022/2023

Research income = £42m

• 656 research bids = £247m
• 221 new awards = £43.4m

Research grant and contract portfolio = £279m over 985 separate awards.

KE income rose to £30.1m, in 2021/2022, £8m on the previous five-year average to 2018/2019

Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) and related requirements delivered, supporting >£4.33m in HEIF income per annum.

Sussex is proudly international. From the first Mandela scholarships in the 1970s, to our pioneering role in the establishment of Erasmus, Sussex has been globally- minded from its inception.

The University hosts 4,500 students from over 130 countries annually and welcomes one of the largest UK communities of prestigious Chevening Scholars. Our global network of alumni reflects our long history of internationalisation.

With over 330 academic partners in 60 countries, we have established mutually beneficial relationships with outstanding global partners that underpin our initiatives for student and staff mobility, research collaboration and international teaching programmes.

We were ranked 8th in the world for international student exchange mobility by the World’s Universities with Real Impact (WURI) 2022.

We have aligned our engagement priorities with global grand challenges and deliver impact-led projects world-wide. We display empathy and compassion to develop a strong international focus and awareness in our staff, students and in all that we do.

In 2020, the University of Sussex was one of the first 15 universities to be awarded the title of ‘University of Sanctuary’ in recognition of its efforts to welcome and support forced migrants.

Also in 2020, the University of Sussex and Zhejiang Gongshang University established a Joint Institute in Artificial Intelligence in Hangzhou, the first of its kind in China. We take pride in giving our international students the best possible support and experience, preparing them to thrive in, and contribute to, an increasingly interdependent world.

Facts and figures

• 1st in the world for Development Studies for the eighth year running in the QS World University Rankings 2024.
• Joint 15th in the world in the Times Higher Education “Golden Age” ranking (for universities established between 1945 and 1967).

Knowledge exchange and business engagement

We are committed to developing new knowledge that challenges conventions and offers inspiring and creative ways to address global and local issues.

Our priorities in knowledge exchange over the last two years have been to:

• Invigorate research-led business engagement. In the last four years, we have stimulated a more entrepreneurial approach to research through supporting new channels of commercialisation, as a result of new directions taken as part of the Sussex 2025 strategy. The pace of our spinouts has increased five-fold, the number of patents and new software product licenses have more than doubled. Sussex’s portfolio of nearly 145 graduate and staff businesses enjoyed a combined turnover of nearly £40m in 2022/23 – two and a half times the average turnover levels before implementing our 2025 strategy. Together, these businesses attracted external investment of nearly £40m and supported more than 600 jobs.
• Promote and support enterprising students and staff. We have substantially increased our capability to embed entrepreneurial learning, engage students in extra-curricular entrepreneurship programmes, and enable graduate interns and student-led consultancies to create scalable opportunities to address real-world challenges.
• Strengthen Sussex’s contribution to the economic, social, and environmental vitality of our region. We have focused on making an active contribution to driving the civic and economic fortunes of our region, working closely with partners to manage common challenges and co-create new, innovation-focused economic opportunities.

Our goal is to be an ‘anchor’ institution in the city region, making a difference to business vitality, civic leadership, and social wellbeing locally, as well as on a global stage, and to this end we have recently created the role of Pro-Vice- Chancellor (Global and Civic Engagement).

For more information, visit www.sussex.ac.uk/collaborate

Equality, diversity, and inclusion are everyone’s business at the University of Sussex.

Achieving equality, diversity and inclusion is fundamental to the success of the University of Sussex. We aspire not just to reduce inequalities in outcomes for individuals, but to use our expertise, commitment, and courage to challenge the status quo and address chronic issues of under-representation and disadvantage. We have recently been ranked 16th in the world for our work on equality (QS World University Rankings: Sustainability 2024).

We are taking bold action to transform the campus into one that is experienced as inclusive by all our communities. This includes understanding and addressing power relations and the intersecting inequalities that many members of our community experience. Our goal is to create a culture where everyone thrives, making Sussex a beacon in the sector nationally and internationally.

We have much to be proud of in building an equal, diverse, and fair community at Sussex. In terms of gender equality, our percentage of women professors is seen as excellent for the sector, and our Widening Participation programme of engagement and support has significantly reduced the awarding gap for our ‘first generation scholars’. But we know from our data, research, and consultations that we have much more to do to make the University truly equal and inclusive; for example, by closing the gender pay gap, improving the representation and experience of black and minority ethnic staff, closing the awarding and employment gaps between different groups of students, and making our campus fully accessible.

‘Inclusive Sussex’ is the University’s equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) strategy.

Our vision is for all members of our community to have equal access to opportunities, and to experience the University as one that enables them to fully meet their potential and supports them to make a full contribution to the University. Reducing inequalities, and promoting and celebrating diversity of background, identity, thought, and belief allow us all to thrive. We can achieve more together than we can apart.

The University of Sussex values collaboration, courage, inclusivity, integrity and kindness in all that we do. We are committed to promoting academic freedom and freedom of speech through providing an environment for the respectful exchange of diverse viewpoints that can be scrutinised and explored rigorously and with civility.

