So what made headlines in 2018?

January

Dr Anand Sundaralingam and Leach Court resident Jean Murray with internet connected blood pressure monitor

• Professor Dawn Scott featured in BBC’s Winterwatch on the work she carried out with the National Trust and RSPB on movement and habitat use by predators including badgers and foxes.
• Professor Toni Hilton was named as the new Head of the University’s Brighton Business School, and Professor Chris Pole, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, became the new Chair of the Society for Research into Higher Education.
• A block of retirement flats became a test bed for internet-connected devices which could help improve the health of older people – with support from specialists at the university.

February

• University researchers and industry partners Ricardo demonstrated that by storing and injecting liquid air into split-cycle engines, fuel consumption is reduced by up to 30 per cent while NOx fumes and particle emissions are also reduced, significantly increasing fuel efficiency and reducing harmful emissions for heavy goods vehicles; and the university began work on a national campaign which aims to help eliminate HIV within a generation
• More than 1,900 students graduated from the university, the highest number for Winter Ceremonies since 2010.
• Alumni of the university and the Brighton Polytechnic joined staff and students to celebrate the university's silver anniversary.

March

Vice-Chancellor Professor Debra Humphris lends a hand to nursing apprentices

• The university won a £4.2 million contract to provide higher apprenticeships for the new role of Nursing Associate.
• University research demonstrated how biochips can be used to replace pancreas transplantation and support the testing of drugs for diabetes.
• Four professors from the University of Brighton were invited to join the sub-panels for the Research Excellence Framework (REF), Phil Ashworth, Marina Novelli, Andy Hobson and Darren Newbury, and Professor Karen Cham was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA).

April

• The university’s new £14 million Advanced Engineering Building was officially opened at an event celebrating the role of women in engineering.
• Photographer and university alumnus, Alexi Lubomirski, was chosen to take the official wedding photographs of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
• Graduate Freya Richmond became the only designer from the UK among the three winners of the Printeriors 2018 design competition, run by the Federation of European Screen Printers Associations (FESPA), a global federation of 37 national associations for the screen printing, digital printing and textile printing community.

Alexi Lubomirski

May

Fashion designs by graduate Nicole Rougqing

• The university’s Rugby League Men's Team joined volunteers from the award-winning Bevy Community Pub to help spruce up the Brighton pub.
• The university was ranked among the best in the world for fashion. CEOWORLD, the New York and UK-based business magazine ranked 110 fashion schools globally and placed Brighton at 13^th.
• The School of Environment and Technology received a Bronze Award from the Equality Challenge Unit’s Athena Swan Charter which was established to encourage efforts to advance women’s careers in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine employment in higher education and research.

June

• The University of Brighton Academies Trust secured £300,000 to improve language and literacy outcomes for disadvantaged children in the Early Years Foundation stage in Hastings schools.
• Fashion student Hannah Gibbins scooped the Debenhams Menswear Award in Graduate Fashion Week.
• Co-founder of a global Football for Peace programme, Professor John Sugden, flew to New York to talk at the UN on using sport as a framework to further promote development and peace. Fellow co-founder Gary Stidder later received the Honoured Members Award by the Association for Physical Education for making a difference, its highest award.

Churchwood Primary Academy supported by the University of Brighton Academies Trust

July

Graduates at the University of Brighton award ceremonies

• Vice-Chancellor Professor Debra Humphris became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in the week that the NHS marked its 70th birthday.
• Mark Burch, Managing Partner at private equity investment firm ARCIS Group, was named the new Chair of the University of Brighton's Board of Governors.
• More than 4,500 students graduated as the university celebrated the 25th anniversary of it achieving university status.

August

• Staff and students from across the university took part in the annual Pride Community Parade as a symbol of our support for the LGBT+ community.
• Professor Kate Bullen became the new President of the British Psychological Society and Professor Yannis Pitsiladis was appointed to the International Olympic Committee Medical and Scientific Commission.
• Paper towels are more efficient at drying and cleaning hands and university researchers said hospitals should consider withdrawing air dryers.

Brighton Pride

September

The University of Brighton becomes the Official Higher Education Partner of Brighton & Hove Albion

• The university was unveiled as the new Official Higher Education Partner of Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, and the FA has chose Albion with the support of the as one of ten new Women's Super League Academies, and the Government approved funding for the university to continue forming new partnerships in the community.
• Sultan Saif Muftah Hamad Al Niyadi, who graduated in electronics and communication, was selected as an astronaut for scientific missions in space.
• The Big Build – work started on the three-year transformation of the university’s largest campus, Moulsecoomb, providing a multi-storey car park, student bedrooms, new academic building, new Students’ Union facilities, and a pedestrian bridge. Meanwhile, at Falmer, Mayfield House was rededicated in recognition and memory of Professor Sir David Watson.

October

• Professor Cyril Crua won an international award from the Institute for Liquid Atomization and Spray Systems for his research into microscopic fuel droplets; Professor Ivor Goodson was awarded the British Educational Research Association’s John Nisbett Fellowship; and Dr Ioannis Pantelidis was appointed Chair of the Council for Hospitality Management Education.
• Dr Jessica Eccles won a $100,000 grant to investigate a syndrome that leads to fatigue, light-headedness, shortness of breath and ‘brain fog’ or difficulty in thinking and concentrating.
• The university was chosen to lead on a €4.5m European research project to deliver innovations in dignified sustainable care for older people.

Professor Crua with his award

November

Bachepalle community, India

• The university supported the construction of a sustainable source of clean drinking water for the Bachepalle community in India.
• University scientists and partners in Vietnam made a breakthrough in the delivery of a disease-fighting constituent of the spice turmeric, and the university launched an exercise-based cancer rehabilitation programme in Eastbourne.
• Computing students from the University of Brighton triumphed over teams across the UK at a national 30-hour game-making competition.
• The university’s Initial Teacher Education (ITE) Partnership received an extremely positive Ofsted report​: ‘Outstanding’ for Early Years, Primary and Secondary Courses and ‘Good’ in Further Education and Training.

December

• The university launched a fund for Black, Asian and ethnic minority students who are looking to study an MA degree in Curating Collections and Heritage.
• Student Elizabeth Eade won this year’s £10,000 Hix Award for her work exploring the human cost of the refugee crisis, and five engineering students from the university were selected to take their ground-breaking project into zero gravity.
• University Healthy Futures joined forces with entrepreneurs and community groups to turn Brighton and Hove into a focal point for health interventions.

Team PHP Cubed were selected to take their project into zero gravity