Visiting London from Sheffield: a student's guide
From the University of Sheffield to St Pancras in about two and a half hours, door to door: how to get there for less, how London works once you arrive, and how to fill a day without spending much.
What to do after graduation: a checklist for University of Sheffield graduates
Your account closes, your contract ends, your visa clock starts. The checklist for the months either side of a University of Sheffield graduation, and the support that doesn't stop when your course does.
Finishing a degree at Sheffield comes with a quiet deadline nobody announces: the moment your course ends, the things you've relied on for years start switching off. Your student account and UCard stop working, your halls contract runs out, and if you're an international student, your visa clock starts. None of it is hard, but the order matters. The checklist below shows only what applies to you; the sections after it explain each step.
Part one
Before your account closes
Once you've graduated, your student account is closed and your UCard stops working. It can happen sooner than you think: the university already asks graduands to use a personal email for robe orders, because university accounts are closed during graduation week. Treat the end of your course, not the ceremony, as the deadline.
Do it the week you finish
Back up everything before your account closes.
Download your notes, dissertation files, project work and anything for a portfolio. Forward the emails you'll want later: supervisors, placements, referees. And change the recovery email on any service that still points at your university address.
Your digital documents
Your HEAR or transcript and your digital certificate are issued through Gradintelligence, the university's official document service. Don't register for it yourself; the university creates the account and emails you to activate it. Before you leave, switch the account to a personal email address. Gradintelligence prompts you when your final documents are issued, but it's easier to do it while you're thinking about it.
The library, and anything you owe
Return anything still on loan. After that, you can apply for free alumni library membership: you visit in person and can borrow up to five items at a time, though remote access to e-resources ends. And check you don't owe the university anything. Every debt has to be cleared before you can graduate.
Sort before your account closes
- Files and emailDownload and forward anything you'll need.
- Recovery addressesOn any service using your university email.
- GradintelligenceSwitch it to a personal email.
- Library loansReturn them, then apply for alumni membership.
Part two
Career: build momentum
The summer after a degree has no timetable, and that's the trap: weeks of meaning to start add up fast. You don't need the perfect role by graduation day. You need to be moving, because a recent job, internship or project is far easier to talk about in an interview than a blank stretch on your CV.
The Careers Service doesn't stop
Sheffield graduates can keep using many of the Careers Service's services for as long as they need them. Activate your graduate account on Career Connect to see vacancies and book appointments, join the employer events and webinars, or drop into one of the Employability & Placements Hubs. There's extra support if complicated personal circumstances are getting in the way of applications.
Worth joining this week: the Careers Service's Graduate Careers Support Network group on LinkedIn, which posts live vacancies and events for Sheffield graduates. Its Graduate Outcomes Database shows what recent graduates went on to do.
Graduate schemes and timing
Many structured graduate programmes open applications in the autumn, but plenty of employers recruit all year. Use the time before then: research sectors, rewrite your CV with your final results on it, and practise the tests and interviews. If you'd like to stay in the city, the university itself is a large employer worth a look.
Use the people around you now
Your network is at its easiest to build right now, while your coursemates, supervisors and placement contacts are all in the same place. Connect with them before everyone scatters. Sheffield Insights and the Boardroom talks put you in front of successful alumni, and the university's LinkedIn alumni tool lets you find people a few years ahead of you.
"As a University of Sheffield graduate, you can continue to use many of our services for as long as you need us."
— The University of Sheffield Careers Service
Part three
For international students
If your plan is to work in the UK after your degree, read this part first: the job search, the flat and the bank account all depend on it.
The Graduate visa
The Graduate visa gives you the right to work after your degree, in almost any job, without an offer or a sponsor. It lasts at least 18 months, and three years after a PhD; GOV.UK has the current length for when you apply. You can apply once the university has told the Home Office you've successfully completed your course, without waiting for your ceremony or certificate.
The order of events
Your Student visa has to be valid when you apply.
Expect a decision in about eight weeks; you're allowed to remain in the country in the meantime. What you mustn't do is travel outside the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man before it arrives, or the application is withdrawn.
The Graduate visa is a one-off, with no extension. If you hope to remain longer, line up the move to another route, usually a Skilled Worker visa, well before it runs out.
