W100 Representative

Emily TofieldDirector of Communications, Marketing and Advancement (Communications, Marketing & Advancements)

Emily Tofield is the Director of Communications, Marketing and Advancement at the University of Sussex, where she leads the division which covers communications, marketing, campaigns, public affairs, UK and international student recruitment, global engagement, development, fundraising and alumni relations, widening participation and the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts. Emily joined Sussex from the Ministry of Justice where she was the most senior communications adviser for the UK government’s biggest department. In that role, she had leadership responsibility for a multi-award-winning communications directorate, serving seven separate agencies and arm’s length bodies, as well as a large information services directorate. She is a crisis communications expert, who led the successful multi-channel crisis-communications response to COVID-19 across the justice system. She has also led communications functions in the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs and at the heart of Whitehall in the Cabinet Office. She has been the chief communications adviser to six secretaries of State and is a former broadcast journalist.

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The University of Sussex is a leading research-intensive university near Brighton. We have both an international and local outlook, with staff and students from more than 100 countries and frequent engagement in community activities and services.

Sussex was the first of the new wave of UK universities founded in the 1960s, receiving its Royal Charter in 1961. We have over 14,000 students and more than 2,000 staff members.

Sussex have challenged convention since the University’s foundation in 1961. From the campus’ modernist architecture on the edge of a rural national park, to our progressive academics and creative professional services staff, to the inspiring students who choose to learn and live here, to the very tone of the institution and the nature of its conversations, through to the expressions of radicalism, critical thinking and, at times, dissent.

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An institution with adistinctly global outlook

The University of Sussex is proud of its reputation as an institution with a distinctly global outlook allowing them to be at the forefront of research influence worldwide.

Their commitment to internationalisation is reflected in their engagement with partners around the world. Sussex is committed to developing and maintaining relationships with a network of partners who share our commitment to building a better world.

The University of Sussex has a network of mutually beneficial relationships with outstanding global partners that underpin their initiatives for student and staff mobility, research collaboration and international teaching programmes. THey have over 300 active partnerships across the globe.

Mission and vision

"Our five core values will shape what we say and do...At all times, we will strive for excellence in everything we do. Our success and distinctiveness will be defined through our institutional values, and these will underpin our education, research and engagement activities."

  • Kindness
  • Integrity
  • Inclusion
  • Collaboration
  • Courage

Strategic framework is based on four areas:

  • Learn to Transform
  • Research with Impact
  • Engage for Change
  • Build on Strengths

Ranked the joint 15th best 'Golden Age' University (THE)

93%

of research impact was assessed to be ‘outstanding’ or ‘very considerable’ (REF 2021)

160+

Companies have been based at the Sussex Innovation Centre

The University of Sussex are highly ranked in the UK league tables and over 75% of their research activity is categorised as world-leading or internationally excellent (Research Excellence Framework 2014). Their research is contributing new knowledge, ideas, and solutions, which is leading to real change in the world and making a difference to people’s lives.

Many Sussex research projects and findings also create specific benefits for businesses, public sector organisations, charities, and cultural organisations, as their discoveries generate new products, services, and transferable knowledge. These achievements are grounded in the fundamental originality, significance and rigour of their research.

They have more than 2,100 staff, including around 1,000 teaching and research staff, of which over 300 are research-only.

Sussex have had three Nobel Prize winners and a winner of the prestigious Crafoord Prize at the university. Their staff currently include four Fellows of the Royal Society, three Fellows of the British Academy, eight Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences, and six Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences.

The discovery of a third form of carbon, the microscopic “footballs” known as ‘buckyballs’, by chemist Sir Harry Kroto, who was awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in chemistry, is just one of the historically-significant research findings to have taken place at the University of Sussex. Others include the work of economist Mariana Mazzucato on the entrepreneurial state and economics of innovation, and the academically and socially influential work by Professor of Biology Dave Goulson and colleagues on the conservation of bumblebees.

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The World 100 Reputation Network is a group of the best universities in the world, delivering research that enhances reputation and offering leaders the chance to develop their own careers on a global stage. Members benefit from events and study tours, training, monthly media monitoring, and unique reputation research to provide institutional advantage.

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