Philip Larkin’s poem The Trees begins with one of his most famous lines ‘The trees are coming into leaf/Like something almost being said’. It goes on to mark, with characteristically Larkin-esque uncertainty, the endless cycle of the seasons: ‘Is it that they are born again/And we grow old? No, they die too,/Their yearly trick of…
Sheffield Hallam University’s chancellor, Baroness Helena Kennedy QC played a prominent role in last weekend’s coronation service. She had been asked to carry the Queen’s rod into the Abbey. At the start of the service, she processed with due solemnity past the assembled ranks of dignitaries beside Baroness Floella Benjamin, who had been asked to…
Sheffield is the UK’s fifth largest city by population. It has exceptional assets, including its diverse population and its green spaces. More than 60% of the city’s area is open space, and the Peak District National Park merges with the city’s borders. It has two outstanding universities, between them attracting some 70,000 students at any…
As a language model, ChatGPT has the potential to impact universities in various ways. One of the most significant impacts could be on the way students learn and interact with educational content. ChatGPT can assist students in various learning activities such as generating personalized study materials, answering questions, grading assignments, and providing feedback. By doing…
Last week the Chancellor of the Exchequer made his annual budget speech. The government, and the nation, face a challenging economic outlook. Brexit has reduced the size of the economy by something like 4% – if that doesn’t sound much, it’s actually about £140 billion a year. Unanticipated high inflation – in part, though not…
We are all, I suspect, a bit ambivalent about data. On the one hand, we all make use of it most of the time: we are booking a restaurant or a holiday, buying a new domestic appliance, using a local builder or repairer, and we look up their ratings. We try to sift what others…
The University recently welcomed its two thousand five hundredth degree apprentice. This makes the University one of the largest providers of degree apprenticeships in the country: the apprentices now study across twelve of the university’s academic departments, across thirty-five apprenticeship standards and are employed by almost six hundred employers. Apprentices are full-time employees in work,…
On Thursday evening last week, I represented the University at Sheffield’s vigil for Holocaust Memorial Day in the Winter Gardens. Drawing together an audience of civic leaders and citizens, the event commemorated the victims of genocide around this year’s theme of ‘ordinary people’. As Cllr Terry Fox, the leader of Sheffield City Council put it…
I enjoy my job leading the University. I enjoy its place at the heart of a great city and its engagement with its region. I enjoy arriving at work early in the morning, locking my bike up and chatting to the security, domestic and catering teams on my way through our buildings. I enjoy the…
Hallam Twelve Days of Christmas 2022 Most of us have our festive traditions – the family meal, the Boxing Day walk, the family board games, the silly sweaters. My definition of a tradition is that it begins when something happens two years in a row for the same reason. And so, here, once again are…
Several years ago, in my last job, I was invited to do some work in Xiamen on the Chinese coast. A young Chinese student was allocated to look after me, to show me around and, I guess, to make sure I didn’t do anything undesirable. He was, he told me, very interested in England and…
Here’s your pub quiz question for the day. What connects Hilary Mantel, Dickie Bird, Robert Winston and Geri Horner? The answer, of course, is that they have all received honorary degrees from Sheffield Hallam University. Whilst I don’t recommend playing your joker on the pub quiz round on ‘recipients of honorary degrees from UK universities’,…
This week, the University is announcing one of the most significant strategic developments in its history, a development which will be transformational for the University and the communities with which it works. We are announcing the opening of our new campus in London. Over the next decade, the Hallam London campus will become an integral…
The news crashed in day after day: a Chancellor of the Exchequer sacked by the Prime Minister, largely for implementing policies on which the prime Minister has campaigned; a new Chancellor junking the entire contents of a budget published just a couple of weeks before; Home Secretary fired for elementary security breaches; chaotic scenes in…
On Tuesday evening last week, I met Jade, Sameer, Lewis, and Ross, and seventy-two other Hallam students at an event in city campus’ new atrium. Jade, reading for an MA in International Relations and Global Crises, is a heptathlete who won a bronze medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games. Sameer is a BSc Nursing student…