, mottoeng = To discover the causes of things
, established = – University of Sheffield
Predecessor institutions:
–
Sheffield Medical School
The University of Sheffield Medical School is a Medical school (United Kingdom), medical school based at the University of Sheffield in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The school traces its history back to at least 1828. It operated independe ...
– Firth College
– Sheffield Technical School
– University College of Sheffield
, type =
Public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
research university
A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are the most important sites at which knowledge production occurs, along with "intergenerational kno ...
, academic_staff = 5,670 (2020) - including academic atypical staff
, administrative_staff =
, chancellor =
Lady Justice Rafferty
, vice_chancellor =
Koen Lamberts
Koenraad Lamberts (born 1964) is a British/Belgian psychologist and academic. Since 2018, he has served as President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield. From 2014 to 2018, he was the Vice-Chancellor of the University of York. Prev ...
, students = ()
, undergrad = ()
, postgrad = ()
, endowment = £46.7 million (2021)
, budget = £741.0 million (2020–21)
, city =
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...
, state =
South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham.
In N ...
, country = England
, coor =
, campus = Urban
, colours = Black & gold
, affiliations =
Russell Group
The Russell Group is a self-selected association of twenty-four public university, public research university, research universities in the United Kingdom. The group is headquartered in Cambridge and was established in 1994 to represent its memb ...
WUN ACUN8 Group
The N8 Research Partnership is a partnership created in 2006 of the eight most research-intensive universities in Northern England – Durham, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and York. The N8 Research Partnership ...
White Rose
The White Rose (german: Weiße Rose, ) was a Nonviolence, non-violent, intellectual German resistance to Nazism, resistance group in Nazi Germany which was led by five students (and one professor) at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, ...
Sutton 30EQUIS
The EFMD Quality Improvement System (EQUIS) is an international school accreditation system. It specializes in higher education institutions of management and business administration, run by the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD ...
AMBA
Amba or AMBA may refer to:
Title
* Amba Hor, alternative name for Abhor and Mehraela, Christian martyrs
* Amba Sada, also known as Psote, Christian bishop and martyr in Upper Egypt
Given name
* Amba, the traditional first name given to the first ...
Universities UK
Universities UK (UUK) is an advocacy organisation for universities in the United Kingdom. It began life in the early 20th century through informal meetings of vice-chancellors of a number of universities and principals of university colleges and ...
, website =
, logo =
The University of Sheffield (informally Sheffield University or TUOS) is a
public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
research university
A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are the most important sites at which knowledge production occurs, along with "intergenerational kno ...
in
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...
,
South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham.
In N ...
, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of
Sheffield Medical School
The University of Sheffield Medical School is a Medical school (United Kingdom), medical school based at the University of Sheffield in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The school traces its history back to at least 1828. It operated independe ...
in 1828, Firth College in 1879 and Sheffield Technical School in 1884.
University College of Sheffield was subsequently formed by the amalgamation of the three institutions in 1897 and was granted a
royal charter
A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, bu ...
as University of Sheffield in 1905 by
King Edward VII
Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910.
The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria a ...
.
Sheffield is formed from 50 academic departments which are organised into five faculties and an international faculty. The annual income of the institution for 2020–21 was £741 million, of which £163 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £708.6 million.
Sheffield ranks among the top 10 of UK universities for research grant funding,
and it has become number one in the UK for income and investment in engineering research according to new data published by the
Higher Education Statistics Agency
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) was the official agency for the collection, analysis and dissemination of quantitative information about higher education in the United Kingdom. HESA became a directorate of Jisc after a merger in 202 ...
(HESA). It is the 7th largest British university by
postgraduate student enrollment behind
UCL,
King's,
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
,
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
,
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
and
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
.
The university is one of the original
red brick universities
A red brick university (or redbrick university) was originally one of the nine civic universities founded in the major industrial cities of England in the 19th century.
However, with the 1960s proliferation of plate glass universities and t ...
and a founding member of the prestigious
Russell Group
The Russell Group is a self-selected association of twenty-four public university, public research university, research universities in the United Kingdom. The group is headquartered in Cambridge and was established in 1994 to represent its memb ...
