Library Services

Please post your comments on services offered by the Library of the University of Sussex.

Student Volunteering Week 2011

The University of Sussex Students’ Union observed the tenth anniversary of Student Volunteering Week from 21^st – 25^th February 2011 as a part of the National Student Volunteering Week to enrol students for volunteering with the union and local community. The Students’ Union offers a wide range of volunteer positions in Union Computers; ‘Front of House’, Events Teams and with the local organisations. Roles, commitment, responsibilities and benefits of all volunteer placements have already been set.

Union Computers is a new non-profit venture set up by the Students’ Union.  This is run and led by student volunteers to develop the venture into a fully functioning computer and laptop repair service for students. A volunteer here is required to work for a minimum of 4 hours per week during working days of the term. The responsibilities of the volunteers are- provide professional and friendly services to the staff and students; identify, diagnose and solve wide variety of software and hardware problems. These volunteers will be benefited by the training provided by the union in Customer Service Skills, Confidentiality and Data Protection, Computer diagnosis, custom-builds and parts handling, Applications of and using various operating systems. At the end of the year, the volunteers also receive a certificate and reference for CV. 

I had the opportunity to visit Union Computers as my laptop had developed some MS software problem.  IT Services of Sussex directed me to Union computers and the volunteers did an extremely good job. I really appreciate the service rendered to me by the volunteers.

The ‘Front of House’ team responds to students’ enquiries via e-mail, over the phone and in person at the reception. A volunteer is required to work for a minimum of two hours per week. The responsibilities of the volunteers are – attend staff, students and other visitors’ enquiries appropriately and complete the administrative tasks given by the Students’ union. The volunteers will develop communication skills, interpersonal skills, IT skills, learn administrations and proof reading by associating with the Front of House. In addition to this, the volunteers will have free entry to events including night clubs and other events organised by the Students’ union.

The members of the events teams help the Students’ Union throughout the year in organising events. A volunteer can play several roles – Co-ordinator, stage manager, door manager and event runner. Skills developed by volunteering are event management, time management, interpersonal skills, team building and complete experience in running an event.

Volunteering at the Students’ Union provides excellent opportunities to meet students and gain experience to further strengthen CV.

Over two hundred volunteering opportunities are available in the local community. Project V is the name of the Students’ Union Community volunteering Scheme. The main aim of this scheme is to provide safe and supported volunteering opportunities which will benefit both students and the local community. The organisations which have registered with Project V bear the travel expenses of the volunteers. International students need to have Tier 4 Student Visa to be able to work as volunteers in UK. Students with ‘student visitor visa’ cannot work as volunteers in UK.

Feedback on Geography Courses

Please post your comments on teaching, learning, assessment methods and resources used in two courses in Geography which you witnessed today.

Students’ Support Services

You have witnessed the courses and workshops conducted by the Centre for Language Studies to improve English language. Please post your comments.

Degree Programmes in English

You have witnessed the courses offered by the School of English under different degree programmes. Please post your comments.

Course on Introduction to Programming

The School of Informatics offers a course of 12 credits on ‘Introduction to Programming’ for the first year in the autumn term.  It introduces Java which is a basic course and used for all assignments of the first year courses offered by the School of Informatics. The course introduces basic programming concepts and techniques, including the design, testing, debugging and documenting of programs. The BlueJ Java development tool is used in this course. There are two lectures and two practicals per week. The duration of lectures and practicals is one hour each. Programming requires skill and this can be developed only through practice and solving exercises.  The students are required to work minimum ten hours per week. The course is assessed by exercises (assignments) on programming (50%) and unseen examination (50%).
On successful completion of this course, students will be able to-
1. carry out the edit-compile-run cycle of software development in an appropriate software development environment.
2. use fundamental programming concepts such as variables, conditional statements, looping constructs, and methods (procedures).
3. understand the distinction between objects and primitive types in Java.
4. write a simple Java application involving about half a dozen or so simple classes.
5. understand the basics of object oriented concepts such as encapsulation.
6. use simple built in data-types such as arrays, strings, and some of the Collection classes.

The books and other web resources recommended for this course are:

i. David J. Barnes and Michael Koelling Objects First with Java: a Practical Introduction Using BlueJ. Fourth Edition. Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-13-197-629X
ii. A web-site for the book can be found here: http://www.bluej.org/objects-first/
iii. Ken Arnold, James Gosling, and David Holmes The Java Programming Language (4th Edition). Addison-Wesley
iv. The Java Tutorial is available to download: http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/

Feedback on Behavioural Ecology

Please post your comments on teaching, learning, assessment methods and resources used in the course.

