Good University Guide 2023

Sheffield Hallam University

National rank

82
nd=
77.6
%
Firsts / 2:1s
85.5
%
Completion rate

Key stats

104
th=
Teaching quality
120
th
Student experience
69
th
Research quality
56
th
Graduate prospects
Sheffield Hallam University

Contact details

Address

Howard Street, Sheffield , S1 1WB,

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Telephone

Website

One of the country’s largest universities, Sheffield Hallam is digging deep to make vast campus improvements for its student community — which includes about 25,000 undergraduates. Breaking new ground in the city centre campus, the university has three buildings under construction to the latest sustainability standards. Due for completion in 2024 and carbon zero ready, they will provide teaching and learning environments for the business school and the social sciences and humanities departments. A university green is also being added, planted with trees and offering space for up to 150 people to relax among 400 sq m of greenery.

Part of a 20-year campus development framework, Hallam’s city centre developments will have £220 million invested over five years as the university focuses on its own estate while creating a new gateway to the city and contributing to its wider improvement. The development follows the £27 million Heart of the Campus teaching and learning building on Hallam’s Collegiate campus. The £30 million Charles Street Building houses education courses. Hands-on learning resources include the largest PlayStation teaching lab in the world, in partnership with Sony, and a 3D virtual radiography room for healthcare students to practice cancer treatment.

The campus upgrades should help to improve Hallam’s rates of student satisfaction, which having suffered among the 30 biggest declines over the pandemic have dropped further again this year. In our analysis of the latest National Student Survey, the university places outside the top 100 for teaching quality and the wider experience. The declines have contributed to Hallam dropping ten places to sit joint 82nd in our main league table this year. 

The university has developed a “new way of delivering learning” it tells us, which includes: in-person on campus; remote online; learning by doing (in labs, studios, simulated environments and workshops) and through working in placements, internships and volunteering. 

The campus developments chime with Hallam’s mission to transform students’ lives and give everyone the chance to reach their full potential. Another upturn among measures of social inclusion shows further proof that the university’s extensive outreach work is effective. Among widening participation initiatives, 38 per cent of applicants for September 2022 received a contextual offer lower than the standard entry requirements. The scheme targets applicants from low participation areas, as well as other widening participation criteria, At the time of writing the scheme was under review however, so this proportion may change. 

Hallam succeeds in recruiting almost 12 per cent — the largest proportion in England and Wales — of white working class boys (the most underrepresented group), which contributes to a nine-place rise in the overall social inclusion index, bringing Hallam into the top 15. 

All new entrants are placed with three advisers — specialising in the academic side, employability and student support — who work together to provide the best possible student outcomes. Such efforts are paying off in an improved completion rate for Hallam, which ranks among the upper half of UK universities. 

There was more good news for the university when the 2021 Research Excellence Framework published its results this year – rating 72 per cent of Hallam’s biggest and most diverse submission to date as world-leading (4*) or internationally excellent (3*) and triggering an impressive 20-place rise in our research quality index. Sport; art and design; and the built environment and planning produced some its best work. 

Undergraduates are promised work experience in every year of their degree, a pledge the university makes good by teaming up with more than 1,000 organisations that offer opportunities such as workshops, consultancies, short placements and real-world projects. Many courses are accredited by professional bodies and Hallam works with employers on its course design. With the latest figures showing three-quarters of graduates employed in high-skilled jobs or further study 15 months after finishing their degrees, Hallam is in the top half of UK universities for graduate prospects. 

Hallam’s employability initiatives helped earn a silver award in the government’s Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), of which the university’s vice-chancellor was chairman. He was not involved in the decision. The TEF panel complimented the institution on an exemplary commitment to the region and support for students to be retained in the area. Almost half of undergraduates come from the Yorkshire and Humber region and an even larger proportion stay and work in the area after graduation.

