Many bold decisions have benefited Brighton and Hove and enabled it to become Britain’s leading seaside resort.

They include the building of the Brighton Centre, the encouragement of year-round rather than seasonal employment and the start of the annual arts festival.

But none has been greater than the establishment and development of the city’s two universities.

The University of Sussex had more students graduate than ever before this summer and applications to study there have been six per cent higher.

Fifty phone lines were open on A-level results day last week with more than 4,000 calls made and there was a similar picture at the University of Brighton.

Before the University of Sussex was established in the early 1960s, Brighton’s profile was similar to the national average except that there were more old people.

The town could easily have followed many other resorts such as Hastings and mouldered away, becoming a seaside slum.

The University of Sussex changed the nature of Brighton forever. It was a radical place of learning, full of bright ideas.

Raffish Many of its graduates were seduced by the raffish charms of Brighton and stayed there after they had finished studying.

Some of them such as Steve (now Lord) Bassam made a difference to Brighton by running the city council.

Dr William Stone, the council’s educational director, was the man who more than any other we should thank for the creation of the university.

The vice chancellor Professor (now Lord) Asa Briggs was the administrator who made sure the university worked and it was a tricky task.

Until that time, Brighton’s higher education had been confined to several colleges within the town, notably those dealing with the arts and technology.

They were combined into a polytechnic which later became the University of Brighton. Professor Sir David Watson, the director, is the academic mostly responsible for its astounding growth since then.

Not only does Brighton now rival Sussex in size but it also has established a serious academic reputation.

One of its main achievements has been in the arts where it has helped make Brighton one of the foremost centres of culture in the country. The arts make up about one tenth of Brighton and Hove’s economy. They also create a lively and large contribution to the city’s life.

Brighton can boast of 500 bands. It has a thriving film scene. There are hundreds of artists and it is a leading centre for dance.

The universities are among the major employers in Brighton and Hove, vying with American Express, the council and health services in numbers.

They inject millions of pounds each year into the local economy.

When City College and language schools are taken into account, Brighton has more students than almost anywhere else outside London.

Both universities have expanded enormously in the last decade and this has brought problems as well as benefits.

Sussex wants to build deep into the downland valley where it started more than half a century ago but, each time the bulldozers move in, the national park is threatened.

Brighton wishes to expand within the city centre. Its emphasis on building housing for students is good but makes life harder for ordinary people who require homes.

The influx of so many students has led to them taking-over whole areas of the city, notably near Lewes Road.

Studentification has led to many youngsters being ripped off by rapacious landlords.

It has also created tensions with some of the families remaining in the area because of the different lifestyles of both groups. The universities are only too aware of these difficulties. One way of solving them is to move some sectors into other towns such as Hastings and Eastbourne.

This has eased part of the pressure and given those towns a boost but most students would rather be in Brighton than anywhere else on the Sussex coast.

The tremendous demand by youngsters for places at these two institutions shows no signs of stopping. They are attracted equally by the universities and the city-by-the-sea.

They are a welcome addition to Brighton and Hove. But more care than ever needs to be taken by both universities and the council to ensure they are assimilated into the community rather than dominate it.