Feedback on Psychology Course

Please post your comments on teaching, learning, assessment methods, discussion forum and resources used in one of the courses in Psychology which you witnessed today.

Feedback on Computer Science Course

Please post your comments on teaching, learning, assessment methods, discussion forum, feedback and resources used in one of the courses in Computer Science which you witnessed today.

Feedback on Physics Course

Please send your comments on teaching, learning, assessment methods and resources used in one of the courses in Physics which you witnessed today.

Postgraduate courses in Psychology

The School of Psychology offers postgraduate degree (M.Sc.) programmes in Psychology. The programmes are of one year (fulltime) and two years (part-time) duration. The total credits of each programme are 180. Full time and part-time students are required to take 60 and 30 credits respectively in each term of an academic year.  The programmes are-

 1. Applied Social Psychology, 2. Foundations of Clinical Psychology and Mental Health,

3. Cognitive Neuroscience, 4. Experimental Psychology, 5. Health Psychology,

  6. Psychological Methods and 7. Substance Misuse.

The entry requirement for all the programmes for students from India is First class undergraduate degree in Psychology. In addition to this, the student should meet the English language requirements i.e. Internet TOEFL overall score 90 including 24 in Speaking and 25 in Writing. The fees are £ 13,900.00 per programme.

Postgraduate courses in Geography

The Department of Geography offers a number of interdisciplinary master degree programmes, both full time (one year) and part time (two years) . The programmes are

1. M.Sc. in Applied Geomorphology, 2. M.Sc. in Climate Change and Policy,

3. M.Sc. in Climate Change and Development, 4. M.A. in Environment, Development and Policy,

5. M.A. in Migration Studies.

The programmes have 180 credits each and students are expected to take 60 credits in each term. In autumn term there are two compulsory core courses; in spring term there are four courses and two are to be selected; these courses are 30 credits each. In summer term there is a course on research methods (15 credits) and dissertation (45 credits) of 15,000 words. The entry requirements for Indian students to any of these programmes are first class undergraduate Degree in geology, geography, environmental or earth science, natural science or civil engineering and TOEFL score 90.

Fees: £14,064 for all students.

Post-Graduate Programmes in Informatics

The School of Informatics offers postgraduate Degree (M.Sc.) and Diploma (Dip. PG) programmes in 1. Advanced Computer Science, 2. Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems, 3. Human-Centered Computer Systems, 4. Information Technology for E-Commerce, 5. Intelligent Systems and 6. Multimedia Applications and Virtual Environments. These are offered as both full time (1 year) and part-time (2 years) programmes. The programmes have 180 credits each and the students are required to take 60 credits per term. There are core and optional courses under each programme and the student choose two courses each from optional and core courses (total 4). There are 15 credits per course. In the summer term, the dissertation has 60 credits.  The passing grades are: Excellent -70% and above, Good- 70-60%, Satisfactory- 60-50% and pass 50-40%. The entry requirement for the programme is first class or second class undergraduate honours degree in Computer Science for the students of UK. The Indian students should have minimum first class at graduation in Computer Science.

Courses to improve English Language

The Sussex Centre for Language Studies offers a number of courses for students to achieve a very high standard of English language. Students, who would like to pursue their higher studies at Universities where the medium of instruction is English and those who intend to improve their skills in English language for career purposes join such courses. The courses are-1. Pre-Masters English,  2. Pre-sessional Courses,  3. General English and 4. Summer at Sussex. All are full time courses.

1.      Pre-Masters English: This course is designed for international graduate students who would like to improve their command over English language for post-graduate studies at Sussex. The students should have a minimum score of 4.0 in IELTS or 39 in TOEFL for admission. The duration of the course is one year i.e. ten weeks in each of the three terms (autumn, spring and summer). Students can choose either 15 or 21 hours of tuitions per week depending on their level of English. The tuition fees per term for 15 hours and 21 hours are £ 1,680.00 and £ 2,350.00 respectively.  The course focuses on reading, writing academic texts, attending lectures and research seminars, actively taking part in discussions and note making; effective use of facilities such as library and computer resources.

