Opportunity

Universities must be places where people can achieve their full potential, regardless of their background or circumstances. There are many opportunities at the University of Brighton to do just that. By providing the means to encourage improvement, achievement and advancement, we can break down barriers and pave the way for great success in the future. Many of our students and staff have gone on to make significant achievements in their fields on a local and worldwide scale. Recognising and helping people with the ability to make such impacts is another way in which the university can help transforming lives.

You can unlock academic potential and enable achievement by supporting the University of Brighton.

Supporting our students

Student scholarships and prizes encourage and recognise achievement. We already make a number of awards each year, but we are always looking to establish new prizes. These can be in any subject, or for academic-related or extracurricular activities such as student volunteering or sports activities. Students are motivated by the belief and support of the donor: the impact these awards have on the recipients far outweighs the relatively modest financial value.

Students are increasingly facing financial hardship whilst at the university, often unexpectedly and with significant effects on their studies and wellbeing. Being able to make grants to help students who are suffering genuine hardship is vital. Without access to a hardship fund, some students may have to give up university, through no fault of their own.  Amounts involved are often low in financial value, but make all the difference to those who receive them.

We are also keen to ensure that students from disadvantaged backgrounds, wishing to study at the university are not deterred from making the important step into higher education. Being able to provide additional support for these students will give them the extra encouragement they may need to progress.

In all cases, the university encourages a continuous cycle of support. As students become alumni and their lives and careers develop, we hope that they will wish to give something back. Alumni support for current and future students can take many different forms, through mentoring, giving talks or offering career advice, as well as making charitable donations. The students who have received support from those who came before them really appreciate this important concept of giving back and will, we hope, be inspired to do the same.

Advancing research excellence

Each year, the university offers research sabbatical awards that enable academics to take time out of their normal duties to concentrate on research. These sabbaticals enable our brightest researchers to immerse themselves in their academic work: the results of which will enhance the university’s reputation for research and could have global impact.

During previous sabbaticals, our researchers have been successful in securing substantial grants and significant publicity for their work, whilst also making impressive advances in their fields.

Encouraging wider participation

The university is committed to making higher education accessible to under-represented groups and those with little or no family history of higher education. We are already doing good work through a range of activities that introduce the concept of university, help raise aspirations and increase the self-esteem of people who would perhaps not normally consider a university education.

Specific examples of our work in this important area include:

• BrightMed, the outreach programme within Brighton and Sussex Medical School, identifies young people with the potential to become tomorrow’s doctors.
• STEM Sussex, which encourages young people across Sussex to engage with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (the STEM subjects).
• the Students’ Union supports scholarships to help southern African students. The awards enable the scholars to undertake higher education courses which directly benefit their wider community when they return home, particularly in the areas of nursing and medicine.
• the university’s latest campus (formerly University Centre Hastings) is the result of a major education-led regeneration programme. Based in the heart of Hastings, the campus has already had a significant impact on the town. Our success in attracting and supporting students from non-traditional backgrounds was nationally recognised by the Times Higher Education Awards in 2009.