22 July 2016

The University of Sheffield

Posted by Dave Petley

University of Sheffield

The University of Sheffield

It is with great excitement that I can announce this morning that, as from 1st November 2016, I will be moving to take up the position of Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) at the University of SheffieldThe University has formally put out a press release with this news this morning.  A Pro-Vice-Chancellor is the equivalent of a Vice-President in the US system.  I will help to provide strategic leadership in research across the university, and will lead on all innovation (knowledge transfer, enterprise, consultancy, business generation, etc) as well.  It is a very exciting step for me.

Sheffield is a very strong, research-led Russell Group (the UK equivalent of the Ivy League) university.  It’s in the World top 100 institutions, with over 27,000 students and a research income of over £140 million.  It has a fabulous reputation for the quality of the student experience – it came third out of 117 institutions in the 2016 Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey for example.

Of course, this means that with great sadness I will leave the University of East Anglia on 31st October.  I will do so with real sorrow – I’ve loved my time at UEA.  It’s a great university, one that also focuses on the student experience (UEA came 7th in the same survey), and I have had the honour and privilege to work with some amazing people.  UEA is a university that has extraordinary strength, amazing staff and an astonishing can-do attitude.  Its location in the East of England means that it will play a fundamental role in the development of a gorgeous part of the UK.  Until I moved to Norwich I had not appreciated what an amazing city it is.  Being here has been absolutely instrumental to my career, and I have loved every minute of it.  The university has a tremendous future ahead of it, and I shall watch with great interest as the university develops.

But I see amazing opportunities in Sheffield, and I cannot wait to play a part in the development of that wonderful university.  It is an institution that is firmly rooted in its city and region, which will play a massive role in helping Britain to find a new path in the wake of the Brexit result.  I feel deeply honoured to have been asked to join the University of Sheffield, and am hugely looking forward to working with colleagues and students across the institution.

University of Sheffield

The new Diamond Building at the University of Sheffield, via De Zeen