2.       Pre-sessional Courses: The course is accredited by British Council and offered only to those students who have the offer letter to study at Sussex and English is not the first language. There are two pre-sessional courses – a ten week course and a five week course.  The student is required to choose the course depending on the level of his/her communication skills in English language and the level of language requirement for the degree programme. The course fees for the five weeks and ten weeks programmes are £ 1325.00 and £ 2650.00 per term respectively.  The minimum IELTS score required is 5.0 for ten weeks and 5.5 for the five weeks programme.

3.       General English: This is similar to the Pre-Master English course in terms of duration, hours of tuitions per week and course fees. The focus of this course is on grammar (10-20%), reading and vocabulary (10-20%), writing skills (10-20%), listening and speaking skills (20-30%), supervised personal study programme (10%) and research project (10%). The main aim of the course is to improve communication skills – writing and speaking.

4.       Summer at Sussex: This is a general, full time, ten weeks, summer (July to September) course for the visitors to UK who want to spend time improving their English. It is a ten weeks programme. In addition to the areas of teaching mentioned in the general English course, a component on British Life and Culture has been included. The fees are £ 2,625.00.     

Academic support

The University of Sussex provides academic support to overseas students if English is the second language and if they are entering the British University system of education for the first time. Those students who have registered for full time degree programmes are eligible for the academic support which is available free of charge. The academic support consists of workshops and tutorials.

The workshops will focus on academic and English language skills which include subjects such as note-taking, summarizing & paraphrasing, structuring an essay, understanding & writing essay titles, paragraphing, referencing & writing a bibliography, introductions and conclusions. Writing workshops are also conducted and the students are expected to bring written essays/materials. This written matter is discussed, analysed and suggestions are made for improvement.

The tutors in the tutorials advise the students on issues related to study like essays, oral presentations, seminars and dissertations.

In addition to this there are ‘Drop-in sessions'.

Online Elections of the Full time Office bearers of USSU

Any registered student of the University can nominate themselves for the full time office bearer’s posts of University of Sussex Students' Union (USSU). There are six posts- President, Operation Officer, Communication Officer, Activities Officer, Welfare Officer and Education Officer. All the students of the University automatically become members of the Students’ Union and are eligible to vote. The University uses an online voting system which permits eligible students to vote from any computer machine with access to the internet during the voting period.  The University uses Single Transferable Vote (STV) system to calculate the winner. This system allows the voters to rank election candidates in order of preference. There are personal benefits and responsibilities being an office bearer of the Students’ Union. They are elected to work in a paid position in the Students’ Union for an academic year. Nominations were opened to file for the posts of Office bearers from the first day of spring season i.e. 11^th January 2011 and closed at 4.00pm on 26^th January 2011. The event called ‘Meet the Candidates’ was held on 3^rd February 2011 and the opening speeches of the candidates were available to the students later through You Tube for viewing.  The contesting candidates started campaigning from 3^rd Feb.2011.  Online voting started from 8^th Feb. 2011 and ended at 4.00pm on 10^th February 2011. The results were declared at 6.00pm on the same day. Altogether, 2638 votes were casted. Any objections to the results of elections must be submitted to the Returning Officer on before 14^th February 2011. The elected office bearers will resume their office in July 2011.

Teaching and learning Methods

The teaching and learning methods are different at Sussex. The methods of teaching and learning provide ample opportunities to develop critical, analytical and problem solving skills for students. The students cannot rely totally on class room teaching. The system of teaching expects the students to take the responsibility of study and be successful in the examination. The teaching methods include lectures, seminars, tutorials, field work and practicals. The teaching hours depend on the courses. Science courses have more teaching hours because of practical. Overseas students feel that the class room teaching hours are less. Here the students are expected to study independently, spend more time in reading, writing essays, solving problems/questions, preparing for seminars/tutorials and reviewing the lectures. The students are expected to know the effective way of time management.

In the class room the tutor introduces the topic to the students and students cannot expect everything from the tutor. Prior to the delivery of the lecture in the class room, the tutor makes available the lecture notes/power point slides, list of books for reading and links to the sites as web  resources on Study Direct which are an online learning resources of Sussex. The students are expected to read and prepare for group discussions in seminars, workshops and tutorials.

 A seminar method of teaching helps the students to make presentations, gain further knowledge in the topic, develop communication skills and build self confidence. Active participation in the seminar is very important and is considered for assessment. The tutorial method promotes students to develop problem solving and analytical skills. The students sometimes work in groups and sometimes individually for practical. Each student is expected to write a report/assignment independently and it is considered as a part of assessment. The number of practicals is less but they are mainly based on the concepts of theory what the students have learnt in class room.  The writing of essays of 2000-6000 words makes the students to learn the method of writing essays, improves writing skills, creates awareness about plagiarism and learns to write bibliography.  

