J11737_Cover Spreads 15/3/06 9:23 am Page 2 Annual Report 2004/05. J11737_Cover Spreads 15/3/06 9:23 am Page 3 Contents Chairman's Foreword 1 Vice-Chancellor’s Introduction 2 Financial Review 4 Investing in the Estate 6 The Dividend of Research 8 Teaching and Learning210 Preparing for Employment 13 Enterprise and Innovation 14 In Partnership with Industry and Commerce 17 Centenary Celebrations 18 Development and Alumni Relations 22 The International Dimension 24 Part of the Region 26 The Union of Students 28 Honours and Distinctions 30 Honorary Degrees 32 Staffing Matters 34 Student Numbers 36 Examination Performance 37 Officers and The Council 38 Facts and Figures 40 The University at a Glance 41 Front Cover: View of Sheffield from Crookes (1923), by the Sheffield-born artist Stanley Royle, showing the University’s red-brick buildings in the centre ground of the picture. The other red-brick buildings to their right housed the mail order business of J.G. Graves, a generous benefactor to the University. (Bridgeman Art Library) Edited by Roger Allum, Public Relations Office. Photography by Ian Spooner. Designed and Printed by Northend Creative Print Solutions, Sheffield. J11737_Uni Annual Report 2005 15/3/06 9:24 am Page 1 ANNUAL REPORT 2004/05 CHAIRMAN’S FOREWORD 1 Chairman’s Foreword The distinctive flavour of the University committees. Mr Paul Firth, a member of Sheffield as a quality institution of of Council, was appointed a Pro- higher education has shone through the Chancellor and I look forward to Centenary celebrations and has served working with him and fellow Council as a reminder of the important role it members as the University enters its is playing at regional, national and second century. international levels. This year has seen the University’s The University Council is committed building programme continue apace, to supporting the Vice-Chancellor and including the new Information his excellent team in creating and Commons building (at £23m the sustaining an environment which enables largest capital project in the University’s scholarship to flourish, learning to be history), the continuing development of stimulated and research to prosper. the Jessop site, and final approval for Following publication of the the construction of new and Committee of University Chairmen’s refurbished student residences on the Governance Code in December 2004, Endcliffe and Ranmoor sites. Council implemented a number of These and many other developments governance changes. One of these will ensure that the University of involved streamlining the membership Sheffield continues to meet the needs of Council, with the aim of improving of students, both today and in the decision-making and allowing members future. We intend to build on our to exercise their responsibilities in a excellent reputation for high-quality more proactive way. research and teaching, and for In August 2005 I was delighted to producing distinctive graduates capable be invited to succeed Mr Peter Lee of making a major contribution in the as Chairman of Council and I thank global market-place. him for his outstanding personal contribution to the University over the past forty years. Dr Chris King, Rt Rev Jack Nicholls and Mr Vernon Smith also retired from Council and I am grateful for the support they have Kathryn Riddle given to the work of the University, Pro-Chancellor and both on Council and within its working Chairman of Council J11737_Uni Annual Report 2005 15/3/06 9:24 am Page 2 2 VICE-CHANCELLOR’S INTRODUCTION ANNUAL REPORT 2004/05 Vice-Chancellor’s Introduction When William Mitchinson Hicks, This year our research grant and the founding father of the University contract income rose by nearly 10%, and its first Vice-Chancellor, was a testimony to the academic talent introduced to King Edward VII at the we have in our institution. The formal opening of the Firth Court University’s considerable strength in building in July 1905, he could hardly the biosciences paved the way for the have imagined how this fledgling successful flotation of Biofusion plc institution of 114 full-time students on the Alternative Investment Market, would grow into one of the UK’s raising £8.23m in the process. The major seats of learning in the century Biofusion model has huge potential that followed. The University’s and it sits well with current government Centenary celebrations extended over and university thinking on fostering the whole of 2005, and our Centenary innovation from within the academic Office assembled a rich and varied community.We have taken our programme of activities aimed at a biosciences strategy a stage further by wide audience – staff, students, alumni opening the Sheffield Bioincubator, an and the local community. Among the important step in the region’s strategy highlights of the Centenary Year – and to commercialise biosciences research there were many – was the publication and develop a biosciences cluster in of Steel City Scholars, the Centenary South