. It is also part of the
Worldwide Universities Network
The Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) is a non-profit consortium of 24 research-intensive universities founded in 2000. It provides financial and infrastructural support to member universities to support international research collaboration a ...
, the
N8 Group
The N8 Research Partnership is a partnership created in 2006 of the eight most research-intensive universities in Northern England – Durham, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and York. The N8 Research Partnership ...
of the eight most research intensive universities in Northern England and the
White Rose University Consortium
The White Rose University Consortium is a partnership among three universities in Yorkshire, England consisting of the University of Leeds, the University of Sheffield, and the University of York.
History
It was formed in 1997 to combine the ...
. Sheffield has been ranked as a top 100 university in the world by
QS for the last fifteen years. In 2019, Time Higher Education ranked the University 22nd in Europe for teaching excellence. According to the latest Research Excellence Framework 2021, Sheffield is ranked 11th in the UK for research power calculated by multiplying the institution's GPA by the total number of full-time equivalent staff submitted.
There are eight
Nobel laureates affiliated with Sheffield and six of them are the alumni or former long-term staff of the university. They are contributors to the development of penicillin, the discovery of the citric acid cycle, the investigation of high-speed chemical reactions, the discovery of introns in eukaryotic DNA, the discovery of fullerene, and the development of molecular machines. Alumni also include several
Heads of state
A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 "he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and le ...
,
Home Secretaries,
Court of Appeal judges,
Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...
winners,
astronaut
An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...
and
Olympic
Olympic or Olympics may refer to
Sports
Competitions
* Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896
** Summer Olympic Games
** Winter Olympic Games
* Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...
gold medallists.
History
Origins
The University of Sheffield was originally formed by the merger of three local institutions: the Sheffield School of Medicine, Firth College, and the Sheffield Technical School. With a history dating back to as early as the 1810s, the Sheffield School of Medicine is the university's oldest predecessor institution, which is also the oldest higher education establishment in Sheffield. In 1795, the
General Infirmary was opened, becoming the first hospital in the city. Because of the
apprenticeship-type training, the medical education at that time was largely unstructured. Regarded as the father of Sheffield's medical education, surgeon apothecary Hall Overend began to train medical students in 1811. His school of anatomy and medicine was externally recognised in 1828,
and he conducted and taught human dissection in an anatomy museum at his home in
Church Street. Overend, however, was not officially registered as a lecturer with the
Society of Apothecaries
The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London is one of the livery companies of the City of London. It is one of the largest livery companies (with over 1,600 members in 2012) and ranks 58th in their order of precedence.
The society is a m ...
, a recognised body for medical education.
Physicians and surgeons of the General Infirmary suggested that a school associated with the hospital would be highly eligible for recognition by the society. As a result, in 1828, a public meeting was called by physician Sir Arnold Knight, and supported by Overend, to establish a new medical school. The Sheffield Medical Institution was formally opened a year later in 1829 on Surrey Street, with the Latin motto ''
Ars longa vita brevis
''Ars longa, vita brevis'' is a Latin translation of an aphorism coming originally from Greek, roughly meaning, "skilfulness takes time and life is short".
The aphorism quotes the first two lines of the ''Aphorismi'' by the ancient Greek phys ...
'' (Art is long, life is short), which refers to the difficulty to acquire and practice the art of Medicine. Knight laid the foundation stone and delivered the opening lecture.
The University Extension Movement emerged in the 1870s with the aim of providing education in the city which lacked any tertiary institutions. During the period, the steel industry in Sheffield was prospering and the city's population was doubled to around 240,000 from the 1840s.
In 1871, the university extension scheme arrived in Sheffield, and a group of lecturers from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge travelled to the city giving lectures and educating people about the benefits of tertiary education. Steel manufacturer and former mayor of Sheffield
Mark Firth
Mark Firth (25 April 1819 – 28 November 1880) was an English industrialist and philanthropist.
Biography
Firth was born in Sheffield, the son of Thomas Firth (1789–1850), of Pontefract, York, and Mary Loxley.
