Abstract

In 1967, Asa Briggs became the second Vice Chancellor of the University of Sussex to a chorus of approval. The Times in an article on the appointment summarised his career to date - his war record, the notable feat of taking firsts in two degrees from different institutions, Cambridge and LSE, and then his emergence as ‘one of the outstanding historians since the war’. In his time at Oxford, it purred, he ‘could fill a lecture hall to overflowing’ and was now ‘familiar to television viewers’. External adulation was matched by internal enthusiasm. The out-going VC, Sir John Fulton, considered the appointment ‘wholly admirable’. In his final address to the annual meeting of the University Court he highlighted his professional and personal qualifications for the role. Asa knew the Higher Education landscape intimately, he declared, having worked at five British universities, held fellowships at several international institutions, and been a long-term member of the University Grants Committee (UGC). He was also

outward-looking, as befits the educational climate of our times: in age poised perfectly to bridge the generations; above all, a leader of the little team which believed strongly enough in the vision of the Sussex-to-be to choose to come here in preference to all the other opportunities and prospects which were then beckoning.

On all sides, Asa was regarded as the right man for the job and the times.