Who got that job?

Susan Ayres, 39
Job advertised in The THES , February 14 2003

Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology
University of Sussex

Sussex University advertised for staff as part of a radical restructuring.

The psychology department was looking for someone to teach health psychology under contract with the newly established Brighton and Sussex Medical School, a collaboration between the city's two universities.

Rod Bond, head of psychology, says there were about 15 applicants but Susan Ayres was chosen because of her experience working as a psychology lecturer at St George's Medical School in Tooting, London.

Ayres says what excited her about the vacancy was the prospect of having an influence over a new curriculum while having Sussex's psychology department as her academic base.

The medical school employs only core staff directly, and teaching hours are contracted out to university departments. Ayres was keen to continue her research into anxiety disorders, such as post-traumatic stress after childbirth or heart attacks, and depression after gynaecological interventions.

She started the job in October but there were hiccups because of the restructuring. "We were worried that the lecture theatre on the Brighton University site would not be finished on time, and then there were the usual technology hitches."

Ayres has fewer teaching hours than at St George's because the undergraduate intake is currently restricted to first-years.

Bond says the department will be advertising for teachers in health psychology and neuroscience in the new year as the medical school enters it second year. "The medical school has quite a significant role in what we have to do as a department," he says.