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THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER
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ISSUE 133 | WEDNESDAY 15TH MAY 2019 | FREE
Revealed: Where money saved from last year’s lecturer strikes was spent Ewan Somerville
Image: Ewan Somerville
Residents damn University of Sheffield’s campus master plan as ‘thoughtless’ Ewan Somerville
Residents in the city centre have branded the University of Sheffield “thoughtless” and a “bad neighbour” as the foundations are laid on its new multi-million pound ‘master plan’. The four-storey Social Sciences
building, under construction on Northumberland Road, sits at the forefront of the University’s five year-plan to expand and has been heralded as a sign of ‘uniting’ with the local community. But Forge Press can reveal widespread anger among neighbours of the new building, with some wanting to move out
after the university’s “disregard” for their concerns. “We’ve just been getting together as residents and crying about it actually,” said Coleen Penny, 79, who has lived in the area for almost four decades. “I don’t think they give a damn about us, I think they want to do their own thing... (cont. on p7)
Students have hit out at the “shameful” and “inconsistent” offering of direct payments by the University of Sheffield for the havoc wreaked when hundreds of lecturers went on strike last year. Thousands demanded a tuition fee refund as lecture halls were deserted at 65 universities nationwide, after members of the University and Colleges Union (UCU) struck over proposed changes to their pensions. But Forge Press can reveal that the English department has offered every student the chance to apply for £100, while students in other departments received no direct payment, after hundreds of University staff staged 14 days of walk-outs in February and March last year. Students have expressed anger to Forge Press at the University’s failure to give all students the same opportunity to receive the money, and the lack of transparency in how the funds were allocated. It has been branded “a joke”
by other students from other departments who went for six weeks without any lectures or seminars while continuing to pay hundreds of pounds in tuition fees for the privilege. It has emerged that the University met with the Sheffield UCU branch and Sheffield SU to agree that £1,122,511 was saved in staff salaries during the strike period. However, despite not receiving lectures during the strike periods, there has been no refund or compensation for tuition fees - totalling £9,250 a year for UK students and up to thousands more for international students. Departments have been bidding for the funds to channel into projects, rather than directly compensating students - despite more than 7,500 students petitioning for £300 over the upset to their studies. Of the many areas funded following successful departmental bids, mental health saw the largest investment, with £464,000 spent on a new counsellor and five wellbeing advisers based in departments. A spokesperson... (cont. on p7)