The College is committed to the provision, in teaching, of a high quality education which is academically challenging and intellectually coherent, and which builds progressively on previously acquired skills and knowledge.

The Learning and Teaching Policy is the expression of a collective responsibility for achieving excellence in education, and individuals' involvement will differ according to their roles and the contexts in which they work.

In terms of the student experience we aim to:

• Recruit and retain able students from a wide variety of backgrounds.
• Strive to expand the opportunities for a diverse range of students to learn successfully at Sussex and will seek to identify and remove unnecessary barriers to learning.
• Take a student-centred approach to learning and teaching. This encourages students to take responsibility for their own learning, becoming increasingly independent learners (both alone and in groups), and encourages faculty to take responsibility for supporting and enabling that learning.
• Teach our students to become highly competent learners, so that they leave Sussex equipped to undertake life-long learning and personal development. In particular, we aim to develop our students as critical thinkers, able to think analytically and reflectively about their particular area(s) of study; their ability to act in the world; and their understanding of themselves.

We regard the following values as being important in underpinning excellent teaching and learning, and we strive to achieve them in our daily practice:

• Enabling student-faculty contact
• Encouraging students to work with one another
• Encouraging active learning
• Giving prompt feedback - from faculty and peers
• Emphasizing time spent studying - both inside and outside the classroom
• Communicating high expectations
• Recognizing that students have a range of abilities and ways of learning.

Our educational programmes aim to offer distinctive curricula based on the study of subjects within relevant contexts, and to develop students' knowledge, understanding, skills and abilities. A degree programme's aims and learning outcomes should be the guiding principles in the design, planning and management of constituent courses and of students' pathways through that programme.

Teaching methods are designed to ensure that students achieve the objectives of their courses and programmes. In both formal and informal ways, academic staffs help students to deepen their understanding of their subject and to apply their knowledge to a range of situations.

As they progress, students are expected to take greater responsibility, and to engage actively in their learning. This involves understanding the context in which they are studying, developing transferable skills, reflecting on their performance and achievements, and articulating this to others. Academic and personal tutors and University-wide welfare services seek to support students in their individual development.

In its library and computing provision, the College seeks to ensure that all relevant forms of information are available, and that access to information is as open as possible. This includes developing the competence of students and staff in handling information and technologies as well as providing the physical resources themselves.

The College is committed to ensuring that assessment of students is valid, fair and reliable. Assessment is also an important means by which we ensure the standards appropriate for our awards and the quality of our educational provision.

Through the audit procedures, academic units and individual members of staff aim to ensure the quality of teaching, learning and assessment and the equitable and consistent treatment of students on different programmes. The assurances and aspirations of this Policy demand a high level of commitment and endeavour from staff, as well as students. The College seeks to value and reward professionalism and scholarship, to provide development opportunities and to support innovation in teaching and learning.