Another blog week is coming up so here is a quick round up of things since the week in February.

Inevitably quite a lot of nervous energy over the last month has been expended waiting for HEFCE's funding letter for 2010-11 - the details of which we received ten days ago but which could only be released more widely on Thursday 18th.  The outcome for Sheffield is actually a little better than we had forecast - effectively a  level cash settlement (which in reality means a reduction in income because of inflation).  The trouble is that there will almost certainly be other bad news to come - in the forthcoming budget, and in a probable further emergency budget in July after the general election (which will probably add further cuts to the other £600 million across the sector that has already been announced but not yet allocated).  This is a very difficult period to plan through, especially when the Browne report on student funding looks now as if it could well come out in July of this year and hearld further changes to the funding regime.

I will add one other reflection on the last few weeks - relating to the University's connections to schools and colleges.  Since my last blog entry I have:
- had two meetings with a new colleague we have appointed to link this university more strategically with Sheffield City Council over raising the educational performance of young people in the city and increase participation in higher education
- had a meeting with two senior colleagues from the umbrella bodies that represent independent schools
- attended an 'awards evening' at the local college where I am a governor - a college that according to certain indicators has the third most deprived catchment area in England
- had a number of discussions about what we should be aiming for in terms of the composition of our student body.

There are very complex issues here.  Amongst English Russell Group universities it is only Sheffield and Liverpool that substantially exceed the benchmark for state school entries handed down to us by HEFCE.  We can take pride in the very successful widening participation actions we have taken, which have contributed to a significant increase in young people from local areas coming to university who would never previously have thought about it.  At the local awards evening it was reported that 500 young people from the college have now progressed to either Sheffield Hallam or the University of Sheffield in the 6 years since the college opened.

But the fact that we exceed our benchmark for state schools could be looked at another way - that we under-recruit from the independent sector.  I would actually like to see better recruitment from such schools for three reasons:
1. We want to educate the most able students with the greatest potential - wherever they are from and whatever their background.
2. There are certain disciplinary areas where a high proportion of those taking the relevant A levels are in independent schools - for example in parts of the sciences and in languages.  A couple of years ago it was reported that over half of all young people studying for A levels in Maths, Physics and Chemistry were in the independent sector.
3. A more complex reason is that I believe that we can benefit all our students by taking them out of their 'comfort zones' and exposing them to interactions with people who come from backgrounds they have not previously encountered.  One of the most significant here is to encourage contact between UK and international students - and it distresses me how often I see UK students holding back from making such connections.  A few more students from independent school backgrounds would, I think, reduce the perception of differences that some of our students hold. One of my students recently went to an assessment centre and was clearly fazed by meeting, for the first time in his life, people from independent schools: it seems he immediately felt to be at a disadvantage - no doubt because of his own deep-seated prejudices (but possibly also through theirs).  A few more independent school students here might help to change that - and add yet greater diversity to our student population, for the benefit of all.

I recognise that these views may be controversial: I await comments!