Accessible Higher Education at the School of Law

The School of Law is committed making higher education accessible, through a range of widening participation, equality, diversity, and inclusion, and other initiatives. Here are some of the ways we offer support to applicants and students.

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

The School of Law seeks to be an equitable, diverse, and inclusive space for staff and students. We strive to create a community based on trust and respect, recognising everybody’s dignity and humanity. We want to be a place where work and study is engaging and innovative, enabling everyone to reach their full potential.

 

We also recognise that work and study is just one part of a person’s life: we want to create an environment with healthy boundaries around work and study, which help people to flourish inside and outside of the university, enabling them to meet their interests, needs and responsibilities in all areas of life. 

 

We value diversity in our teaching and research. Knowing that the world privileges particular voices, interests and experiences, we work against the grain to ensure that marginalised and minoritised perspectives are included in our work. We consider this to be a matter of justice and academic excellence: the latter cannot exist without the former.

Reducing the Cost of Education

At the School of Law, we don’t think that you should need to pay anything extra in order to pursue your studies to their fullest. That’s why all our module reading lists are connected to the eResources available via the University of Sheffield library. This includes any textbooks that you are expected to read, and the School of Law subscribes to the Oxford University Press Law Trove of online textbooks so that you can access a wide variety of different textbooks, for free, anywhere you want to study.

As a student, you can borrow laptops and use a PC on campus, including in the School of Law building (Bartolomé House). 

The School of Law building (Bartolomé House) is accessible from nearby bus and tram stops.

Scholarships and Work

The School of Law offers paid opportunities to act as Student Ambassadors for a wide range of events, such as Open Days. We also participate in the Sheffield Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) scheme which offers undergraduate students a paid opportunity to work in partnership with academic on a research project.

As part of your degree, you can also choose to undertake a placement year, working in a paid position whilst gaining invaluable experience to support your future employability.

Widening Participation

The School of Law is committed to being a place for everyone to be able to study, regardless of background. That’s why we run the Access to Sheffield (Law) programme where you'll have the opportunity to take part in on campus activities, external visits to law firms and courts, and work experience placements. You'll also work with current undergraduate law students gaining an understanding of what studying a law degree here at Sheffield is really like.

Support for Commuter Students

Many students in the School of Law choose to remain living at home and commute to campus for all or part of their degree programme. 

The School of Law building (Bartolomé House) is accessible from nearby bus and tram stops.

Rather than having to carry around heavy textbooks, all our module reading lists are connected to the eResources available via the University of Sheffield library. This includes any textbooks that you are expected to read, and the School of Law subscribes to the Oxford University Press Law Trove of online textbooks so that you can access a wide variety of different textbooks, for free, anywhere you want to study.

As a student, you could even leave your laptop at home and borrow a laptop or use a PC on campus, including in the School of Law building (Bartolomé House).

In Bartolomé House, we have a range of social and study spaces. There are also extra general study spaces and bookable spaces for group work available in the University library buildings which are only a short distance from the School of Law.

If you are commuting from further afield, or study outside term-time, the University of Sheffield participates in the SCONUL Access scheme so that our students can access study spaces, books and journals at other university libraries up and down the country.

Academic Skills and English Language Skills Support

As part of the School of Law’s commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion, we recognise that students start their degree with different skills. We want to ensure that students all have access to the right support to ensure that they can get the best out of their academic study. 

This starts in the School of Law with the Academic Tutoring programme. Each student is paired with a member of academic staff who is a key and consistent contact throughout your studies. Your Academic Tutor will help you to reflect on your academic progress and development, whilst signposting you to other opportunities and support where required. 

Religion, Belief, and non-belief

 The School of Law building (Bartolomé House) is a short distance from prayer rooms with Wudhu facilities at both the Students’ Union and the Information Commons buildings.

Gender Equality

The School of Law is committed to gender equality and has been awarded an Athena Swan Bronze award in recognition of its efforts to embed equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) within the department. The award recognises the School of Law’s actions to building a strong evidence base for change and in nurturing a learning institution. The School of Law’s action plan includes commitments to improve how our staff and students reflect society’s diversity, to increase the visibility of female scholars and lawyers in the School of Law buildings and curriculums, and to engage staff and students about unconscious bias.

Race Equality

The School of Law is committed to race equality. The School has financially supported the start-up of the student-led BAME Law Society which runs social and careers events. The School has developed law-specific resources and training for staff on Decolonising the Curriculum. 

Disability Inclusion

The School of Law is committed to ensuring that our learning resources can be navigated and understood by all students through our actions to ever increase the digital accessibility of our learning resources. Ensuring content is accessible benefits everyone, not just those that rely on assistive software or subtitles. There are also assistive software and technology enabled study spaces within a short distance of the School of Law building (Bartolomé House). 

LGBT+ Students

School of Law staff convene the Lectures on Gender and Sexuality series: free guest lectures by global academics whose research concerns gender and/or sexuality, which are open to people across the city of Sheffield.

Students with children

The School of Law building (Bartolomé House) has a dedicated baby change and feeding room available to its students.