Wednesday-Sports Day at Sussex

 Football match Sussex (black & white) V/s  Chichester (yellow & black). Sussex won by 3-1.

Basket Ball Men: Sussex (red & black) V/s Brunel (white & black). Brunel was leading 16-11. 

Counselling Services

The Psychological and Counselling Services unit has nine part-time therapists, three administrative staff and twenty five trainee counsellors. The unit provides therapy to around 750 students every year. It provides individual and group therapy for students. The common problems which students experience on the University campus are: adjusting to university life, feeling low or depressed, feeling stressed or anxious, problems with self-confidence or self-esteem, drugs or alcohol, eating, studies and any other related problems. Any student who seeks help from the Counselling Services should take prior appointment to meet the therapist.

Course: Developmental Psychology

This course is offered at level two (second year) and credits are 15. The course provides basic knowledge in the Developmental Psychology. The topics covered under the course are: communication in infancy, attachment, temperament, theories of cognitive development, social cognition, gender development, adolescent development and language acquisition. There is a convenor and two lecturers to conduct this course. The lectures are conducted for two days in a week and time (1 hour on each day) is specified by the convenor to  the students for discussion on the course related matters. The students can also send an email to the convenor requesting for an appointment. The course material is available on the “study Direct”. An anonymous feedback form is available on the website for the students to comment on the course (course evaluation) and is considered very important. The feedback of previous years on the same course is also available to view on the web pages of the School. The response of the students on the course will be intimated to the students through the student representatives of the School.

The course is delivered through 18 lectures of one hour each, two seminars of one hour each and two practicals of two hours each by three faculty members in a ten week programme. The seminar topics are different from lecture topics. In the seminar the students are expected to critically evaluate research and brain storm on developmental experimental designs. This would help students to do research independently in the third year. Similarly there are four topics for practicals which are different from lecture and seminar topics. The text book and recommended books for reading are:

1.    Smith P. K., Cowie H., & Blades M. (2007). Understanding Children’s Development, 4thEdition. Oxford, England: Blackwell.

1.      Berk, L. E. (2006). Child Development. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

2.      Siegler R., DeLoache, J. & Eisenberg, N. (2006). How Children Develop, 2nd Edition. New York: Worth Publishers.

The course will be assessed on the basis of course work (30%) and final examination (70%). The final examination consists of 40 Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) 40% and two essays 30%. The topics and dead line for submission of essays has been notified and there is penalty for late submission to the extent that no marks will be assigned and only feedback will be sent to the student. The entire schedule of the course with exhaustive list of books and links to the resources from web for additional reading/information are given in the course hand book.  

US 50

The University of Sussex was founded in 1960. Today, it has become one of the leading institutions in the world in its teaching and research.  The academic year 2011-2012 marks the 50^th anniversary of the foundation of the University of Sussex.

The University has  planned a series of events in 2011-12 which will reflect its past history, celebrate the milestones of its 50 years and look forward for its significant role in future of education and research.  The events are under different categories - Academic, Culture and Legacy, Celebration and Engagements. Under the academic activities, eminent experts are invited for high level discussions on six research themes identified by the University. Five discussions will be held in London and one on the University’s campus. The six research themes are: Environment & Health, Digital & Social Media, Culture & Heritage, Mind & Brain, Citizenships & Democratisation and Global Transformation.

Under Culture and Legacy, the events will mark the milestones of 50 years culturally, leaving legacy of celebrations for future. In association with alumni, an exhibition on the University’s social history has been organised. This is linked to a project.

 A two day celebration in September 2011 on the university campus has been organised to celebrate the achievements of the University which includes free seminars and talks, University boundary walk, live bands, party and good food. This will be an opportunity to meet friends and alumni.

All Schools, Departments, Clubs, Societies and Alumni can hold activities under engagements to celebrate 50 years of the University.

Six Gold Medals also will be awarded to the individuals associated with the University who have made the greatest Global impact in each of the University’s six research themes. Nominations are invited and the last date for submission of nomination for Gold Medals is 6^th May 2011.

