About

Our History

The University of Sheffield has a significant number of international staff, a diverse group of individuals, who bring global perspectives, a variety of cultures, and a broad range of experiences and needs. 

This includes 1724 people (as of 27/11/25) who have some kind of immigration status or dual nationality. But there are many more colleagues who are not part of this statistic because they have British nationality and who identify as an international staff member due to their background, so the figure is likely significantly higher. 

To support and represent this vibrant community that makes up at least 20% of all University staff, we created the International Staff Network in June 2023: a space for international staff to connect, share experiences, and ensure their voices are heard.

The idea of the International Staff Network was originally born in ISSAC (the International Student Support, Advice and Compliance team) which had a significant number of international staff. We were all negatively affected by the introduction of the international working policy which no longer allowed us to temporarily work from abroad for personal reasons, something that we had benefitted from for a few years until the policy was implemented. We realised that, since so many staff at the University of Sheffield are international and in the same situation, this would affect so many colleagues. So we put their heads together and thought of creating a network so that those with similar needs could work together on issues that affected a whole community, being much stronger together than as individuals. But we didn’t want the network just to be for the purpose of challenging this particular issue, we realised that there was much more scope for building this community. After a year we decided that it was important to formalise the network more and realised that it was important for staff to be represented by a variety of different colleagues from different departments and academics and administrative staff alike. We also realised we needed to allocate roles and responsibilities to have the capacity to develop the network further. In November 2025 the new committee was elected and we are now busy putting ideas into practice.

Scope of the network

• Advocacy - We advocate and lobby for organisational policies that benefit the international staff community and aim to represent the views and needs of this diverse community. However, we cannot provide individual representation or legal advice. We highly recommend that you join a Trade Union as you this allows you to access personal support and advice. Whilst any of the trade unions will be able to represent you, UCU is currently the only trade union to officially recognise migrant status as an equalities issue, with a dedicated equality strand devoted to advancing the interests of migrant members. It also provides legal support to migrant members around immigration matters. 

• Advice - We cannot provide individual advice but we might be able to provide advice on a generic basis, for example on the International Working Policy or we can aim to point you in the right direction of seeking relevant advice. We might be able to seek clarification on your behalf where this benefits the whole of the international staff community.