In December 1911 the Mayor of Brighton convened a public meeting which launched a committee to carry forward the proposal to establish a college of university rank in the County of Sussex. In the following year the committee submitted a memorandum to the Royal Commission on the University of London - into which it was proposed that the Sussex college should be incorporated. The Royal Commission recommended in April 1913 that the area for the recognition of Schools of the University of London should include the County of Sussex. The committee thereupon appealed for funds. By the outbreak of the First World War, only 2800 had been received of 8000 promised towards the estimated required endowment of 50,000.
In 1921 the 1911-13 proposal was acknowledged to be no longer viable, and some of the funds collected were put towards an annual public lecture (the first in 1924). In 1925, nevertheless, fundraising resumed, but with little success, and in 1934 the remaining funds were vested in trustees of The Brighton and Sussex Students' Library and Educational Foundation, of which the objects were to form a library for the use of local students (which was housed in Brighton Technical College) and to promote lectures and research work.
From the 1920s the Technical College was preparing students for London external degrees and in 1946-48 there was considerable discussion about developing it as either a college of technology or a university, or about forming a university college on an adjacent site - but to no avail. The opportunity emerged in 1954-55, leading to the formation in April 1956 of a joint committee of the five local education authorities in Sussex, and to the Government reserving, in February 1958, capital funding for the University College of Sussex (which was constituted under the Companies Acts as a company limited by guarantee). In March 1960 the trustees of the Educational Foundation approved a scheme for dissolving the charity and transferring its assets to the University College. Just prior to the admission of the first students in autumn 1961, a Royal Charter was signed to establish the University of Sussex and in the following year the University of Sussex Act was passed to transfer the College s assets and liabilities to the University.
From the guide to the University of Sussex Foundation Papers, 1905-1962, mainly 1911-1913, (University of Sussex Library)
