Titled: Serenity in a field of gold This weeks winning picture came from Adeline Chan – congratulations to Adeline with her super speedy reply at 11:07 after I sent my email at 11:02!
It’s also worth a mention that there was another entry before this from Anna Cawton – which didn’t quite fit the brief, more on that to follow later!
COVID 19 Update
There has been some guidance released for access to buildings to collect essential items or paperwork. This does not include removing KIT from the building for use at home, the already established purchasing routes are still to continue for that. For more information follow this link.
A financial update from Deborah
(Published in the weekly Beyond COVID-19 – developing and adapting for the future’)
There continues to be much discussion in the media and sector about the financial impact of COVID-19 on universities. The University is continuing to model a range of financial scenarios for the 2020/21 financial year and beyond. As you can imagine, things remain uncertain at present but as the recruitment cycle progresses over the next few weeks, and with further developments on virus control, social distancing and travel, which may increase prospective student confidence, we expect that the recruitment situation will become clearer.
At present, UK undergraduate student applications are similar to last year’s levels and International applications are higher; there is no evidence yet of withdrawals although this is a risk which several sector surveys have flagged, and there are also specific risks relating to international students. Where prospective students defer, there may be a compensating increase in future years’ recruitment; but if prospective undergraduate students either do not progress to university or decide to change to another university, this would result in a loss of income over the next few years.
A clearer understanding of the recruitment outlook will enable us to firm up our financial forecasts, and to make decisions on any mitigation measures we may need to take to ensure that we emerge from the crisis as a robust and financially viable institution, and we will keep colleagues up to date as the recruitment cycle progresses.
Wellbeing at home
The SHU wellness service is putting on workshops for staff email: shuwellnss@shu.ac.uk to book your place, places are on a first come first serve basis:
- Wednesday 17th June – Lifestyle and mental wellbeing – 2.00 – 4.00 pm
- Thursday 25th June – Healthy eating for wellbeing – 1.30 – 3.30 pm
- Physical Activity / Healthy Eating consultations via Zoom – w/c 15th and 22nd June – various times and dates
Online mindfulness sessions are being run by the Centre for Mindful Life Enhancement these sessions include meditations, mindful movement and breakouts. They take place on Tuesdays at 1300 and Thursdays at 1800. For more details and to book please head to the website to see whats on offer and have a look at their free resources too.
With lots of people turning to mindful activities and having more time to do things, one resource which seems to be coming up more and more socials is Yoga with Adrienne – here you can find lots of beginner to expert routines free of change and plentiful for you to access and do from the comfort of your home.
What’s going on in the media?
There is plenty going on at the moment in the news and media and sometimes it is hard to make sense of what is relevant or because so much of it is COVID 19 related are we missing out on other bits? In this section we will try to bring you some of the interesting and thought provoking pieces of news related to work life.
- The Sheffield BID Bulletin (subscribe here) – always a good read, interestingly they have posted some slides on the plans for re opening Sheffield! The slides include the steps retailers will need to take in order to re open safely and road closures for footpath widening and for those shopaholics (like me!) here’s a list of the shops that will be reopening.
- WonkHE is regularly spoken about around the university because it’s helpful in bringing out some of the more pertinent issues going on in the sector. Two article recommendations via Deborah relate to the Financial Crisis related to the outbreak and how Universities might look to achieve savings in uncertain times.
- The latest edition of The Times Higher (11th June)
Finance and Procurement Big Fat Quiz!
Don’t forget to anyone wanting to join in the quiz this afternoon it is on from 3.30pm – don’t worry though if you can’t make it i am sure that there will be other opportunities!
