What our graduates say about professional education.

Architecture Graduate

"...the School of Architecture's approach to the subject taught me not just professional skills but how to organise my thoughts. The schools network and reputation make it easy to brace education with professional practice. I hold my experience there in great regard."

Architecture

Lukas Barry

Lukas completed his degree in architecture at the school of architecture in 2005 and returned in 2008 to study for his MArch. He took 2 years out in between as part of his professional development in which he benefited from the schools extensive professional network and worked for the highly successful young practice Carmody Groarke; where one of the partners Andy Groake is also a Sheffield Graduate. Carmody Groarke have won numerous competitions and awards and rose to public prominence for their memorial for the innocent victims of the July 7th London bombing. While studying, Lukas and fellow student Patrick Skingley won the design competition to build a bar to celebrate the School of Architecture's centenary. The finished project was shortlisted for the national Architects Journal 'Small Projects' competition. After graduating from the Masters course, Lukas took up a permanent position at Carmody Groarke and now runs several high profile projects in London . He also continues to pursue the interests he developed at university, and with fellow graduate Alastair Parvin, recently gained much attention after winning the international 'Airplot' competition for Greenpeace.

Education Graduate

"The experiences and guidance I received whilst at Sheffield University have been a fundamental part in the continued development of my professional practice."

Education

Al Owen

After completing a PGCE in English in 2006, Alun Owen accepted a teaching post at Maltby Comprehensive School (now Maltby Academy) in Rotherham. He has worked with Rotherham Local Authority by leading on the innovative use of digital technologies to support learning and progress in English teaching. During his second year of teaching, he was promoted to Learning Specialist to allow him to share and shape best practice across the school. Alun then took on the role of Key Stage Four coordinator within the school. He has worked with a range of external bodies, including the National Strategies and examination boards, to pilot, develop and evaluate new initiatives, including the implementation of the Functional Skills in English qualification and the New Specification GCSEs in English. In his third year of teaching, Alun was appointed Head of Department. He has maintained close relationships with the University, working withinitital teacher education students both in school and through University workshops.

Information graduate

"The variety of subjects, teaching methods and research methodologies covered on the MA Librarianship course were a highly valuable introduction to the world of work in the information world."

Information

Chris Rhodes, MA Librarianship, 2007.

After completing a Philosophy BA at Sheffield, followed by a Librarianship Masters, Chris joined the House of Commons Library. He worked initially in the Indexing and Data Management section, before transferring to the Statistics Resource Unit (SRU) where he is currently Enquiries Executive. The SRU provides bibliographic, technical and enquiry support to the Social and General Statistics and the Economic Policy Sections of the Library. These are two of the busiest sections in the Library and provide MPs with information ranging over a wide variety of statistical and economic topics. Chris's role involves coordinating responses to enquires to the two sections from MPs and their researchers. Chris enables the specialist economists and statisticians to produce in-depth briefing papers, answer urgent enquiries and enquires of a highly technical nature. Chris also produces various current awareness briefings, such as 'Unemployment by Constituency' - a monthly email that is tailored to each recipient, giving details of the labour market in their local area.

Journalism Graduate

"The MA in Broadcast Journalism at Sheffield offered everything I wanted and the teaching was superb. The course did more than just give me the skills; it made me a journalist."

Journalism

Neal Mann

Neal joined the professionally accredited Postgraduate Broadcast Journalism course at Sheffield in 2006 after completing a BA (Hons) in Archaeology at the University of Nottingham. He walked straight into a job as a researcher at Channel Five news and within six months was working as a field producer, co-ordinating logistics to cover breaking news stories, producing news packages and conducting interviews. He conceived and developed a series of investigative reports on paedophile activity in the online virtual world Second Life, which formed the basis of an entry shortlisted for the Royal Television Society Specialist Journalist of the Year 2009. In February 2009 he joined Sky News as field producer and deputy news editor. He has co-ordinated live coverage of and reaction to some of the biggest stories in recent years, including the Cockermouth floods, the Raoul Moat shootings in Northumbria, the Pope’s visit to Britain and Gordon Brown’s departure from Number 10 Downing Street. He was the first to confirm that Derrick Bird had killed his own twin brother during the Cumbria shootings. Neal has recently started work on Sky’s foreign desk.

Landscape Graduate

"...the experiences and teaching i received while on the Undergraduate and Diploma courses and the University of Sheffield and from living and spending time in the City have been of immeasurable value."

Landscape Architecture

Ian Wale, Landscape, 2007.