If you're going home
Leaving the UK? Tie off the paperwork before your flight: decide what happens to your UK bank account, end your tenancy formally, and make sure the address on your student record is where you want your certificate to go. Each of those takes minutes here and weeks from abroad.
Part four
Moving out
Check your contract end date now, not the week you're due to move out. In university halls, undergraduate 42-week contracts end in mid-July, and summer ceremonies can fall after that, so you may need somewhere to stay for your own graduation. If family are travelling in, book early.
Moving-out evidence
- Photos, with datesEvery room, the day you return the keys.
- Meter readingsIf you rent privately: landlord and suppliers.
- Deposit terms, written downAn email beats a promise on the doorstep.
- Where your post goesA forwarding address, set up before you leave.
A deposit dispute is a five-minute conversation while you're here, and a long email chain once you've gone.
Staying in Sheffield?
Council tax is the bill new graduates forget. Students are exempt, but only for as long as the course lasts, not until the ceremony, and a shared house loses its exemption once its residents aren't all students. Tell Sheffield City Council when your circumstances change, before a bill arrives.
Part five
Money and admin
Your bank account
Most banks move student accounts to graduate accounts automatically, but the overdraft terms change, sometimes gradually and sometimes not. Find out when yours does before it happens.
Your student loan
Nothing is repaid until you earn above your plan's threshold; above it, your employer takes 9% of the difference with your tax. Earn less than the threshold in a pay period and nothing is taken. To find your plan, log in to your student loan account; GOV.UK lists the current thresholds.
Health, the gym, and everything on your university email
If you still live in Sheffield, you can keep using the University Health Service; if you're moving away, register with a GP where you'll live. Sport & Physical Activity keeps your student rate while your membership continues, or you can join as an alumnus. And go through anything that runs on your university email, from software to subscriptions, before the account closes.
Part six
Your degree certificate
If your award is conferred at your ceremony, you're handed your certificate as you come off the stage. If you graduate in absentia, it's posted to the address you gave when you registered. If you registered to attend and then didn't, without letting the Graduation Team know, it's held until you claim it.
Your digital certificate arrives in Gradintelligence after your award is conferred, alongside your HEAR or transcript. Employers, visa caseworkers and professional bodies all ask for proof at some point, usually at short notice. A lost paper certificate can be replaced for a fee, but it's easier to look after the first one.
Make a copy straight away.
A photo or scan of the paper certificate, saved in your own storage next to the Gradintelligence version, means you can answer any request for proof in a minute.
Part seven
Keep your network
Your course group won't be in one city for much longer. Before people start jobs in different places, make the contacts that are easy now: swap details with your seminar group, connect with the people from your group projects, thank your supervisor properly. In a few years those names will be in your industry.
You're a member for life. From the day you graduate, you belong to the University of Sheffield's alumni community. The benefits include free alumni library membership, careers advice, lifetime Students' Union membership and a discount on postgraduate study, plus reunions, events and international alumni groups.
Keep your contact details up to date, too. The national Graduate Outcomes survey gets in touch 15 months after your course ends, and the alumni team can only reach you if they know where you are.
Part eight
Keep the momentum
Only three things here have hard deadlines: your account, your contract and, for some, your visa. Do those first. The career steps have no deadline, which is why they're the ones that slip; give them a fixed slot in your week, and the months after your course become a run-up rather than a pause.
Come back to the list.
Your ticks are saved on this device, so the checklist above remembers where you got to. Each step's official page is linked below.
Reference
Useful links
Official sources
- University of Sheffield — Post-study supportWhat graduates keep, and what switches off.
- University of Sheffield — Graduate career supportCareer Connect, appointments and events for graduates.
- University of Sheffield — Alumni benefitsLifetime membership and what comes with it.
- University of Sheffield — Alumni library membershipFree, in person, up to five items.
- University of Sheffield — Digital certificatesGradintelligence, your HEAR and transcript.
- University of Sheffield — GraduationCeremonies, registration and the day itself.
- GOV.UK: Graduate visaEligibility, length and how to apply.
- GOV.UK: Repaying your student loanPlans, thresholds and payroll.
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