The university, a member of the Erasmus charter, offers over 400 Undergraduate programs, over 210 Postgraduate taught programs and over 70 PhD programs. It is research-led, with around 1,000 teaching and research staff of which around 300 are research-only staff. Additionally, there are over 1200 PhD students at the university distributed across the different Schools. The university fees are at £9,250 per year for home fee status undergraduates, the highest a university can charge in the United Kingdom.
Reputation and rankings performance over the past ten years The University of Sussex was ranked 30th in the UK and 201 - 250th in the world by the
Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024.
The Times/Sunday Times placed the university 45th nationally in 2026. The university was ranked 43rd in the UK by the 2026
Complete University Guide. The university was ranked 278th in the world according to the
QS World University Rankings 2026. The Complete University guide 2018 ranked Sussex as sixth in the UK for Graduate prospects and 1st in the South East (graduates getting into employment or further study immediately after graduation). ;Subject In subject rankings, it was ranked 1st in the world for development studies in 2021. Ranked 29th in the world in the 2018 Times Higher Education World University Rankings for the
social sciences, 11th in Europe and 7th nationally. It ranked as 49th in the world for Law and 48th for Business and Economics. The QS World University Rankings by Subject for 2016, 2017 and 2018 placed the University 1st in the world for
Development Studies. Further, it ranked in the world's top 100 for Anthropology, Sociology, Politics and International Studies, History, Geography, English Language and Literature and Communication and Media Studies in the QS 2018 rankings. Other top 150 subject rankings in the world include Education, Economics and Psychology.
Research In 2017, Sussex's research income was around £65 million. This primarily came from funding body grants and research grants and contracts. In addition to being home to
Institute of Development Studies, Sussex has over 40 university research centres, over 15 strategic research centres and many smaller research clusters. IDS is ranked as 1st in the UK, 2nd International Development
Think Tank and 4th university affiliated Think Tank in the world (out of 8,000 think tanks ranked) by the
University of Pennsylvania Global Go To Think Tank Index Report 2017. Sussex research centres include SPRU, the
Science Policy Research Unit, which is ranked as 3rd best Science and technology Think Tank in the World (out of 8,000 think tanks ranked by the University of Pennsylvania Global Go To Think Tank Index Report 2017) The results of the Research Excellence Framework 2014 show that 98% of research activity at Sussex is categorised as 'world-leading' (28%), 'internationally excellent' (48%) or 'internationally recognised' (22%) in terms of originality, significance and rigour. Sussex has a number of research collaborations with other Higher Education institutions as well as governmental and non-governmental organisations and institutes around the world. For example, the Harvard Sussex program is a long-standing research collaboration between Sussex and
Harvard University focusing on public policy towards chemical and biological weapons. The CBW Conventions Bulletin is a quarterly newsletter published by the HSP. Sussex-Cornell Partnership, the Sussex-Bocconi-Renmin Intrapreneurship Hub and the Sussex-Lund Partnership in Middle Eastern and North African Studies are recent examples. Sussex also co-coordinates the Consortium for the Humanities and the Arts. Sussex is also one of the eight universities of the
Tyndall Centre network. In Europe, Sussex is one of the collaborating institutions of the
Paul Scherrer Institute, the largest research institute in Switzerland, focusing on issues of technology and the natural sciences. Sussex is involved with many projects with the EU and with European countries. For example, BAR research is an Anglo-French collaboration between the Sussex, the East Sussex County Council and three French universities. Nationally, Sussex is involved in a number of partnerships including the Nexus Network (A partnership between Sussex,
University of Cambridge and the
University of East Anglia) and CIED (a collaboration between Sussex,
Oxford University and
University of Manchester). The university is also a partner of the
Metropolitan Police, with
Demos (UK think tank) and
Palantir Technologies. In recent years, the institutes for the study of consciousness science, Centre for Advanced International Theory (CAIT), the institute for the study of corruption and the Middle East studies institute were opened at the university. The university also has a Genome Damage and Stability Centre, a nuclear magnetic resonance facility and a purpose-built apparatus in cryogenic research. In terms of policy, Sussex is highly involved with the UK government, the UN and governments around the world. For example, the university is a
UN Habitat partner. Nationally, the UK Trade Policy Observatory was set up at the university to offer the UK government, the UK industry as well as the public advice in addressing trade issues resulting from Brexit. The university is also one of the UK government's partner institutions on the Arctic Research Program. Similarly,
SPRU and
IDS are involved in policy recommendations with countries on all five continents. In 2016, the Transformative Innovation Policy Consortium (TIPC) was set up as a collaboration between the university and the governments of Sweden, Norway, Finland, South Africa and Colombia to research social and economic issues. The university is also home to a number of academic journals from the
IDS Bulletin to The Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (JEMS), Journal of Experimental Psychopathology, The World Trade Review, Journal of Banking and Finance, International Journal of Innovation Management, Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies, European Journal of International Relations and the Child and Family Social Work Journal, among many others.