After his first three years in the Department of Landscape, Ian Wale was awarded the Martin McLaren Horticulture Scholarship of the Garden Club of America and Royal Horticultural Society in 2005, which enabled him to study at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, for a year. Afterwards, he worked at the London office of Capita Lovejoy before returning to Sheffield. During his final year Ian won one of two places open to UK Landscape Architecture students and a travel bursary from the Landscape Institute to take part in an urban design Summer School hosted by Tongji University in Shanghai. Since completing his University studies in 2007, Ian has been working as part of the team at Capita Lovejoy in the London studio, completing the requirements for the Pathway to Chartership (P2C) programme to become a Chartered Landscape Architect. He has been engaged on a range of projects in the UK and overseas, including Eastern Europe, the Middle East and the US. He has also become a visiting tutor in the Department of Landscape on design projects.

Law

Peter Mahy

Peter obtained his LL.B. law degree at the University of Sheffield in 1993 and joined Howells Solicitors, in Sheffield, in November 1996. The firm employs over 300 staff many of whom studied at Sheffield University. Peter became a Partner at Howells in November 2002 and now heads up the Howells Civil Liberties Team who deal with complaints and actions against the police, judicial review in particular Human Rights Act challenges, claims against public authorities, prisoners rights, deaths in custody, mental health, immigration, inquests and criminal law challenges. Peter’s work attracts high profile media coverage and he well-known. He often appears on national television and radio. Peter has written articles published in the Gazette, Solicitors Journal etc. He has been listed in Chambers and Partners as a leading individual for many years in relation to Police Law, Civil Liberties/Human Rights and Administrative and Public Law. Peter has over 30 reported cases and often handles high profile cases. He conducts cases before all levels of courts, including the House of Lords and the European Court of Human Rights. He has been involved in some of the most important Human Rights challenges in the House of Lords particularly Middleton and Sacker the successful challenges to the inquest system. Peter was recently successful before the Grand Chamber of the ECHR in S and Marper a challenge to the UK’s policy of retaining innocent people’s DNA. Peter became a Legal Services Commission peer reviewer in the Actions Against the Police category in 2006 and has a special interest in quality. In 2010 Peter was awarded the prestigious “Legal Aid criminal defence lawyer of the year”.

Property Graduate

"...the wide variety of knowledge gained and high standard of teaching experienced during my time at the University of Sheffield have made the transition to the working environment in the property industry very easy."

Property Development

Matt Baddeley, MA Commercial Property 2007-08, Department of Town and Regional Planning

Matt joined the University of Sheffield in September 2007, keen to build on his BA Geography degree with a professionally accredited Masters degree. He thrived during his year, enjoying the academic challenges of his MA Commercial Property and relishing the opportunities to engage with practitioners. Matt also managed to find a little time to pursue his love of sport. This paid dividends when he was able to successfully complete an innovative dissertation, investigating the rising trend of property funds diversifying into marina investment. His enthusiasm for the topic certainly proved popular during job interviews, helping to secure Matt three job offers. He confirmed his place with Savills, the listed global real estate service provider, in their Manchester office, keen to keep his northern roots, at least to start with. Working hard through the recession, Matt is soon due to sit his final assessment towards gaining chartered status, to become a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. Building early links with the surveying profession, with the support of Savills Matt is now Sports Secretary for RICS Matrics Manchester, with responsibility for organising all the sporting events for surveyors across Manchester which is good fun, but quite testing at times!

"This was an invaluable learning experience for me. It gave me the opportunity and time to think and reflect and has provided me with a sound basis for my career development. My time at Sheffield gave me a belief in myself, confirmed my chosen career path and gave me the confidence to build a career in this challenging field."

Social Work

Beatrice Miller

Beatrice graduated from the MA in Applied Social Studies in 2002. This course of study entitled her to register as a professionally qualified social worker. She has worked since then in a variety of settings in the field of Child and Family social work. After an initial post-qualifying period spent in various community-based settings in Derbyshire and Sheffield, Beatrice moved to Brighton to undertake work with a child protection team linked to maternity and paediatric hospital services in the city. She returned to take up a post as senior practitioner in Derbyshire in 2009 and, in addition to her responsibilities for complex child care cases, much of which involves her in court proceedings, she also has responsibility for practice education in the north of the county, helping to support and develop the next generation of student practitioners. Beatrice is keen to return to undertake further career development learning at the University.

Town and Regional Planning Graduate

"My time in Sheffield was a wonderful and memorable experience which i will cherish forever. I strongly recommend prospective students to opt for this much-admired University."

Town and Regional Planning

Mayurakshi Chaudhuri MA Town and Regional Planning Graduated 2005

Mayurakshi joined the Department of Town and Regional Planning at the University of Sheffield in 2004 to study the MA Town and Regional Planning after graduating from Loreto College, Kolkata with a degree in geography. Her time at Sheffield helped sharpen her research interests, and she completed a dissertation on the role of local authorities in managing environmentally vulnerable areas drawing on theories of environmental justice Upon completing the course, Mayurakshi worked for Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council as a planner, working on planning policy. After this, she returned to India and worked for an NGO which drew her attention to the links between social problems and behavioural practices. Mayurakshi decided to continue her research and is now undertaking research for a PhD in Comparative Sociology at Florida International University, Miami