Today I attended an event with the heads of the local FE colleges in Sheffield and surrounding areas to celebrate the signing of a number of progression agreements to create links between their curricula and entry into a number of programmes in the University - particularly in the Faculties of Engineering and Medicine, Dentistry and Health.  The connections between the University and the FE sector have been fostered in recent years by the HEFCE funding for our Lifelong Learning Network (Higher Futures) which has also included Sheffield Hallam as a partner.  I see this as an important development, reconnecting this University with its roots in the interests of our local region.

Sheffield has grown into an international institution drawing students from over 130 countries in most years, and with around 1 in 6 of our students being from abroad. We recruit from the whole of the UK.  Yet our origins lie in the desire to train the workforce of the city of Sheffield.  Until after the Second World War the majority of those studying in the University were doing so on a part-time basis whilst retaining thei local employment, and many were not studying for degree-level qualifications.

I do not want to turn the clock back to those days. There are many more educational providers and opportunities around now.  But our links with local schools and colleges remain an essential part of the vision of what the University of Sheffield is and can do for the city and region of which we are part.  Today's event marked that connectivity in an important way.

We recently asked all staff in the University to volunteer to be added to a new register of school and college governorships.  Nearly 50 individuals, from all areas of the unviersity and from all types of staff, have come forward to do so.  In a couple of weeks time we are holding a celebration of this contribution of University staff to the wider civic community of our region - and I am delighted that both the Vice-Chancellor and the Director of Children and Young Person's Services in the city will be there as well. (I may actually be absent - it is taking place on my birthday, after all!).  I for one hugley value the fact that we are a university that is so strongly embedded in our city, and I know from the way that the 'Sense of Belonging' tag line of our last corporate plan was grreted by many colleagues that I am not alone in that sentiment.