Triple Times Higher Education short listing for our University

Our University has been shortlisted for three prestigious awards at the Times Higher Education (THE) Awards 2011, including University of the Year.

The University has also been shortlisted for: Widening Participation Initiative of the Year, for its Storying Sheffield module in the School of English and Outstanding Support for Early Career Researchers, for the Think Ahead Programme in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health.

The University of Sheffield is one of six institutions to be shortlisted for the coveted University of the Year title, a category that looks for evidence of particularly bold, imaginative and innovative initiatives as well as exceptional performance in research, teaching, access and business performance.

Professor Paul White, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Learning and Teaching commented: "Sheffield is a large and complex University with a wide portfolio of activities and we do our utmost to excel in each of them. The nomination for University of the Year award provides recognition of the effort that all staff and students of the University make to maintain us at the forefront of UK higher education."

Storying Sheffield, a module led by Dr Brendan Stone in the School of English, has been shortlisted for Widening Participation Initiative of the Year. This category highlights the most imaginative and innovative outreach projects that encourage people from non-traditional backgrounds to enter higher education.

Storying Sheffield is a ground-breaking module in the University’s English Literature degree programme that aims to bridge the gap between academia and the wider world. The module does this by teaming up English Literature undergraduates with local people from disadvantaged backgrounds to produce, record and collect stories and other representations of the diverse life of Sheffield and its people.

Dr Stone said: "I'm absolutely delighted that Storying Sheffield has been shortlisted. Widening participation is an issue to which the University of Sheffield is strongly committed, and to gain this national recognition for our efforts is fantastic. The students and the local community put so much into this course and what they gain is sometimes life-changing. Storying Sheffield is developing and growing, and we hope it will inspire similar initiatives across the HE sector."

The Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health’s Think Ahead Programme has been shortlisted for the Outstanding Support for Early Career Researchers category. This award judges the most innovative and exemplary schemes that enhance and develop the transferable and careers skills of postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers.

Think Ahead is a development programme for post-doctoral researchers. It is designed to help them with career planning and progression in either an academic or non-academic environment. The programme consists of a number of stages including workshop opportunities, career mentoring and fellowship coaching.

Dr Susan Bridgeford, Faculty Director of Operations for the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health, said: “The Think Ahead programme has been pioneering in its approach to building opportunities for researchers to develop themselves and their future careers. We are proud of every opportunity we are able to offer, particularly of the employer networks we have built, informing and adding value to each component of the Think Ahead programme. The most satisfying accolade is that it was the early career researchers themselves who nominated the programme for the THE 2011 Award.”

News of the three nominations comes after our University was ranked in the top 10 UK universities for student satisfaction by the National Student Survey 2011. In this year’s Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey, our University was ranked second overall in the country, top for its Students' Union, joint first for its social life, library facilities and accommodation and ‘the University most people would recommend to a friend.

The winners of the Times Higher Education Awards 2011 will be announced at a gala ceremony on Thursday 24 November in London.