He joined the crucible steel wo ...
and clergyman
Samuel Earnshaw
Samuel Earnshaw (1 February 1805, Sheffield, Yorkshire – 6 December 1888, Sheffield, Yorkshire) was an English clergyman and mathematician and physicist, noted for his contributions to theoretical physics, especially " Earnshaw's theorem". ...
therefore organised courses in English literature and political economy. The courses became popular so Firth decided to donate £20,000 and purchase a site in the city centre (now Leopold Street and West Street) in 1877 to build a new institution for the classes.
Firth College was founded during Firth's late year in 1879 and developed out of the Extension Movement scheme to teach arts and pure science subjects. The college saved the medical school, which had an insecure early history, from collapse and took over the teaching of all background subjects to medical students.
In 1888 the medical school was relocated, opposite Firth College, to a new building on Leopold Street.
Firth College also helped to fund the opening of the Sheffield Technical School in 1884 to teach applied science, the only major faculty the existing colleges did not cover. The Sheffield Technical School was created by collecting funds within Firth College because of local concern about the need for technical training, particularly steelmaking in Sheffield. Former mayor of Sheffield
Sir Frederick Mappin
''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...
started to fundraise for the school and £10,240 was raised.
A grant was secured in 1883 to fund a professor of Metallurgy and Mechanical Engineering.
Many of the steel-making firms in Sheffield contributed to funding the Technical School, and research from the school in turn helped develop new processes and products for the companies. The Technical School was originally founded as a new technical department in Firth College, and in 1886, the school moved to St George's Square (later renamed Charlotte Street and now Mappin Street) on the site of the old
Grammar School
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...
.
William Ripper was appointed as Head of Mechanical Engineering at Firth College from 1889, then Principal of Sheffield Technical School.
Foundation
Sheffield was at that time the only large city in England without a university.
William Mitchinson Hicks
William Mitchinson Hicks, FRS (23 September 1850, in Launceston, Cornwall – 17 August 1934, in Crowhurst, Sussex) was a British mathematician and physicist. He studied at St John's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1873, and became a Fello ...
, who was Principal of Firth College from 1892 to 1897, had an ambition to establish a university in the city.
As a first stage of his ideal, Hicks was devoted to the union of the three higher education institutions in Sheffield and to transform Firth College into a
university college
In a number of countries, a university college is a college institution that provides tertiary education but does not have full or independent university status. A university college is often part of a larger university. The precise usage varies ...
. He also extended the college by creating new departments and adding new buildings.
In 1897, Firth College merged with the Medical School and the Technical School to form the University College of Sheffield, and Hicks served as its first principal.
Six years since the foundation of the university college, on 18 May 1903, the resolution to apply for a
royal charter
A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, bu ...
was passed.
The university college started to develop its estate soon after: Western House by Weston Park on Western Bank was bought and demolished in 1903 for building a new university property.
A building with a traditional collegiate quadrangle (later known as Western Bank building and now Firth Court) was planned on the site.
Sir Frederick Mappin later successfully sought financial support from the Sheffield City Council and appealed for public donations.
In 1904, steelworkers, coal miners, factory workers and the people of Sheffield donated over £50,000 via penny donations to help found the University of Sheffield.
![Arthur Stockdale Cope - William M](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Arthur_Stockdale_Cope_-_William_M._Hicks_1909.jpg)
It was originally envisaged that the university college would join
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
,
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
and
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
as the fourth member of the federal
Victoria University. The new university was proposed to be named "Victoria University of Yorkshire" by Leeds but was rejected by the Privy Council. The Victoria University, however, began to split up as independent universities before this could happen, when Liverpool gained a charter of its own in 1903. Rather than joining a Yorkshire university with Leeds, the University College of Sheffield was driven by civic pride to pursue independent university status,
to bring higher education, give support to industries and serve as a centre for disease study. Hicks also advocated the independent degree awarding power would attract talented staff.
The University College of Sheffield's charter was sealed on 31 May 1905 and became the University of Sheffield.
On 12 July 1905, Firth Court on Western Bank was opened by
King Edward VII
Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910.
The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria a ...
and
Queen Alexandra
Alexandra of Denmark (Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia; 1 December 1844 – 20 November 1925) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 22 January 1901 to 6 May 1910 as the wife of King ...