Yorkshire. history of the University, written by Dr Helen Mathers. Our excellent reputation in research is matched by that in teaching and There was much for us to celebrate learning, and Sheffield was one of a during the year apart from our limited number of universities chosen hundredth birthday.We opened two by the Higher Education Funding buildings – the Kroto Research Institute Council for England to host more and the Informatics Collaboratory of THE UNIVERSITY’S than one of its new Centres for “ the Social Sciences (ICOSS) – which CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS Excellence in Teaching and Learning. are dedicated to multidisciplinary The learning experience of our EXTENDED OVER THE work, allowing researchers not only to students will be considerably WHOLE OF 2005, AND collaborate with one another but to enhanced by the opening in 2007 OUR CENTENARY OFFICE work side by side in premises that are of our new £23m Information ASSEMBLED A RICH AND purpose-designed for their projects. Commons, which will provide users No fewer than twenty different VARIED PROGRAMME OF with access to printed and electronic disciplines are represented in the ACTIVITIES AIMED AT A information resources in a totally Kroto Institute, while the ICOSS integrated environment. WIDE AUDIENCE – STAFF, building has flexible space for 100 STUDENTS, ALUMNI AND researchers from academia, industry, In July 2005 the South Yorkshire THE LOCAL COMMUNITY.” public and voluntary sectors. Strategic Health Authority informed J11737_Uni Annual Report 2005 15/3/06 9:25 am Page 3 ANNUAL REPORT 2004/05 VICE-CHANCELLOR’S INTRODUCTION 3 the University that it intended to split of Sheffield, and we place great the work of the University by Mr the contract for the provision of pre- emphasis on our links with the local Peter Lee, who retired as Chairman registration nursing and midwifery community.We are a committed of the Council after eight years in training between two providers in the partner in the Creative Sheffield that role, and almost 40 years as a region. The economic costs and initiative, which is seeking to deliver Council member. operational difficulties associated with higher levels of economic growth and Our advancement as a university this decision left the University with to enhance the competitiveness of the over the past 100 years has been no alternative but to discontinue pre- city. And we were proud to be part impressive, and I am confident that registration training, a move it made of the Sheffield team that won a gold our high-quality staff and students will with considerable regret. Over the medal in the prestigious Europe in ensure that we maintain our position past ten years, we have developed the Bloom competition this summer. among the leading group of UK School of Nursing and Midwifery to The University has achieved much universities in the years to come. a point where it has the equal highest in the past year, as this Annual Report research rating and the lowest drop-out makes clear, thanks largely to the rate in the country.We will, however, dedicated efforts of our staff and continue with our excellent research and postgraduate teaching activities in the students. I also wish to acknowledge new Graduate School of Nursing and the outstanding contribution made to Professor Bob Boucher, CBE Midwifery. In the meantime, we are working closely with our colleagues in Sheffield Hallam University to ensure Vice-Chancellor Professor Bob Boucher and geography student Claire Glaviner at the start of the Sheffield Half Marathon in May 2005. A team of staff, student and alumni runners, wearing a smooth transfer of responsibilities numbered vests from 1905 to 2005, raised £15,000 for the Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice. between the two institutions. The international dimension of our work has given me the opportunity to represent the University at degree ceremonies and alumni reunions held during the year in Thessaloniki, St Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and China. These occasions provide a welcome opportunity to reconnect with our overseas alumni, and the Development and Alumni Relations Office is playing a pivotal role in this regard. Our international students make a wonderful contribution to life on the University campus, and meeting them in their home countries emphasises just how much they value their ‘Sheffield experience’. A great deal of this is down to our progressive Union of Students, which is constantly evolving to meet the ever-changing needs of its customer base. The origins and early development of the University owe much to the foresight and generosity of the citizens J11737_Uni Annual Report 2005 15/3/06 9:25 am Page 4 4 FINANCIAL REVIEW ANNUAL REPORT 2004/05 Financial Review Treasurer’s Report 2004/05 has been another demanding (8.3%) to £77m, with increases in year, which has seen steady progress both the home and overseas student towards the achievement of the markets.