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18 NOVEMBER 2013, WEEK 9
PAGE THREE DEBATE PREVIEW EAST SLOPE OPEN MIC REVIEWED MOAN ZONE
An open letter to Registrar John Duffy
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143 Page THE BIG DEBATEPage SCIENCE Is acceptable to choose not wear a poppy on Remembrance Day?
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a Brighton theatre special Page 14
R.I.P: 1994-2013 Page 5
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University group chaired by Sussex VC disbanded following defection of key members to elite Russell Group
1994 GROUP
Zoe Ambrozewska & Bree Allegretti Editor-in-chief The 1994 Group, currently chaired by the University of Sussex’s Vice-Chancellor, Michael Farthing, has announced that it will be disbanded, nineteen years after its formation. The collection of small research-intensive universities was set up in 1994 in response to the establishment of the Russell Group, whose members include Cambridge, Oxford and UCL. The decision to disband the 1994 Group was made after a large number of highprofile defections by top-level universities to its competing group, which this newspaper reported on last year, following the loss of Durham, Exeter and the LSE. Other universities have also left the group to become independent institutions, leaving only half of the group still affiliated before its disbandment was announced last week. Speculation has since arisen amongst the student population as to the fate of Sussex within the picture of Higher Education, amidst concerns that it is trailing behind top-level universities. An anonymous academic at the University had previously suggested that “to deal with their mid-table image… some universities have left the ’94 group so they are less associated with being middle-ranked”. In a statement released earlier this week, the board said that, “the Group has come to a natural end point,” adding: “This was not an easy decision to make, but we feel sure it is the right one for the future. “The Group was founded at a time of real change within the sector and so it comes to end at another point of significant change. Collectively, we have taken the decision to bring the 1994 Group to an end,
Juliet Amoruso because as institutions we have expanded and changed over time to the point where the need for the Group as originally constituted no longer exists.” The University of Sussex’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Michael Farthing, who has acted as Chair of the 1994 Group since October 2011, said: “The University of Sussex has benefitted enormously from our membership of the 1994 Group and, now the time has come for the Group to wind itself up, I want to pay tribute to the hard work and dedication of its staff and all the other people who worked with and for it.”
Farthing also highlighted the significant growth of the University in the past nineteen years, and that “Todays circumstances in higher education have changed and that means we have to look at new ways to represent our case to government and to ensure that all the work we do supports our efforts to continue the University’s success. “We, like our colleagues in other universities, came to the conclusion that doing that required us to move on from the current arrangements through the 1994 Group.
“Taking that decision was not easy – and in no way reflects on the efforts of the 1994 Group’s staff, who have always worked hard on our behalf – but it was the right thing in the circumstances.” This newspaper first reported on the high-level defections from the 1994 group last year, and explained that as Michael Farthing chaired the group, it was unlikely Sussex would be able to seek refuge in the Russell Group. At the time the University explained categorically that: “the University’s position as a committed member of the 1994
Group is not in any way linked to the ViceChancellor’s tenure as chair of the Group”, but had previously admitted that “the shifting higher education landscape has resulted in institutions considering their own strategic direction and whether being part of a particular mission group of universities is what they wish to do”. When asked whether the University was joining or seeking to join the Russell Group, they explained that Sussex would “continue to work in partnership with universities from the across the region and internationally”.