Strategy and ethos
With origins in the design, manufacturing and fabrication industries of Victorian Sheffield, through to the pioneering innovations of Sheffield City Polytechnic (such as industry placements, vocational qualifications, and professional accreditations), Hallam is firmly rooted in the making and creating heritage of South Yorkshire.
This is evident in the University’s Transforming Lives strategy to become the world’s leading applied university, providing practical solutions to real world challenges, making Hallam an exemplar of a modern enterprising university. This strategy drives an ethos of entrepreneurship and enterprise and has produced investment and action. As the relatively recently appointed Pro Vice-Chancellor for Business and Enterprise, my role, and that of my new team, reflects a major refocus of the University’s resources towards engagement with business and civic partnerships. We ensure that entrepreneurial principles and culture pervade the organisation, encouraging creativity, innovation and risk taking among staff, students and partners. This is not necessarily the natural inclination of large corporate entities like universities but we are developing a distinctive business-focused approach which values autonomy, enterprise and real world application.
Investment
Hallam’s entrepreneurial ethos can be seen in our campus investments, including the £2.3 million 150-business incubator Hallam i-Lab, pop-up retail outlets, and our Wellbeing Accelerator, based at our state-of-the-art Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre. Our forthcoming City Centre campus transformation includes plans for business lounges, consultancy space and an ideas marketplace to enable us to work more closely with businesses than ever before.
Start-up City
But it’s not just about bricks and mortar. We are also committed to supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Sheffield City Region, an economy dominated by SMEs and micro businesses. Our academic and professional experts currently deliver around £18 million of funded programmes offering free and subsidised support for businesses and community groups in the South Yorkshire region, including start-up, acceleration, scale-up, training, consultancy and talent management services. Our Business Recovery Task Force, established last year to offer Covid-relevant business resilience support, was recognised by the British Chambers of Commerce Business Hero Award.
As a founder member of the Sheffield Incubation and Accelerator Network, we nurture relationships across the city to ensure a holistic start-up and business support community. This drives inward investment and enhances graduate retention in the region, strengthening the local economy.
Apprenticeships
As one of the UK’s largest providers of higher and degree apprenticeships, with around 2,000 degree apprentices enrolled, we work with over 500 employer partners to enable university learning in the workplace and to address the higher-level skills gap. Named as Best University for Apprenticeship Training at the National School Leaver Awards, we have a reputation for high quality programmes that deliver the knowledge, skills and behaviours required for successful careers. Hallam’s apprentice programme offers major support for developing future talent in SMEs and large corporates across the city region and beyond.
Enterprising graduates staying in Sheffield
Entrepreneurship is woven into the fabric of our educational offer. We have just completed a two-year project to transform the curriculum of every taught programme, so all students benefit from opportunities to develop entrepreneurial capabilities, explore beyond disciplinary boundaries and collaborate with partners locally and globally. Every undergraduate course (that’s more than 20,000 students) now includes work experience or placement in each year of study including the opportunity to set up a new business as part of a new Enterprise Residency, which nearly 400 students took part in last year.
As a university that attracts a large proportion of students from Sheffield and the wider region, this means that our graduates will enter the businesses, professions, hospitals, schools and other employers of Sheffield and South Yorkshire with a healthy mix of theoretical knowledge and practical skills. Their hands on learning enables them to hit the ground running and help to transform the region’s economy as we emerge from the Pandemic.
Community support
We also offer the largest student consultancy service in the UK, where last year more than 5,000 students supervised by expert academics offered free business and support services to a wide variety of public, private and voluntary sector organisations. Enabling students to develop workplace skills whilst supporting the regional economy is a real win-win: students gain business insight, professional awareness and confidence while their clients receive valuable consultancy reports addressing a wide range of issues such as market analysis, brand development, strategic planning, access to finance. This service is free and is a tangible example of students providing meaningful support to the communities of Sheffield City Region. We are also one of the first UK universities to establish our own law firm. Hallam Legal Advice Centre is a not-for-profit teaching law firm offering services including small claims, commercial disputes, employment law, personal injury, criminal appeals and prison law.
The bigger picture – a long term commitment to the city region
We recently launched our Civic University Agreement to help address the key regional challenges we face and drive positive changes to improve the lives of residents and communities across South Yorkshire. With pledges around Jobs and Economy, Place, Health and Education, the agreement includes commitments on SME support, industry innovation, and workplace skills as part of a drive to improve productivity across South Yorkshire.
Hallam is also leading the nationwide Civic University Network, with over 100 institutions re-shaping their commitments to ‘place’ and connecting with other sectors to level up economy and society.
The Times Higher Award offers prestigious verification that Hallam is doing the right thing for our students, our city and our community by focusing on enterprise, entrepreneurship and applied learning. It emboldens us to go further and work with public and private sector partners to reimagine the advanced economy of the future and help deliver the projects that will make this a reality for Sheffield and the wider region.
