The Big Build has also added a students’ union venue, gym and fitness studios at Moulsecoomb. The campus development is a key element of a wider regeneration project in this part of Brighton, creating a bold contemporary gateway to the city.

By the start of the 2023 academic year Brighton plans to open a building at Moulsecoomb for the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, which at present runs courses on the university’s City and Falmer campuses.

Brighton’s wide range of creative courses are based at the City campus on Grand Parade.

Falmer is a few miles outside the city, where students study sports science, English, criminology and nursing. The university plans to expand the site to bring together all courses under the School of Sport and Health Sciences. About 3,000 students in these subject areas are based at Eastbourne, along the coast, where there is a healthcare skills simulation suite, a modern library, sports facilities and student accommodation.

The Brighton and Sussex Medical School is run in a long-standing partnership with the University of Sussex, also based in Falmer. One of the first medical schools awarded to a post-1992 university, the school accepts 200 trainee doctors each year.

Expansion at Falmer will pave the way for Brighton to close the Eastbourne campus by September 2024, bringing all university activity within a more manageable radius. The move — and many new facilities — should bolster student satisfaction in future. Poor showings in the National Student Survey have contributed to Brighton’s loss of ground in our main academic league table in recent years but the university has retrieved 11 places for satisfaction with teaching quality (111th) in our analysis of the latest NSS results, published in summer 2022.

Our inaugural University of the Year in 1999, Brighton has also been penalised in the rankings by a dropout rate of 13.1 per cent, significantly higher than its expected level (9.6 per cent), based on its course and student profile.  

Results of the Graduate Outcomes survey, however, provide a more positive narrative. Brighton has held its own in the top 60 in the country for the past two years and is now just outside it in 64th place for graduate prospects. 

Work experience is built into all courses, ranging from short to long placements, assessed voluntary work and live project briefs. Step-Up, a paid internship and skills training programme introduced in 2020, places students with local employers for six weeks. 

The university also runs five mentoring programmes to help students to prepare for the workplace. The LGBT+ programme, run by Uni-Amex, links students with a mentor sharing their sexual or gender identity. Another, Men in Primary Education, aims to shift the gender imbalance in the sector and offer support. 

In the Teaching Excellence Framework in 2017, Brighton gained silver, winning praise for its close working relationships with professional bodies, employers and local community groups and its personalised learning and support, particularly for first-year students.

The university has improved its standing in our analysis of measures to increase social inclusion, rising 13 places year-on-year to 61st place. 

Applications leapt up by about 25 per cent in 2021 compared with the year before, halting three years of declining numbers, and enrolments increased by 10 per cent. Three new degree apprenticeships started in September 2022 — providing training for diagnostic radiographers, solicitors and accountants — adding to 19 programmes already on the books in fields as diverse as teaching, social work and podiatry. Diagnostic radiography is also offered as a degree course for the first time in 2022, alongside a suite of politics options including environmental politics, politics and social change, and politics, sexuality and gender. A degree course in aerospace engineering will accept its first students in 2023.

Brighton is one of the most successful post-1992 universities for research. It has maintained its position in the top half of UK universities, results from the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021) showed. Brighton climbs 11 places to 55th in our research quality index, shining in hospitality and tourism, nursing, architecture and building.  

The university expects about a fifth of the student intake in 2023 to qualify for one of its bursaries. Payments of £500 a year are available for students from low-income households, rising to £1,000 per year for those who have left care or are estranged from their families. Merit-based scholarships are offered too, including awards for law students from low-income backgrounds and 30 for sport.

Student-friendly Brighton is a magnet for trendy bars and clubs and the seaside community is welcoming and diverse. Rooms are guaranteed to first-years who apply in time and are allocated on a random basis.