VARSITY 2017 by Ioan-Alexandru Herdea

I would describe Varsity like a Champions League between universities. For freshers who may not know what this, Varsity is a competition that takes place in almost in every UK city where there are at least 2 rival universities. Each sports club competes against the other one, with the idea of winning supremacy in the city.

This year, so far, the University of Sheffield AKA “Uni” fought with Sheffield Hallam University AKA “Hallam” or for ardent fans of Uni, “Poli” (abbreviation for polytechnic, which Hallam used to be) years ago in 58 sports. Over a period of almost a month, everywhere in Sheffield you could see supporting messages from both teams, on t-shirts, placards or even buildings. There was even a huge advertisement on Arts Tower “VARSITY” in black and gold colors.

 

In my opinion, this event is another reason why Sheffield University is voted as the #1 Russell Group University for student experience by THE Times 2017. I felt really proud being a Uni student, especially when I was walking with my Varsity t-shirt and the words “This city is ours” on my back.

Now, in terms of the games, most of them were free to watch. The games included many traditional sports like boxing, lacrosse, rugby, american football and of course Ice Hockey. Every student went to support their favourite team and the most awaited game was the finale of the Ice Hockey first teams.

I would like to share my experience about the last game as I attended it with  my squash club. It was the last match and was held at Sheffield Arena. It was maybe the most advertised one and I have never seen such a rush to buy tickets, which sold out in a couple of weeks. Fortunately, my club managed to buy excellent seats in the first 3 rows. As the tram was free for spectators, the trams and stops were filled with  singing and chanting spectators, similar to what you hear at football matches.  The trams were filled with supporters from both sides, so half were in black and gold and the other half filled with purple and white. When everyone reached the Arena, fans had separate entrances, to avoid any disputes and clashes. The queue was very long and there were some women walking with Instaframe for pictures. The atmosphere inside the stadium was electric with 8000 spectators and a great bonus - everyone got a free pair of inflatable clapper balloons.

 

The game was  really interesting and there was even a short fight between players. From my seat, the most fun bits were watching the players “squashing” each other on the side wall. The final result - Hallam won by 6-3, unbelievably they  marked in the last 20 seconds, but who cares… We still won Varsity overall!!!  The cup was handed to the new Sports Officer and after that, most of us headed to Varsity Roar, the most awaited party of the year.

 

A day before this big event, there had been a similar atmosphere at the squash games, just with fewer people. Unfortunately, this year we lost but almost all of the games were tough and quite close in points. The last one, against rackets #1 of 1st team, was the longest. In the 5th game Hallam led by 10-8 and our player gave one final huge push to make it 10-10 and win with 12-10.

 

Personally I cannot wait for the 2018 Varsity and see if we can defend our title over this city for the sixth consecutive year.

Well done Uni and keep goin’ !!!

Meet our International Engineering Ambassador: Adrien Gallet

Name: Adrien Gallet

Nationality: French/German

Department: Civil and Structural Engineering

Course: MEng Civil Engineering with a Year in Industry

Where’re you from?
Probably one of the most difficult questions to answer really, and it generally goes something like this. My mom is French, my father is German, though my great-grandparents came partially from Spain, France, Germany and what is today Poland. I was born in Paris, grew up in Munich, and lived five years in Shanghai. And now I'm in Sheffield! So, I guess I'm from Europe?

Why the University of Sheffield?
I could probably write an essay on this, but I will summarize it for you. To begin with, the university belongs to one of the top 100 in the world, has one of the highest student satisfaction records in the country, and boasts the best student union for eight years running in the UK. We've got the tallest university building as well (the Arts Tower with its paternosters), the university holds a Guinness Book record, we have an amazing campus that is constantly being improved upon and the 81-million pound Diamond. Speaking of which, the Diamond is a fantastic study and learning space altogether: it’s open 24/7, it is filled with silent study rooms and two separate libraries, it has world-class facilities ranging from 3D printers to flight simulators and a cable-stayed bridge. I should probably stop, but you get the idea: it’s an amazing university.

Why Civil and Structural Engineering at Sheffield?
This department is nothing short of excellence. We belong to one of the top 50 Civil and Structural Engineering department in the world (just think about that), we've got fantastic lecturers and tutorial leaders from all over the world (including England, Scotland, Australia, Holland, Germany, France, Iran, the list goes on). The last Research Excellence framework ranked us amongst the best five universities in the UK for civil and structural engineering in 2014, and there are millions of opportunities to engage with engineering at the university (Engineers without borders, Global Engineering Challenge week, Spaghetti Bridge competition, Sheffield Undergraduate Research Experience). To top it all off, you also get your own personal tutor in the first year, which is great in case you ever have any kinds of questions.

What’s Sheffield like as a city?
I've been quite a bit around in the world, and I was fortunate enough to get to see a good number of cities. And I can tell you with confidence that Sheffield ranks amongst some of the best cities I got to live in, especially as a student. Sheffield is a great city to live in in terms of living costs, it has plenty of parks (Weston Park is about 78 seconds away from the student union for example), it’s safe, it’s clean, and people are all extremely nice. The only thing one could complain about is perhaps the weather, because it gets windy and rainy just like anywhere else in the UK! But at least that gives you the motivation to study inside =)

Hobbies Sports. Any really, but I play table tennis, touch rugby and fencing, and I love to hike in the Peak District. Also just joining societies is loads of fun; the investment, poetry and chess societies have so far caught my interest. And regardless of who you are, I can tell you with absolute certainty that you will find a society (correction societies!) that will suit your interest.