. St George's Square remained the centre of departments of Applied Science, and the departments of Arts, Medicine and Science moved to Western Bank.
Sheffield is one of the six pre-World War One
red brick universities
A red brick university (or redbrick university) was originally one of the nine civic universities founded in the major industrial cities of England in the 19th century.
However, with the 1960s proliferation of plate glass universities and t ...
, the civic universities founded in the major industrial cities of England.
20th century
In 1905, when the university first opened, there were 363 students
and 114 of them were enrolled full-time.
Sheffield at the time had 71 members of staff.
By then, the first Hall of Residence (Stephenson Hall) and library (Edgar Allen library) had been established. The number of students increased to a short-lived peak of 1,000 in 1919 when returning ex-servicemen were admitted to the university. During the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, some of the academic subjects and courses were replaced by teaching of munitions making and medical appliances production.
The university has expanded since the 1920s from two ends on Western Bank and on the St George's site.
The number of full-time students was stabilized at about 750 between the two world wars.
In 1943, the
University Grants Committee announced that universities in the UK should look forward to expansion in the years after the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
Sheffield predicted a 50% increase in student population but the university was unprepared for such growth. There was pressure on the university to expand since the student numbers had increased from around 1,000 to 3,000 by 1946.
The university announced proposals for development in 1947, which emphasised the need for new departments, medical school, library, administration building, halls of residence, as well as the completion of the Western Bank quadrangle and the extension of the Students' Union.
![Mappin Building, University of Sheffield](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Mappin_Building%2C_University_of_Sheffield.jpg)
The university then grew slowly until the 1950s and 1960s when it began to expand rapidly. Many new buildings (including the
Main Library and the
Arts Tower
The Arts Tower is a building at 12 Bolsover Street in Sheffield, England belonging to the University of Sheffield and opened in 1966. A spokesperson for English Heritage described it as "the most elegant university tower block in Britain of its ...
) were built and older houses were brought into academic use. Student numbers increased to their present levels of just under 26,000. At the same time in the 1950s, the university was expanding at other sites, including the St Georges area.
[ From the 1960s, many more buildings have been constructed or extended, including the Union of Students and St George's Library. The campus master plan proposed in the 1940s was completed by the 1970s, and the university required a new development plan.]
The 1980s saw the opening of many new buildings and centres, such as the multi-purpose Octagon Centre
The Octagon Centre, built in 1983, is a multi-purpose conference centre and music venue at the University of Sheffield, England. Situated in the Western Bank campus, it is joined by a skyway to University House and comprises an eight-sided aud ...
and the Sir Henry Stephenson Building. The university's teaching hospital, Northern General Hospital
The Northern General Hospital is a large teaching hospital and Major Trauma Centre in Sheffield, England. Its departments include Accident and Emergency for adults, with children being treated at the Sheffield Children's Hospital on Western Ban ...
, was also extended. In 1987 the university began to collaborate with its once would-be partners of the Victoria University by co-founding the Northern Consortium; a coalition for the education and recruitment of international students. The university continued to expand in the 1990s. New premises were opened for School of the Clinical Dentistry, the Division of Education, and the Management School. In 1995, the university took over the Sheffield and North Trent College of Nursing and Midwifery, forming a new School of Nursing and Midwifery. The St George's Hospital was extended and a new building at the Northern General Hospital has been constructed, which greatly increased the size of the medical faculty.
Hans Adolf Krebs
Sir Hans Adolf Krebs, FRS (, ; 25 August 1900 – 22 November 1981) was a German-born British biologist, physician and biochemist. He was a pioneer scientist in the study of cellular respiration, a biochemical process in living cells that ex ...
was appointed as lecturer in pharmacology in 1935. At Sheffield Krebs and his postgraduate student discovered the citric acid cycle
The citric acid cycle (CAC)—also known as the Krebs cycle or the TCA cycle (tricarboxylic acid cycle)—is a series of chemical reactions to release stored energy through the oxidation of acetyl-CoA derived from carbohydrates, fats, and proteins ...
