The Co-operative Childcare won the tender to manage the university's nursery and pre-school, which provides a total of 66 places and currently operates within two separate buildings, from November.
The nursery and pre-school, both rated as outstanding by Ofsted, are only open to children of university staff and students.
In 2010, Sussex University announced plans to close their nursery and pre-school, because of costs of £350,000 a year to run the subsidised settings. In order to continue to provide childcare provision, a decision was made to find an external provider to run the settings.
A larger combined pre-school and nursery is currently being built for next September, which will replace the existing settings.
The Co-operative Childcare has been granted a 25-year lease to run the new 100-place nursery, which will be open to the community as well as children of university staff and students.
The group said they had no plans to increase fees, but have yet to consider whether places for university staff and students will continue to be subsidised.
Features within the new nursery include a library and ICT suite, and training centre for staff. There will also be a large outdoor play area.
The new nursery brings the total number of settings owned by Co-operative Childcare to 49. This includes the setting in Kidderminster, Worcestershire that the group bought last month and is converting from a community centre into a nursery, due to open in November.
Mike Abbott said, ‘We are excited about operating this new purpose built nursery. It will provide great facilities where we can deliver a high standard of early years learning and care in a safe and stimulating environment.
‘Co-operative Childcare is investing significantly in expanding and developing a business which is based on Co-operative values. We were delighted to be selected by the University for this new venture.’