The story
1858—1900: Early years
In 1858 the Brighton School of Art opened its doors to its first 110 students, in rooms by the kitchens of the Royal Pavilion. It moved in 1876 to its own building in Grand Parade, with the Prime Minister, William Gladstone, witnessing the laying of the new building's foundation stone.
The Municipal School of Science and Technology opened in Brighton in 1897 with 600 enrolled students. In the 1960s new buildings were constructed in Moulsecoomb for what had become the Brighton College of Technology. In 1970 the School of Art and Brighton College of Technology merged to form Brighton Polytechnic.
What became known as the Chelsea College of Physical Education opened in 1898 in London under the headship of Dorette Wilkie. A two year course was offered where teachers were taught to teach. The college moved to Eastbourne in 1947. In 1976 it merged with Eastbourne and Seaford Colleges of Education to form the East Sussex College of Higher Education. The same year, Brighton College of Education (the teacher training college) merged with Brighton Polytechnic, giving the Polytechnic a campus at Falmer. It had opened in 1909 as the Municipal Day Training College in Richmond Terrace, Brighton.
1900—2000: University status
There was a further merger in 1979, when the East Sussex College of Higher Education merged with the polytechnic, creating a campus in Eastbourne. That institution had opened in London in 1898 as an institution training women and girls in physical education and moved to Eastbourne in 1949.
UK polytechnics were granted university status in 1992 and Brighton Polytechnic became the University of Brighton under the provisions of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992.
In 1994 the Sussex and Kent Institute of Nursing and Midwifery became part of the university, increasing the number of students based in Eastbourne.
2000—present
In 2003 the Brighton and Sussex Medical School opened as a partnership between the University of Brighton, the University of Sussex and the Universities Hospitals Trust, the first medical school in South East England outside London.
A Hastings campus was opened in 2003, originally named University Centre Hastings; it was subsequently closed in 2019.
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In 2011, the Brighton International College, part of Kaplan International Colleges, opened on the Moulsecoomb campus, to provide international students with English language courses and preparatory academic tuition for undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
In October 2019 the university launched the first new contemporary publics arts space in the city since 1999, named the Brighton Centre for Contemporary Arts. Brighton CCA is accessible to students and the public, hosting public exhibitions, events and commissioned work.
In 2023, students and staff protested in opposition to the university's plans to make 110 staff redundant. The protests ultimately failed to prevent redundancies and 104 lecturers were made redundant, through 82 voluntary redundancies and 22 compulsory redundancies.
In May 2023, the university's Centre for Contemporary Arts was closed, the university says this is due to rising inflation, the "tuition fee freeze", and high energy costs.
From Wikipedia’s article on University of Brighton, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5