(also known as the Krebs cycle) in 1937, which earned him a Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology for 1953. In 1938, the university opened the Department of Biochemistry (renamed since the 1990s as the Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology) and Krebs became its first Head. Krebs Institute, a research centre for mechanistic biology, was founded in 1988 within the Department of Biochemistry. George Porter
George Porter, Baron Porter of Luddenham (6 December 1920 – 31 August 2002) was a British chemist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1967.
Education and early life
Porter was born in Stainforth, near Thorne, in the then West ...
joined the university as Professor of Physical Chemistry in 1955 and he further developed his later Nobel Prize-winning work flash photolysis
Flash photolysis is a pump-probe laboratory technique, in which a sample is first excited by a strong pulse of light from a pulsed laser of nanosecond, picosecond, or femtosecond pulse width or by another short-pulse light source such as a fla ...
at Sheffield. Porter was appointed Firth Professor of Chemistry and became Head of the Department of Chemistry in 1963.
21st century
In the 21st century, the university opened many more major buildings in the area immediately to the east and west of Upper Hanover Street, such as the Jessop Building, the Soundhouse, Jessop West and the Information Commons. The Arts Tower building, the Students' Union and University House buildings, the Sheffield Bioincubator
The Ella Armitage Building, formerly known as the Sheffield Bioincubator is a former innovation centre in Sheffield, England. It contained offices and laboratories for small and medium enterprises in emerging technology and related areas and wit ...
and University Health Centre were also refurbished. A new campus, North Campus, was opened. In 2003, a development framework was produced by Turnberry Consulting, with proposals aimed to densify the campus. In 2005, the South Yorkshire Strategic Health Authority announced that it would split the training between Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University
Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) is a public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The university is based on two sites; the City Campus is located in the city centre near Sheffield railway station, while the Collegiate Cr ...
– however, the university decided to pull out of providing preregistration nursing and midwifery training due to "costs and operational difficulties". On 28 September 2015, a new six-storey building, the Diamond, was opened.
In February 2016, the university started to work with Sheffield City Council
Sheffield City Council is the city council for the metropolitan borough of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It consists of 84 councillors, elected to represent 28 wards, each with three councillors. It is currently under No Overall Contr ...
to transform public spaces around the campus. The £8 million project includes building and improving pedestrianisation, crossings, cycle routes, as well as greening the campus.[ The university intended to expand the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre and provision for apprenticeships; however, while the Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership recommended that the £10 million funding bid should be approved, the university withdrew the bid in November 2018. The University Concourse was refurbished in 2019 to replace the 50-year-old paving and walls. Major development projects in the 2020s include constructions of a new Information School building (Northumberland Road Building), Social Sciences Building, Royce Discovery Centre, energy centre (the Transformer), Translational Energy Research Centre, and redevelopment of the original Henderson's factory.]
Campus and locations
The University of Sheffield is not a campus university
A campus university is a British term for a university situated on one site, with student accommodation, teaching and research facilities, and leisure activities all together. It is derived from the Latin term campus, meaning "a flat expanse of l ...
, though most of its 430 buildings are located in fairly close proximity to each other.[ It is divided geographically by the ]Sheffield Inner Ring Road
Sheffield Inner Ring Road is a dual-carriageway circling central Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Marked up as the A61 all the way around, it was built from the 1960s onwards. The Ring Road connects to the Sheffield Parkway, which itself c ...
. The Upper Hanover Street section of the ring road splits university buildings into the Western Bank and the St George's campus areas.
Instead of growing from a single centre, since receiving its royal charter, the university has expanded from two academic foci about 1 km apart: Firth Court on Western Bank and Sir Frederick Mappin Building on St George's. The two foci started to fuse in the 1960s, as more buildings have been constructed or acquired by the university. The completion of the Information Commons and Jessop West buildings, in the late 2000s, bridges both west (Western Bank) and east (St George's) campus, and in 2017, a new pedestrian crossing was installed on the Upper Hanover Street, physically connecting the two campus.
The university campus is composed of an eclectic range of buildings from Victorian style to modernism
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
to contemporary
Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is o ...
