Our Impact Report

The University of Sheffield Students' Union is democratically run by students, for students. Our purpose is to represent, support and enhance the lives of our students.

In this section you can discover our most recent impact report; celebrating our successes over the last year in improving the lives of not only our students but the Sheffield community and beyond.

Impact Report 2011-12

Downloads

• Impact Report 2011/12 (4MB)
• Impact Report 2012/13 (to be published Winter 2013)

Welcome from the President

Sometimes the best way of appreciating the value of something is to imagine if it did not exist.

What would Sheffield be like if 1,659 students and staff did not spread out throughout the city volunteering at residential homes, crisis centres, primary schools and homework clubs?

What would be the state of local charities and charitable causes in more distant places without the £187,110 that our students every year raise through the Students' Union?

What if all the campaigns around housing, around International students, around women's issues, in opposition to the devastating changes in higher education, around the environment, the arms trade, ethical procurement, racism, the upholding of human and animal rights and defence of the dignities of refugees, disappeared?

How much poorer would the lives of many people be and how much poorer would many of our moral conversations be?

What if the bars, clubs, restaurant and coffee shop of the Students' Union disappeared along with the packed schedule of events from Jeremy Paxman speaking to comedians taking over rooms around the Students' Union? How many fewer memories of great value would have been created and trajectories of personal development stunted?

What if the nearly 300 societies and sports clubs, from Badminton to Dance sport, from knitting society to Alternative Music Society, from Azerbaijan Society to Animal and Plant Sciences Society disappeared? How many friendships and life altering experiences will have disappeared with them?

I hope you enjoy this report but remember throughout that the Students' Union exists to change things; from national and University policies to personal experiences and the lives of people in our local community, city and the world beyond. By the hard work of the staff and students who constitute this Students' Union we continue to succeed in this every day and every year.

Best Wishes,

Abdi-aziz Suleiman
President of Sheffield University
Students' Union 2012/13