The science tide turns at Brighton

The Times Higher Education Supplement (30 June 2006) focuses upon the apparent renaissance of the chemistry department of the University of Sussex three months after the Royal Society of Chemistry alerted the public to the threat of its closure with a media campaign.

The news report says that the chemistry department revealed that student recruitment was at such a high that it was pushing ahead with plans to double intake over the next three years.

It goes on to report that the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has encouraged the chemistry department to apply for additional funding to ramp up student recruitment.

The influential  weekly newspaper today devotes a whole page to the matter of chemistry's revival at the south coast university, with one item headed "Faculty blooms after near-death" and another below featuring the consequences of the national and international debate over the future of chemistry at the university following the furore stirred by the RSC breaking the story.

RSC chief executive Richard Pike is quoted as saying: "In the case of Sussex we always said that it was a high quality department. This is very, very good news."