. Sir Frederick Mappin Building
The Sir Frederick Mappin Building, or more familiarly the Mappin Building, is a grade II-listed building fronting onto Mappin Street, Sheffield, England, part of the University of Sheffield. The building and street (formerly Charlotte Street) are ...
and Central Block are two Victorian university buildings, now linked by a contemporary curved glass roof constructed in 2020. Opened as the Western Bank Building, Firth Court
Firth Court is a Grade II listed Edwardian red-brick building that forms part of the Western Bank Campus of the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. Located on the northern side of Western Bank, it is the main administrative centre fo ...
is a red brick Edwardian building in Perpendicular Revival style, and is connected to the 1971 modernist Alfred Denny Building
The Alfred Denny Building is a 7-storey red brick building in Sheffield, England named after the first Professor of Zoology at the department. It is part of the Western Bank Campus of the University of Sheffield, linked to Firth Court via the ...
. The nearby Arts Tower
The Arts Tower is a building at 12 Bolsover Street in Sheffield, England belonging to the University of Sheffield and opened in 1966. A spokesperson for English Heritage described it as "the most elegant university tower block in Britain of its ...
is also an example of postwar modernist building in the International Style. The Diamond, a contemporary architecture designed by Twelve Architects, is situated next to the Victorian Jessop Building on the former site of Jessop's Edwardian wing.
A total of 36 university estate are listed
Listed may refer to:
* Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm
* Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic
* Endangered species in biology
* Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...
. Of these, the Arts Tower and Western Bank Library are Grade II* listed buildings. Firth Court, Mappin Building, St George's Church, Jessop Building and the Drama Studio are listed Grade II.
Main (Western Bank) Campus
The centre of the university's presence lies one mile to the west of Sheffield city centre, where there is a mile-long collection of buildings belonging almost entirely to the university. This main campus area is bounded by Upper Hanover Street to the east, Glossop Road to the south, Clarkson Street to the west, and Bolsover Street to the north. Western Bank ( A57) runs through the campus. The area to the north of Western Bank includes Firth Court
Firth Court is a Grade II listed Edwardian red-brick building that forms part of the Western Bank Campus of the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. Located on the northern side of Western Bank, it is the main administrative centre fo ...
, Alfred Denny Building
The Alfred Denny Building is a 7-storey red brick building in Sheffield, England named after the first Professor of Zoology at the department. It is part of the Western Bank Campus of the University of Sheffield, linked to Firth Court via the ...
, Western Bank Library and Arts Tower
The Arts Tower is a building at 12 Bolsover Street in Sheffield, England belonging to the University of Sheffield and opened in 1966. A spokesperson for English Heritage described it as "the most elegant university tower block in Britain of its ...
, Geography and Planning building, Bartolomé House
Bartolomé House, formerly Winter Street Hospital and then St George's Hospital, is former health facility on Winter Street, Sheffield. The facilities, which are Grade II listed buildings, now house the School of Law at the University of Sheffie ...
, and Dainton and Richard Roberts Buildings. Within the southern area of the campus are the Sheffield Students' Union, the Octagon Centre
The Octagon Centre, built in 1983, is a multi-purpose conference centre and music venue at the University of Sheffield, England. Situated in the Western Bank campus, it is joined by a skyway to University House and comprises an eight-sided aud ...
, Graves Building and Hicks Building
The Hicks Building is a building in the city of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, part of the University of Sheffield. It is named in honour after William Mitchinson Hicks. It was completed in 1962 with an additional lower section joined by a ...
. A concourse under the A57 flyover connects Alfred Denny Building on the north side and Students' Union on the south. Until the completion of three pedestrian crossings on Western Bank in 2017, the concourse underpass was the only link that allowed students to easily move between buildings in this cluster. The Information Commons, a library and computing centre opened in 2007, is also located at the Western Bank Campus on Leavygreave Road. In addition, throughout 2010 the Western Bank Library received a £3.3 million restoration and refurbishment, the University of Sheffield Union of Students
Sheffield Students' Union, officially known as the University of Sheffield Students' Union, is the representative body of students at the University of Sheffield. It is run by a team of thirteen elected officers (7 full-time officers and 6 par ...
underwent a £5 million rebuild, and work commenced on a multimillion-pound refurbishment of the Grade II* listed Arts Tower
The Arts Tower is a building at 12 Bolsover Street in Sheffield, England belonging to the University of Sheffield and opened in 1966. A spokesperson for English Heritage described it as "the most elegant university tower block in Britain of its ...
to extend its lifespan by 30 years.