For further information on the University’s commitment and approach to EDI, please see www.sussex.ac.uk/equalities

Our ambition is simple and clear – to be one of the most sustainable universities in the world.

From our aims to reach net zero by 2035 and to embed sustainability across the curriculum and beyond, to our wide ranging research, our commitment to sustainability permeates everything we do.

We already have sector-leading performance in key issues of sustainability, such as our own renewable energy farm with 3,000 solar panels and being the first UK university to introduce an aerobic digester for food waste. We scored 100 per cent in three areas of the 2022/23 People & Planet University League Table. Building on this, we have recently published our ambitious and comprehensive sustainability strategy, setting out a roadmap for Sussex. What is remarkable about ‘Sustainable Sussex’ is its breadth. We are addressing all 17 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Our key aims include:

• Reach net zero by 2035 – including both direct and indirect carbon emissions via decarbonised infrastructure and ethical procurement activity.
• Embed sustainability into all aspects of student learning and experience.
• Recycle 50 per cent of waste by 2025 – and reduce the waste produced per student by 10 per cent by 2025.
• Create the UK’s most biodiverse campus – setting aside up to half of the site for nature.
• Have more staff and students volunteering in their local community – including through a new charity partnership with Surfers Against Sewage.

Our strategy is grounded upon consultation and collaboration at every level. It has been co-created with the University’s students, staff, partners and stakeholders.

Our academics have also been doing tremendous work to protect and restore the environment. For example, Sussex biologists are involved in conservation projects across the globe, including joining a local initiative to protect and restore the Sussex coast’s kelp fields that have been depleted by trawling, and we have a new Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre, which received £20m from UK Research and Innovation.

All these sustainability efforts and more have earned us praise and recognition. The University was named among the world’s top 50 for delivering on the UN SDGs in research, teaching, stewardship and outreach in the Times Higher Education (THE) World Impact Rankings 2023 and joint 26th globally in QS World University Rankings (2024) for sustainability.

Sussex campus

The University of Sussex is home to more than 18,000 students who are based on one of the most beautiful campus locations in Britain.

Situated in rolling parkland on the edge of the lively city of Brighton & Hove, the campus combines award-winning architecture with green open spaces.

Designed by Sir Basil Spence, the buildings that make up the heart of the campus were given listed-building status in 1993. Falmer House is one of only two post-war educational buildings in the UK to be Grade 1 listed in recognition of its exceptional interest.

The campus is undergoing sustained investment and development to support Sussex’s academic mission with new teaching buildings, new student residences, refurbishment of several teaching buildings and the Library, and the reopening of the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts.

The campus is located at Falmer, on the outskirts of Brighton & Hove, and is just 55 miles (90 km) from London. Frequent trains from central London take as little as 50 minutes to Brighton, with a quick nine minute connection to Falmer to reach the campus. London Gatwick airport is only 30 minutes from Brighton, and London Heathrow is just over an hour’s drive.

Brighton and the wider community

The city of Brighton & Hove has much to offer to both staff and students, and offers a quality of life for families and single people that is hard to match.

With a fabulous variety of shops, restaurants and pubs, the city also has a range of good schools and a very tolerant, relaxed atmosphere. The South Downs National Park, historic sites such as the Royal Pavilion, and the beautiful South Coast are within easy reach of the campus, and there is also plenty on offer for nature and history lovers alike.

Brighton has a truly diverse cultural scene, with a wealth of theatres, cinemas and galleries. From pre-West End premieres at the Theatre Royal to the variety of experimental fringe productions staged throughout the year, and the Brighton Festival every May, there is plenty on offer. Both Glyndebourne and Chichester, with their own distinctive cultural offerings, are easily accessible.

The historic market town of Lewes is also close to campus, and many members of staff choose to live there because of its wide choice of housing and excellent schools.

• A competitive salary will be agreed with the preferred candidate.
• The successful candidate will be eligible to join the University Superannuation Scheme.
• Annual leave is 24 days plus public holidays and university closure days.
• You can find out more about working at the University of Sussex here and read more about rewards and benefits here.

Anderson Quigley is acting as an advisor to the University. An executive search process is being carried out by Anderson Quigley in addition to the public advertisement.

The closing date for applications is noon on Friday 27^th September 2024.

Applications should consist of:

• A full CV.
• A covering letter (maximum of two pages) outlining your motivations to apply for this role, your relevant experience and how you meet the criteria of the person specification.
• Please include details of two referees on your CV, though please note that we will not approach your referees without your prior consent and only should you be shortlisted.
• Along with your application, please download, complete, and submit the University of Sussex’s Personal Data-Equal Opps Form.

Should you wish to discuss the role in strict confidence, please contact Eliott Rae at elliott.rae@andersonquigley.com or +44 (0)7584 078 534, or Alicja Janowska at alicja.janowska@andersonquigley.com or +44 (0)7743 927 783.