Category Archives: Support

Here is some information from the wider university service areas.

Beat the January blues

January is a difficult time of year for many of us,  with cold weather, long hours of darkness and the next holiday a long way off. There is a need to recover from the financial impact of Christmas and New Year’s resolutions that are starting to slide.

There are ways that you can beat the January blues and get your year off to a great start!

Eat well
Omega 3 fatty acids found in oily fish, flaxseed oil, nuts and seeds can help combat low mood as can folate, which is found in cabbage broccoli and sprouts.  Low blood sugar can affect energy and mood so don’t skip breakfast!  Healthy recipes can be found online

Exercise and sleep
Regular moderate physical activity is effective in managing mild to moderate anxiety and depression.  This does not have to be formal exercise  and can include going for a 30 minute brisk walk several  times per week. It is also important to establish a regular pattern of sleep – maintaining a consistent getting up time will help with this.

Connect
Avoiding contact with others has an adverse  effect on mood.  Countless studies have found that face to face contact is essential for our wellbeing.  Arrange to speak to family and friends regularly.

The following organisations can help you to achieve some of the above as well as offering advice and support in relation to mental health and wellbeing:

Mental Health
Samaritans or email jo@samaritans.org
Prevent Suicide
Big White Wall
Hallam Volunteering
Student Wellbeing
Hallam Active

 

Christmas closures and support at SHU

As you may know, Christmas and New Year are coming up, and this means that the University will be closed for a period for festive celebrations!

Sheffield Hallam University will close on Friday 23 December and re-open on Tuesday 3 January due to the festive period, meaning that the International Experience Team and Student Services Reception will also be closed.

Both Adsetts and the Collegiate libraries will still be open – as they are 365 days a year, 24/7 – but will have no helpdesk support available.

Christmas can be a lonely time, especially if your friends are travelling home, leaving you in Sheffield over the festive period. However, there is support available if you need it, and you can find all the useful contact details in the leaflet below. Click on the images to open full-size versions.

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Merry Christmas from the International Experience Team!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and the International Experience Team would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Whether you’re spending Christmas at home or in Sheffield, we hope you have a fantastic time with friends and family, looking back over the last year and getting involved in the festivities.

We have some great activities to keep you busy over the Christmas break, including trips to Nottingham and Leeds, so make sure you don’t miss out!

See you all in 2017!

International Student Support Officer leaves SHU

Marie Vickers, the International Student Support Officer within the Faculty of ACES will be leaving the University on 22 December.

I’m sure you’d like to join us in wishing Marie all the best in her new job and thank her for all her help within ACES that she has given our international students!

If you usually go to Marie with any enquiries, then you can contact the following staff for help –

Linda Wood – Media Arts and Communication
Anita Whitworth – Art and Design
Nicholas Smith/Sue Hall – Computing
Stephen Wilson/Christy Bannister – Engineering

If the above don’t include your course, then contact your faculty helpdesk and they will be able to provide you with the correct Student Support Officer details.

New senior appointments at Sheffield Hallam University

Professor Christina Hughes has been appointed as Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Student Experience at the University, one of two new appointments to the University Leadership Team.

Professor Hughes (pictured below) is currently Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning) at the University of Warwick, where she also undertook her degree and PhD. She has taught and researched in the fields of sociology, social policy and lifelong learning and was one of the founding co-chairs of the Gender and Education Association.

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Her research has been published widely and she is co-editor of the International Journal of Social Research Methodology. In her role at Sheffield Hallam, Professor Hughes will have overall responsibility for leading the entire student journey.

In a second appointment to the University’s leadership team, Richard Calvert will become the University’s first Chief Operating Officer. As Director General of the Strategy and Resources Directorate at the Department for Education, Richard has an extensive background in leading professional services in Government. He was previously Director General, Finance and Corporate Performance at the Department for International Development from 2009-2015. Richard will head up the majority of the University’s professional services departments.

Speaking ahead of the announcement, Professor Chris Husbands, Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam said: “I am delighted to welcome Christina and Richard to the University, and know that they are each looking forward to starting their new roles at Sheffield Hallam in the autumn.

Writing resources – help with your assignments

It’s coming up to the end of the semester, and that usually means that you had assignments set that are due soon! There are however support resources that are available to you to help.

Organising and planning your writing is an important part of completing assignments successfully, and it can be difficult to know where to start when faced with a large task.

There are a whole host of resources online to help you think about how to approach your work and ensure that you get the best grades possible. They can help you to feel more confident about starting writing, drafting and checking your work.

The writing tips below are the first step to getting started:

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There are a number of writing resources on the Bridge’s website, which is the University’s skills hub for students. These include the writing process, shaping your arguments and help with referencing.

Join us in congratulating our graduates from around the world!

From the 14–25 November, Sheffield Hallam University celebrated the achievements of our students by holding graduation ceremonies at Sheffield’s City Hall.

Over two weeks, we welcomed students and their families back to Sheffield to commemorate them graduating this year. It was a chance for students to meet up with their class one last time and dress in a traditional graduation gown and mortarboard, before being congratulated by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Chris Husbands.

We loved seeing old friends and students that we’ve seen grow through their time at Sheffield Hallam University, and were lucky enough to see students return from across Europe, South America and as far as China – with Igloo Wan, our student from SCOPE visiting for her ceremony too!

Congratulations to all of our student graduating this year and good luck for the future!

Free English classes

Do you feel like you need some help with your academic English or expressing your arguments in your assignments? Then that is where the University English Scheme can help!

The University English Scheme consists of classes covering a range of topics, designed to help with students who are not familiar with the skills necessary to study at university level.

There are session on subjects such as plagiarism, grammar and making sure that you are presenting your work effectively in written and spoken formats.

More information on the classes available can be found on the leaflets below – click on the images for the full-size versions:

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Support every step of the way

Sheffield Hallam University aims to provide an excellent educational experience to all its students. As an institution, we enable our students to

  • get involved in  University life and opportunities to influence University’s offer to them
  • develop a sense of belonging to university community and feel their contributions are valued and celebrated
  • get information about services and opportunities which are inclusive and accessible

There are a whole host of online resources that you can access as a student studying at one of our partnership institutions. For more information, find your institution on our library gateway list and see how we can help to support you.

Study Skills – Academic Phrasebook

Now that you’re all settled into your new course or are back, ready for the first semester, we thought it’d be a good idea to highlight some of the great resources that you have access to!

With the excitement of the new semester starting, it is useful to take a step back and consider the support that is available for when assignments begin. A good place to start is thinking about how to present your ideas and make sure that you are explaining your arguments in a balanced and critical way.

That is where the Academic Phrasebook can help you to become a better critical writer. It has information about how to be critical, to compare and contrast arguments and how to give examples to reinforce and validate your claims in an essay.

There is also a section on how to ensure that you are referencing and using your sources correctly, making sure that you are not only avoiding plagiarism, but also making the most of your additional wider reading.