St George's Campus
To the east of the main campus lies St George's campus, named after St George's Church (now a lecture theatre and postgraduate residence). The campus is the historical location of the Sheffield Technical School. It is bounded by Upper Hanover Street to the west, Broad Lane to the north, Rockingham Street to the east, and West Street to the south, and is part of St George's Quarter
St. George's Quarter is one of the eleven " quarters" located in the centre of Sheffield, Yorkshire, devised in the 1994 City Centre Strategy. It is bounded by Upper Hanover Street to the west, West Street to the south, Rockingham Street to the ea ...
, one of the seven official Sheffield city centre quarters. Also known as the Engineering campus, St George's campus is centred on Mappin Street, the location of the Faculty of Engineering (partly housed in the Grade II-listed
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
Mappin Building) and the Department of Journalism Studies, Department of Economics and Department of Computer Science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...
. The university also maintains the Turner Museum of Glass
The Turner Museum of Glass is housed in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Sheffield, in England. It is in the Sir Robert Hadfield Building with the entrance from Portobello Street. It contains examples fr ...
in this area. As part of the 2000s development plan, the university has converted the listed Victorian Jessop Hospital for Women into the new home of the Department of Music in 2009. The formerly Grade II-listed Edwardian wing of the Jessop Hospital was demolished after Sheffield City Council's planning committee voted for approval. The building was replaced by a new £81 million building for the Faculty of Engineering which opened in September 2015, named the Diamond
Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...
. It is a purpose-built multi-disciplinary building that houses lecture theatres, laboratories, workrooms and other facilities for the teaching of engineering. Amongst the more recent additions to the university's estate located on this campus are the Soundhouse (2008; a music practice and studio facility) and the Jessop West building (2009; the first UK project by Berlin architects Sauerbruch Hutton).
The Sir Frederick Mappin Building
The Sir Frederick Mappin Building, or more familiarly the Mappin Building, is a grade II-listed building fronting onto Mappin Street, Sheffield, England, part of the University of Sheffield. The building and street (formerly Charlotte Street) are ...
is a Grade II-listed building in an area known as the St George's Complex. The building houses much of the Faculty of Engineering and St George's IT centre. Completed in 1885, the oldest part of the building, the former Sheffield Technical School, now the Central Wing, lies in the centre of the building. The extensive Mappin Street frontage includes the main entrance, the John Carr Library and Mappin Hall, and is connected to the Central Wing by a bridge. In early 2020, the Mappin Building and the Central Wing were refurbished. As a result of the refurbishments, the two buildings are joint by an award-winning quadruple-height atrium with curved glass roof. The atrium, called the Engineering Heartspace, houses laboratories, offices and social spaces.
Given its name to the campus, St George's Church was the first of three commissioners' churches to be built in Sheffield under the Church Building Act 1818. It was built in the Perpendicular style. The church closed in 1981 and was acquired by the university. It was converted for use as a lecture theatre in 1994,[Harman, R. & Minnis, J. (2004) ''Pevsner City Guides: Sheffield'', p88. New Haven & London: Yale University Press. ] while the upstairs has been converted for use as student accommodation.
Other sites
Further west lies Weston Park, the Weston Park Museum
Weston Park Museum is a museum in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It is one mile west of Sheffield city centre within Weston Park. It is Sheffield's largest museum and is housed in a Grade II* listed building and managed by Museums Sheffie ...
, the Harold Cantor Gallery, university's sports facilities Goodwin Sports Centre
Goodwin Sports Centre is a sporting facility and gym in the Crookesmoor area of the city of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its facilities include a 33 m swimming pool, bouldering wall, tennis court, cricket nets, gymnasium (known a ...
in the Crookesmoor area, and the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health around the Royal Hallamshire Hospital
The Royal Hallamshire Hospital is a general and teaching hospital located in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It is in the city's West End, facing Glossop Road and close to the main campus of University of Sheffield and the Collegiate Cresc ...
