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A packed audience of staff, students, graduates and members of the public took part in the debate which was chaired by the BBC's David Dimbleby, at the university's Sallis Benney Theatre (17 November).

In addition to the two well-known University of Brighton alumni, panellists included the university’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Julian Crampton CBE DL, and former Student Union President and current student, Candice Armah.

Subjects covered included how the University of Brighton can do more to support local business, how the university can be a better neighbour and make its facilities open to the public, and how it could provide more entertainment spaces for its students.

From left to right: Professor Julian Crampton, David Dimbleby, Alison Lapper, Fatboy Slim and Candice Armah

The audience heard how the university is planning more purpose-built accommodation for its students, how it has a dedicated community liaison team to work through any student issues and how it works on more than 200 community projects. It also contributes and generates £700m annually for the South East economy and supports more than 7,000 jobs. However, Professor Crampton said the university could always do more. 

David Dimbleby – an honorary graduate of the university - said: “It was a fascinating debate. It was really interesting to discuss difficult, serious and sometimes contentious issues. There is a desire to improve relations between the university and the city and a feeling that this is happening.”

Professor Crampton said: "We launched this debate series because we want to hear from local people about how the university can make a difference in their lives. There was a lot of useful discussion and we plan to take this forward in future debates, and in concrete changes to how we work, building on our existing engagement with our local community.

“This mutually-beneficial partnership will both improve our efforts as a university and enable us to give back to the community that we belong to."