Catch up with friends from Sheffield Sheffield Reunited – the online directory of www.sheffield.ac.uk/sheffield-reunited and use Sheffield alumni – is fast becoming a hive of activity, your unique alumni number (find this on the with over 4,300 people now registered users. questionnaire accompanying this magazine The more people that join, the better it gets! or request it via the Sheffield Reunited website) to register. You can post your own message for visiting alumni to read, update your contact details quickly and easily, And don’t forget to activate and even contact lost friends via the secure email your email forwarding forwarding service. Sheffield Reunited is easy to use, account so that with full instructions provided on the website. lost University friends can be But remember, you have to be registered to take reunited with you. part in Sheffield Reunited, so please visit: www.sheffield.ac.uk/sheffield-reunited www.sheffield.ac.uk/alumni Welcome Contents Welcome to the 2006 issue of Your University magazine. Simply the bes t 2 Home from home 4 2005 was certainly a year to remember as the University celebrated its Charter Centenary. A year-long programme of events celebrated 100 years of excellence and thousands of alumni, The host with the most 5 staff and friends attended prestigious lectures, came back for reunions or took part in special events and dinners in the UK, the Caribbean, the United States and Asia. Many had not been Your news 1 6 back to Sheffield since graduating and the Centenary Year gave them the opportunity to reconnect not only with old friends but also with the University. The Alumni Fund in action 8 Sheffield has always been an international university and, talking to alumni in China, Malaysia and Hong Kong, I was particularly struck by the huge amount of pride our overseas alumni have The future of Student 10 in their University. Sheffield – both the city and the University – has a very special place in their Residences hearts and they are fiercely proud of its reputation and successes. As one alumna said, “It’s a university which educates with warmth and brings out the best in its students.” Knowledge transfer – 12 This year it is the turn of the Union of Students to celebrate its centenary – it can trace its unlock a wealth of expertise history back to February 1906. Sheffield’s Union has regularly been voted the best in the UK, providing excellent support, recreation and learning opportunities for our students. Bioscience becomes 14 The original Union building was paid for by the Sheffield benefactor business Alderman JG Graves. In 1934 he donated £15,000 and said, “It gives me pleasure to offer to undertake to bear the costs of the building as a Crossing boundaries 15 personal gift to the students of the University, present and future, in the hope that it may add to their pleasure and comfort in their Your news 2 16 student years, and help towards pleasant memories of Sheffield and its people in years to come.” This tradition of support from alumni Blooming marvellous! 18 and friends continues and you can read about some of the current projects which have received generous funding from today’s In the spotlight 20 benefactors in the following pages. JG Graves A theme running through the magazine is that of knowledge transfer. The University is building Heralding a new age 22 strong, mutually beneficial relationships throughout the city and region, as well as nationally and internationally, in a spirit of innovation and enterprise. Examples include the work of the Convocation 24 Office of Corporate Partnerships, the Sheffield Bioincubator, and the Channel exhibition. Information Commons 25 We also look at plans to overhaul our provision of student accommodation. A new ‘Student Village’, comprising a range of modern, safe, conveniently located rooms and flats, is scheduled Your news 3 26 for completion in 2008/09 and will replace some of the more out-dated Halls of Residence. Finally, please remember to ‘update your details’ if anything has changed. You can use the Party in the Park, 28 enclosed questionnaire, complete one online, or better still, log on to Sheffield Reunited and and all that jazz make your changes there (www.sheffield.ac.uk/sheffield-reunited). Linda Smith 31 We hope you enjoy reading this Global perspective 32 edition of Your University. Please get in touch if Honours and awards 34 you have any comments or Letters 36 suggestions. Editor Kate Horton Public Relations Design Epigram Communications and Design Ltd Miles Stevenson Director of Cover Students enjoying the sunshine Development outside the Graves Building. The Development and Alumni Relations team (left-right Helen Booth, Kevin Beck, Thank you to Ian Spooner, of the Steve Clark, Ruth Stanley, Carolyn Noonan, Andy Cooper, Helen Scarlett and University’s