The Information School is worthy of its ranking

I made my best decision to choose to study at the University of Sheffield as an MSc student in Information Management. In the year I have not only extended my academic vision and gained many technical skills, but stored a wonderful memory in Sheffield as well.

Firstly, I have to say I believe that the Information School is worthy of its ranking (number one for Library and Information Management QS World Rankings by Subject 2024).

Learning from experts

All the teaching staff in the School are experts in the academic field, using their understanding and experience, trying to illustrate complex concepts in a way that’s easy to understand.

Some of them are very strict on students’ reading quantity, which means in your spare time, you need to read a lot and try to take a critical view on several topics. Others are patient in teaching trainees how to operate on programs. They go out of their way to meet the students’ requirements and make timely adjustments based on the feedback from students. I really appreciate that.

Mastering theory and practice

The modules in the Information School have a wide range of theoretical and practical elements. The choice of optional modules is quite wide, from database design to business intelligence. It can suit students from different backgrounds and interests. If you want to learn some program coding skills, the technical team will also be there to help.

As for myself, I enjoyed the Python program and Visualization best among all of the modules. Peter and Deep are knowledgeable and teach us in great detail. There is no possibility for me to miss anything that I do not understand in the lectures.

What’s more, the staff at the Information School also helped me a lot. Being a student rep and student ambassador, it seems that I am always coming up with students’ requests and ideas. However, the staff kept patient all the time and tried their best to connect students and professors.

The usefulness of a personal tutor should be mentioned here as well. They are always replying to emails quickly and discussing with you anything you’re concerned about.

Falling in love with Sheffield

The city of Sheffield is peaceful and harmonious, which suits the learning environment. If you are a hiking fan, you can even try to walk to the Peak District in a single weekday. Chatsworth House is so fantastic that you should never miss that. It may change into different styles and decorations according to different festivals. By the way, the view from the peak is quite fantastic - you will thank me after your journey.

Nowadays, I miss the department building and Wednesday meetings. I miss Dr Peter’s cunning ideas in the Database Course. I also miss the opportunity to play basketball with a range of international students in Goodwin each Sunday. Although the University and department tried their best to make our study comfortable, it’s hard to avoid missing the beautiful life studying in modern classrooms.

Applying my knowledge

The knowledge which Peter taught in the Database course should be highly recommended if anyone wants to be involved in any work related to database and informaton systems. I also use SQL and visualisation in my daily work, so I would recommend modules related to those. I can still remember some of the examples given in class, like the 'car management system' - that might be the introduction of my interest in cars!

I am now an employee of a famous manufacturing company. As a support engineer in intelligent manufacturing, I mainly solve problems on our logistic system either with the suppliers or our frontliners, so I need to be familiar with our databases and systems. It's a kind of work that need patience and experience.

Besides that, I am also asked to play several product manager roles in my work. So all of the knowledge I got in Sheffield has helped me a lot when dealing with non-IT worker requirements. The knowledge management ideas taught on the Information Management course help me organise issues and findings in a detailed document, while what I learned on the dissertation research methods course helps to me figure out user stories in a more easy to understand way. Knowledge management should be inspiring to a great many people since this is a big area for future development.

If you have the chance of coming to study in Information School in Sheffield, I highly recommend you coming and see what you can find here. You will never regret the choice you’ve made studying here!