Admissions In the academic year, the student body consisted of students, composed of undergraduates and postgraduate students. The university is consistently designated as a 'medium-tariff' institution by the
Department for Education, with the average undergraduate entrant to the university in recent years amassing between 117–126
UCAS Tariff points in their top three pre-university qualifications – the equivalent of BBC to ABB at
A-Level.
Educational partners Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) results from a partnership between the
University of Brighton and the University of Sussex. The school, the first medical school in the
South East outside London, gained its licence in 2002 and opened in 2003. The Guardian ranked the medical school as 16th in the UK in 2018. The
Institute of Development Studies offers research, teaching and communications related to international development. IDS originated in 1966 as a research institute based at the university. It is financially and constitutionally independent under the status of a charitable company limited by guarantee. The
Centre for Research in Innovation Management, a research-based school of the
University of Brighton, dates from 1990. It was located in the
Freeman Centre building but has now moved to the University of Brighton campus. The Sussex Innovation Centre, an on-campus commercial business centre, opened in 1996. It provides services for the formation and growth of technology- and knowledge-based companies in the South East. It offers a business environment to over 40 companies in the IT, biotech, media and engineering sectors. Nationally, the university has a number of partner institutions across the UK including
Bellerbys College,
British and Irish Modern Music Institute (BIMM), University Centre Croydon (UCC, also known as
Croydon College), Highbury College Portsmouth, International Study Centre (Study Group), Roffey Park Institute, University of Brighton and
West Dean College. These partnerships include both validated courses (designed and delivered by the partner institution but awarded and quality assured by the university) and franchised courses (designed and assessed by the university, but delivered by another institution).
Study Group works in partnership with the university to provide the University of Sussex International Study Centre (ISC). It offers a course of academic subjects, study skills and English-language training for students who wish to study a degree at the university but who do not yet possess the necessary qualifications to start a degree. The ISC course provides students with English-language and academic skills to start at Sussex the following year. In 2018, ISC announced that they will increase their postgraduate and undergraduate offerings by adding 50 new courses across the pre-masters and pathway options on offer. The
British and Irish Modern Music Institute offers
BA courses in Modern Musicianship – validated by the university – at its centres in London, Berlin, Hamburg, Brighton, Manchester, Bristol and Birmingham. Internationally, the university has over 160 partner institutions including the
University of British Columbia,
University of California,
George Washington University,
Georgetown University,
University of Massachusetts Amherst,
University of Michigan Ann Arbor,
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill,
University of North Carolina at Asheville,
University of Pittsburgh,
Purdue University,
University of Rochester,
State University of New York,
University of Texas at Austin,
University of Washington,
Kyoto University,
Peking University,
Korea University,
National Taiwan University (NTU),
Université Grenoble Alpes,
Aix-Marseille Université,
Paris-Sorbonne University,
Sciences Po Aix,
Sciences Po Paris,
University of Strasbourg,
Freie Universität Berlin,
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and
LMU Munich. These are institutions where there are formal agreements for student exchange, research collaborations, staff and faculty mobility and study abroad schemes. ==Student life==