 The University will also award 50 fellowships in its 50^th year to those who are associated with the University and have made distinguished contributions in any field or activity since its foundation. The search for recipients has started and nominations will be accepted from staff, students, alumni and friends of University. The 50 fellows will receive their honorary titles at a special ceremony when the University celebrates its 50 years in 2011-2012. The dead line to submit the nomination forms in confidence to the University is 18^th February 2011.

Programmes and Courses in English

The School of English of Sussex University offers single honours and joint honours undergraduate degree (B.A.) programmes. They are: B.A. in English- single honours degree programme and joint honours degree programmes  in areas mentioned below.

 Drama Studies and English; English and Film Studies; English and Media Studies; English and Art History; English Language and Literature; English and History; English and Philosophy and English Language and Language(s) (one or two languages from French, German, Italian or Spanish).

Those who opt for B.A. honours single degree programme the courses offered for them are: Text in Time, Critical Approaches and Reading Genre at level one. Traditions, Innovations and Genres: The Novel, Writing, Translation and Performance, Period of English Literature- post 1832 to the present at level two. Special author (any one); special subject (any one) at level three. Some of these courses are offered for joint programmes.

The courses offered under Drama Studies degree programme are: Reading Theatre Texts, Making Theatre, Theories of Drama and Staging Text at level one. Modern and Postmodern Drama, Approaches to contemporary  Performance, Writing for the Theatre and Second year Performance Project at level two. Making Theatre Politically, Post Dramatic Theatre, Performing the Body, Theatre, Performance and Ethics, final year Performance Project, Early Modern Drama and Contemporary Theatre and Independent Research Project at level 3.

All courses are credits based and modes of assessments are oral presentations, course work exercises and essay writing of 4000-6000 words.

Geography Course

The Department of Geography offers a course on “Industrial Change and Regional Development”. The course has 30 credits and offered at level 3. This is assessed entirely by essays and the students are expected to write three essays of which two essays are to be written in 2000 words each. This will form 50% of assessment of the course. The third essay has to be 3000 words and this is remaining part (50%) of assessment. The lecture and seminar methods are used in teaching this course. The essay topics are given to the students in the beginning of the term. The topics covered under this are:

1. Capitalism, globalization and inequality
2. Comparative modernizations: the case of Europe
3. The rise and rise of East Asia and China
4. The dynamics of inequality and development
5. Mobility, urbanization and development
6. Industrial change and regional and urban economic performance
7. Government intervention and spatial development

Fire Alarm

The Careers and Employability Centre of the University of Sussex is conducting a series of events in the fourth week of spring term. Today, one of the events was on “Make it happen! Employer Panel” at 1.00 pm in the auditorium of Brighton and Sussex Medical School which is at the entrance of the University. Nearly 70-80 students, seven speakers and few staff members of the Careers and Employability Centre were present for this event. The event started on time with a formal welcome from the Director of the centre and at this moment suddenly fire alarm (siren) started and all of us had to leave the venue.

The University of Sussex has arrangements for securing fire safety and all the buildings are provided with Automatic Fire Detection (FAD) devices. These devices get activated by smoke or heat and the local siren of a building starts operating. The functioning of these units is regularly checked in every building on certain days in every week. This I had experienced from the beginning of my arrival to Sussex campus. But today I had an opportunity to witness the situation and how it is handled.

The University’s fire alarm panels are linked to the computer network and activation of any of the alarms will raise an alarm at the central security office. There are Fire wardens appointed by Deans and Directors of unit. It is the responsibility of the fire warden to evacuate the building. Every building has an assembly point and all of us assembled at this point. The security office informed the fire brigade and rescue team. The East Sussex fire and Rescue Service arrived within ten minutes. The team entered the building and checked. There was no fire and the cause of the alarm may be due to fault in the electrical system. Within half an hour it was declared by the warden that the building is safe to occupy. But mean while the Director of the Careers and Employability Centre had taken decision to shift the venue of the event to Falmer house.

 

Courses in Physics

The convenors of following courses have been contacted. As soon as I get access to the course material, I will be able to discuss on the teaching, learning and assessment methods.

                Course                                                                   level                credits

1.      Physics Year 1 Laboratory                                          1                      12

2.      Applications of Mechanics                                         1                      12

3.      Skills in Physics 2                                                       2                      12

4.      Practical Electronics                                                   2                      06

5.      Advanced Electromagnetism                                      2                      12

6.      Quantum Mechanics                                                   2                      12

7.      Advanced Condensed State Physics                           3                      15

8.      Laser and Optics                                                         3                      15