More than 2,000 Hallam students are enrolled on degree apprenticeships linked with about 600 employers. The institution is a leading provider of the earn-as-you-learn higher education route, offering 32 programmes in 11 study areas including policing, digital and technology, food and drink, management, and architecture and chartered planning. With the addition of seven more courses (including district nursing; dietetics; and medical ultrasound) this year and next apprentice numbers should reach 3,000. 

The first economics and finance students began courses this term, while from September 2023 Hallam will offer degrees in computing (smart technologies); computer science with artificial intelligence; and accounting and finance for sport industries. There will be no new English literature students joining from 2023 however, because the university made the controversial decision to drop the subject. Applications to Hallam have declined steeply over the past decade, by more than 40 per cent between 2011 and 2021. New student enrolments have decreased much less sharply over the same period, but after a 10 per cent year-on-year dip reached their lowest in 2021. 

Accommodation is guaranteed to first-years who apply by the August 1 deadline. There are 371 bed spaces at university-managed Charlotte Court and between 4,179 and 4,629 across Hallam’s allocated partner properties. Sports facilities at the Collegiate and City campuses include sports halls, and fitness suites while the City Athletics Stadium two miles from the City campus hosts an eight-lane track among its resources. The Sports Park at Bawtry Road (five miles away) has numerous grass and synthetic pitches as well as an indoor cricket hall. 

 

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Performance

Category Score Rank
Ranking - 82= (72)
Teaching quality 72.3 104th=
Student experience 66.4 120th
Research quality 36 69th
Ucas entry points 116 100th
Graduate prospects 75.1 56th
Firsts and 2:1s 77.6 62nd=
Completion rate 85.5 64th
Student-staff ratio 17.7 89th=
World ranking - 1001= (1001=)

Vital statistics

Undergraduates

Full-time

22,146

Part-time

2,389

Postgraduates

Full-time

4,375

Part-time

4,358

Applications/places 28,965/6,890
Applications/places ratio 4.2:1
Overall offer rate 73.7%

Accommodation

Places in accommodation 5,000
Accommodation costs £87 - £162
Accommodation contact www.shu.ac.uk/accommodation

Finance

UK/EU fees £9,250 - £14,415
Fees (placement year) £1,200
Fees (overseas year) £1,385
Fees (international) £14,415
Finance website https://www.shu.ac.uk/study-here/fees-and-funding
Graduate salaries £24,000

Sport

Sport points/rank 1,149, 34th
Sport website https://www.shu.ac.uk/gym/social-sport

Social inclusion and student mix

Social Inclusion Ranking 15
State schools (non-grammar) admissions 95.8%
Grammar school admissions 1.9%
Independent school admissions 2.3%
Ethnic minority students (all) 21.2%
Black achievement gap -25.3%
White working class males 11.9%
First generation students 52.1%
Low participation areas 24.4%
Working class dropout gap -3.1%
Mature 23.3%
EU students 1.3%
Other overseas students 2.2%

Student satisfaction with teaching quality

Creative writing 86.1%
Art and design 85.7%
Politics 85.6%
History 82.3%
English 81.8%
Drama, dance and cinematics 81.2%
Chemistry 80.8%
Hospitality, leisure, recreation and tourism 79.3%
Land and property management 77.9%
Business, management and marketing 76.6%
Food science 76.6%
Criminology 75.6%
Sociology 75.6%
Sports science 75.6%
Architecture 75.3%
Chemical engineering 75.3%
Building 75%
Economics 74.5%
Education 73.4%
Geography and environmental science 73.2%
Communication and media studies 72.9%
Law 72.6%
Biological sciences 71.9%
Psychology 71.6%
Information systems and management 70.4%
Mathematics 70.4%
Accounting and finance 70.3%
Computer science 70.1%
Radiography 69.6%
Electrical and electronic engineering 67%
Subjects allied to medicine 65.5%
Social work 64.2%
Physiotherapy 61.9%
Aeronautical and manufacturing engineering 57.5%
Nursing 55.8%
Mechanical engineering 55.1%