The University of Sussex’s foundation in the early 1960s was one of the biggest events in Brighton during the 20th century. Yet the creation of the University of Brighton , a longer, slower and more complicated process, has had an equally profound effect.

It started much earlier than the University of Sussex , has a wider array of campuses and covers a far bigger area.

One of its components, the former Brighton School of Art, is more than a century older than the University of Sussex, having started in 1859.

Founded in the Royal Pavilion, it soon moved to a handsome building in Grand Parade and became one of the foremost art colleges in Britain.

Much of this was down to Ernest Sallis Benney, principal for 24 years until 1958, who has a hall named after him in the current building.

This opened in 1967 and was designed by borough architect Percy Billington. It is perhaps the best building from that period in the city centre.

The technology side of the University of Brighton was founded in the Lewes Road near Moulsecoomb in 1963, with an ugly tower called the Cockcroft Building. It was soon followed by the equally repellent Watts Building.

As the campus expanded, so the college took over Mithras House, an older building on the other side of the road which had previously been occupied by the electrical engineering firm Allen West.

Brighton College of Education, a teaching training campus, was opened in 1965 at Falmer. Placed directly opposite the University of Sussex, it had none of its rival’s style or panache.

The three colleges merged in the 1970s to form Brighton Polytechnic, which was to become a university in 1992.

These two changes were crucial in the development of the university as a major feature in Brighton and Hove, putting it on equal terms with Sussex. Previously it had seemed like the poor relation.

Under the inspired leadership of Sir David Watson, it expanded rapidly while improving standards, no mean feat.

One of the best additions was the Aldrich Library in Lewes Road, named after an inventor and benefactor. It is functional and well designed.

Three years ago the education campus was at last given a heart by the large Checkland Building named after its chairman Michael Checkland, a former BBC director general.

The university also moved into Eastbourne and built hundreds of homes for students, many of them off Coldean Lane.

With Sussex, it co-operated in launching the highly successful medical school at Falmer and this also called for close co-operation with the National Health Service.

More liaison, this time with Brighton and Hove Albion, was needed when the impressive Amex community stadium was opened last year. It has since been expanded.

The University of Brighton has many local notables among its graduates, including the DJ Fatboy Slim and former Brighton Festival director Gavin Henderson.

It has a good national reputation in many subjects and its influence on Brighton as a city of the arts has been immense. Today arts make up about 10% of the economy.

With more than 20,000 students and 2,600 staff, it also makes a significant contribution to the economy and is one of the city’s biggest employers.

The two universities, together with City College and language schools, make Brighton and Hove one of the major centres for students in the country.