I saw it enough times to remember the name of the sculptor: Jan Pinkava. I also remember that he was 3 years younger than me, so must have made it in his teens (when he was at Colchester Royal Grammar School).
The statue is no longer where it was, because it's become wobbly on its plinth. It's been moved to the room where the special book collections are held.
Recently, Jan set up the RealTime Society special interest group for Interactive Storytelling, which I was invited to join. I've been to two online meetings so far, and will be going to more — there are some very interesting people there, from many different areas of interactive storytelling (games, animation, film, music, ...). Jan is running this SIG because he went on to become an Oscar-nominated film director and animator at Pixar, LAIKA and elsewhere, then creative director of Google Spotlight Stories.
I didn't know any of this when I joined, though: I only knew him from his sculture, Big Cat.
Next meeting, I'll ask him if he has some glue to stop it wobbling.