New campus for university amid teaching job cuts

Sheffield Hallam University's new city centre campus

Sheffield Hallam University has defended its decision to spend £140m on a new campus despite staff redundancies and industrial unrest.

The city centre site, which was first announced in 2018, has now opened but the University and College Union (UCU) has threatened further strike action over the possibility of 300 more jobs being lost.

A two-day walk-out over pay has already taken place after 450 members of staff were made redundant and the union said the campus development was "too high a price to pay".

However, Sheffield Hallam said it was "investing in the future" and that the staff and infrastructure budgets were separate.

A living wall with real plants at the new Sheffield Hallam University campus

Vice-chancellor Prof Liz Mossop said: "We have to run our university in a financially sustainable way so that involves some very difficult decisions and thinking about how much do we spend on X compared to Y.

"We take those decisions in conversation with our community and hopefully people will understand these are three fantastic buildings which are going to provide an amazing opportunity for our students and our region.

"It is a balance, we need the right facilities to attract students to come and study here, the right facilities for our research and we absolutely have to look after our staff.

"They are not easy decisions but we work very closely with our unions to make the right decisions."

Nicola Rawlins said the new campus is environmentally friendly

The new campus includes a mock courtroom for law students and a trading room for students to study the stock markets.

Nicola Rawlins, deputy chief operating officer, said: "A key part of the new campus has been the quality of our estate, the age of it and the need to provide up-to-date modern teaching facilities.

"We've relocated subjects out of our Collegiate campus and have moved staff and students out of some older, environmentally poor buildings and into what is now state-of-the-art teaching and learning facilities."

The campus has solar panels to generate its own electricity, the capability to capture and recycle rainwater, triple glazing and heat pumps. A "living wall" made up of plants around the building will improve air quality.

Ms Rawlins added: "We have created Hallam Green, a new public space that sits between the buildings, and we have roof terraces so students and staff have access to fresh air and nature, while still being right in the heart of the city centre."

The university has also invested in a new campus in London.

Prof Mossop said: "We get great feedback from our students and we wanted to take a bit of that and deliver it in London to hopefully diversify our offer so that brings income back into South Yorkshire.

"It's providing lots of opportunities for us to think about how are we linked to London and how we work best in that region as well as in in our home of South Yorkshire. It will help our university overall to become more financially sustainable into the future."

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