Head of Department, Psychology, Sociology and Politics

Sheffield Hallam University is one of the UK’s largest and most diverse universities: a community of more than 30,000 students, 4,000 staff and more than 280,000 alumni around the globe. Our mission is simple: we transform lives. Our vision is to be the world's leading applied university; showing what a university genuinely focused on transforming lives can achieve.

Shortlisted this year for the Times Higher Education (THE) University of the Year, in the last three years we have been university of the year in the UK Social Mobility Awards and the Educate North awards, the Good University Guide’s university of the year for teaching quality, as well as receiving THE’s awards for entrepreneurial university of the year and for the outstanding contribution to the local community. The University leads thinking on higher education policy, civic engagement, widening participation and the role of universities as drivers of success in their communities.

We are now looking for our next Head of Department, Psychology Sociology and Politics to provide visible strategic leadership for the department, in a way which supports and enables our ambition to be the world’s leading applied university, delivers an excellent student experience and ensures a coherent and integrated approach to the enhancement, expansion and quality of all aspects of the department’s activity.

As our next Head of Department, you will oversee a significant period of change, supported by an incredibly committed staff group dedicated to the highest levels of student experience. You will be:

• Leading the revalidation of our UG and PG provision, ensuring its ongoing sustainability.
• Developing a sense of student community equally across all three subject groups.
• Communicating a clear vision and leaderships structure for the department and balancing priorities across all subject groups.
• Working with department leads to improve graduate outcomes, to a position where we are sector leading across all awards.
• Ensuring research is a fully inclusive endeavour across the whole department.
• Managing the department’s move to a new, state-of-the-art building in spring/summer 2024.

Importantly, as a member of the College Leadership Team, you will share our ‘Hallam Values’ of ambition, collaboration, inclusion, innovation and integrity, visibly role modelling these to staff both within the College and externally.

This is a key appointment for us, and it will be for you, so we will invest time to get to know you and to give you the chance to get to know us. For a confidential discussion please contact our advising consultants at GatenbySanderson:

• Manjit Mundair-Lalli manjit.mundair-lalli@gatenbysanderson.com
• Hilda Gjika hilda.gjika@gatenbysanderson.com
• Julia Roberts julia.roberts@gatenbysanderson.com

We particularly welcome applications from women, candidates from ethnic minority backgrounds and disabled candidates, who are under-represented at senior academic levels.