Thriving chemistry department faces closure

Sussex University, UK, has announced the closure of its chemistry department following weeks of speculation.

Anger surrounded the announcement that from October 2007 the chemistry department will make way for a department of chemical biology. Gerry Lawless, head of chemistry at Sussex, which was rated 5 in the research assessment exercise, called the decision ‘a travesty’, and ‘unimaginably flawed’.

The decision was announced by vice-chancellor Alasdair Smith on Friday and was blamed on decreasing numbers of chemistry students. However, Sussex has this year seen a 40 per cent increase in applicants for chemistry, said Lawless, and has been the envy of every other physical science department in the university. ‘We have spent the last two years turning round our admission figures from 150 applicants to almost 350.’ Of those 350 applicants, 15 were for chemical biology, the course that will be on offer in the restructured department.

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http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2006/March/13030602.asp