Alasdair Smith

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Alasdair Smith is currently a professor of economics and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Sussex. He is a noted international economist whose studies (often developed in concert with fellow economist Tony Venables) have been used by the European Union.

Smith was born on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland. He is a graduate of the London School of Economics and Oxford University. He later taught for 17 years at the London School of Economics before moving to the University of Sussex in 1981, and becoming Vice-Chancellor in 1998.

His controversial pro-Top Up Fees stance resulted in the University of Sussex Student Union calling for a vote of no confidence in his leadership in a student election in February of 2003. The members of the student union voted against Smith in large numbers. Smith later referred to the vote of no confidence as "a clever piece of electioneering by some of the candidates standing for election as Student Union officers"Template:Ref. There has since been a second vote of no confidence in Alasdair Smith.

From November 2005Template:Ref, the University of Sussex Students' Union has been conducting the Sort US Out campaign, which began at the Annual General Meeting of the union with a vote of no-confidence in the University Council and senior managementTemplate:Ref. A petition with 1,311Template:Ref signatures supporting the Sort US Out campaign was presented to the University Council on December 16, 2005. The campaign calls for changes in senior management, especially since the "Investing in Excellence"Template:Ref paper was released, suggesting what is felt to be the closure of the Chemistry department. On March 27, 2006 he testified before an evidence session of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Science and Technology, with regards to the proposed change in provision for chemistryTemplate:Ref. On the same day, he appeared on the Channel 4 News program to defend the possibility that Sussex would close its Chemistry department.

Footnotes

1. Template:Note University of Sussex Bulletin February 21, 2003 and later editions.
2. Template:Note USSU Sort US Out history, December 16, 2005
3. Template:Note Motion of No-Confidence in the University Council, due to Poor Management and Financial Mismanagement November 2005
4. Template:Note The Badger has details of the petition, with an article written by Adele Burrow, who first proposed the 2005 no-confidence vote.
5. Template:Note Press Release from the University of Sussex, March 11, 2006
6. Template:Note Select Committee decides to hear evidence from Alasdair Smith