Public Relations Office, for Miles Stevenson) many photos used in this magazine. Advertisements are carefully vetted, but The Development and Alumni Relations Office is your contact point at the University. the University can take no responsibility If you have any questions or feedback, please contact us: for them. Development and Alumni Relations Office Tel: +44 (0) 114 222 1071 Copyright © 2006 The University of The University of Sheffield Fax: +44 (0) 114 222 1044 Sheffield TUOS079 277 Glossop Road Email: [email protected] This publication is available in alternative Sheffield S10 2HB Website: www.sheffield.ac.uk formats. To request a different format telephone 0114 222 1303. From outside the UK telephone +44 (0) 114 222 1303. Your University 2006/2007 1 Simply 1906-1926 1926-1946 Day students: 585 (1906) Day students: 857 (1926) 857 (1926) Full-time students: 1,355 (1946) the best Male:female ratio: 74:26 (1906) Male:female ratio: 66:34 (1926) 66:34 (1926) 79:21 (1946) Highlights from First Rag magazine, called The Star, the first century produced in 1926; 85,000 of student copies printed in 1928. representation Renamed T’Wikker (after the at Sheffield Wicker Arches) in 1930. The University’s first Warden of Twikker, 1940 elected student First Student Representative Council 1906/07 Endcliffe House suspends female student in 1926 for president took office returning late on three occasions. Student Representative Council (SRC) in 1906. Since that time, formed in 1906, with FG Belton as its first president. Arrows launched in 1929 and goes on to the Union of Students become longest running arts magazine has developed into one outside Oxbridge, before folding in 1993. of the UK’s undoubted Ali Yousef, an Egyptian, was first success stories of the international student to become President student world. in 1935. Union of Students’ Building opened in 1936 and named after its benefactor, local businessman JG Graves. Women’s Common Room, Main Building Graves Building Male and female students initially occupy separate common rooms in the Main Building. Later they are allocated 4 Leavygreave (men) and 1 Northumberland Road (women) as social facilities. In the early years, girls are chaperoned at dances in Firth Hall, which ended at midnight. SRC persuades the University to purchase Rag banned in playing fields at 1942 until war Norton in 1910. ended. Rag starts in 1920, Darts (‘little with medical students arrows’) raising money for published local hospitals. as a student Ambulance newspaper bought with in 1946, proceeds SRC becomes Union of Students in 1921. having first from 1923 Rag National Union of Students founded appeared as a year later. duplicated news 20 student societies in 1910/11, ranging sheets from Association Football to Women’s during First newspaper edition of Christian Union. the war. Darts, 1946 2 www.sheffield.ac.uk/alumni 1946-1966 1966-1986 1986-2006 Full-time students: 1,355 (1946) Full-time students: 5,181 (1966) Full-time students: 8,091 (1986) 5,181 (1966) 8,091 (1986) 20,923 (2006) Male:female ratio: 79:21 (1946) Male:female ratio: 72:28 (1966) Male:female ratio: 60:40 (1986) 72:28 (1966) 60:40 (1986) 47:53 (2006) 1949 issue of T’Wikker Union President Julian Allitt marries the Broomhill pub, ‘The Fox and Duck’, acquired changes hands for £1 a Vice-Chancellor’s daughter, Eleanor Robson, in 1988. copy after it is banned in 1969. by the University for its Six of the seven sabbatical posts taken ‘offensive’ material. Led Zeppelin, by women in 1993. The Who, David Students march to Bowie, Roxy Themed club nights in the 1990s include oppose apartheid Music and Paul ‘Mrs Thatcher’s Big Night Out’, ‘Pop Tarts’ in 1959. McCartney all and ‘El Tel’s Midweek Fixture’. play the Darts, 1964 Union in Wings performed unannounced Student Reception the 1970s. at the Union, 1972 New-look Union Building set up in 1960 to show prospective students round the campus. International First Cultural Evening International Sabbatical post of President becomes Cultural Evening full-time and paid in 1960. held in 1972. Link Building and University House, opened in 1962 Pin-ups in T’Wikker cease in 1975 following Union Building revamped in £4 million protests from conversion, completed in 1996. the Women’s Liberation Last Pyjama Jump and last Rag Parade held Group. in 1996 and 1997 respectively. Nursery established in 1976 after campaign Robbie Williams, INXS and Nirvana headline New Union of Students’ Building opens in by Union. in the Union at the end of the 1990s. 1962, containing ‘the longest Union bar in the country’. Firth Court occupied for eight days End-of-year celebrations, 2000 in February 1977 over international student fees. Darts and Arrows win ‘Best College Newspaper’ and ‘Best College Magazine’ at The Guardian/NUS Student Media Awards in 1982.