(although these subjects are taught in the city's extensive teaching hospitals under the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
The Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is an NHS foundation trust in Sheffield, England. Founded in 2001 and awarded foundation status in 2004, the trust covers Sheffield's two major adult hospitals, the Northern General Hospit ...
, and throughout South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham.
In N ...
and North East Lincolnshire
North East Lincolnshire is a Unitary authority area with borough status in Lincolnshire, England. It borders the borough of North Lincolnshire and districts of West Lindsey and East Lindsey. The population of the district in the 2011 Census was ...
). It is in this area that the new £12 million Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN), opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...
in November 2010, is located. There is a cluster of buildings located to the north of Broad Lane, opposite St George's campus, collectively called the north campus. Kroto Research Institute, Kroto Innovation Centre
The Kroto Innovation Centre is an innovation centre for small and medium enterprises at the University of Sheffield. The centre is collocated in the Nanoscience building with the EPSRC Centre for III-V technologies. The centre is named after Sir ...
, Nanoscience and Technology Building, Graduate Research Centre, George Porter Building and the International College are based on this campus area. To the south of the city on Warminster Road are where the sports pitches at Norton Sports Park located. The university also operates Advanced Manufacturing Research Centres (AMRCs) on the border of Sheffield, in Rotherham
Rotherham () is a large minster and market town in South Yorkshire, England. The town takes its name from the River Rother which then merges with the River Don. The River Don then flows through the town centre. It is the main settlement of ...
and Lancashire. The Conference Centre and Teaching Hall at Philadelphia Campus of St. Thomas' Church are used as exam venues by the university.
Former locations
The old Firth College building was built in 1879 at the corner of Leopold Street and West Street. It was designed by Thomas James Flockton and Edward Robert Robson
Edward Robert Robson FRIBA FSA FSI (2 March 1836 – 19 January 1917) was an English architect famous for the progressive spirit of his London state-funded school buildings of the 1870s and early 1880s.
Born in Durham, he was the elder son of Ro ...
with the front facing West Street. Firth College moved out of the building following the establishment of the university. The building later housed the Sheffield Central Technical School
The former Sheffield Central Technical School (CTS) was housed in the collection of buildings now called Leopold Square in the city centre of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The complex of buildings home to the school is bounded by Leopo ...
and is currently home to Education Committee offices of Sheffield City Council. Situated on 7 Leopold Street opposite Firth College, the old Medical School building was designed by John Dodsley Webster and completed in 1888. The school moved to Firth Court in 1905 and the building is now used as offices.
The Manvers campus, at Wath-on-Dearne
Wath upon Dearne (shortened to Wath or often hyphenated) is a town south of the River Dearne in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, north of Rotherham and almost midway between Barnsley and Doncaster. It had a po ...
between Rotherham and Barnsley
Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...
, was where the majority of nursing was taught. A three-storey building, Humphry Davy House (named after chemist Humphry Davy
Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet, (17 December 177829 May 1829) was a British chemist and inventor who invented the Davy lamp and a very early form of arc lamp. He is also remembered for isolating, by using electricity, several elements for t ...
), was built in 1998 on Golden Smithies Lane opposite to Dearne Valley College
Dearne Valley College is a further education college situated in the Manvers Park area of Wath-upon-Dearne, in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. It also has a campus near Wath-upon-Dearne
Wath upon Dearne (s ...
. The building was home to the School of Nursing and Midwifery, which was established in 1995 after the merger of the university with Sheffield and North Trent College of Nursing and Midwifery. In 2004, the university disagreed with the South Yorkshire Strategic Health Authority's decision to take away part of its nursing and midwifery training contract, and declined the offer due to financial and operational constraints. The last intake of midwifery studies students was in July 2006, and the campus was closed one year later. The building was sold in 2018 and to be converted for residential lettings.
Organisation
Faculties and departments
Sheffield had four faculties in 1905, which were Arts, Pure Science, Medicine and Applied Science. The Faculty of Applied Science later split into Engineering and Metallurgy in 1919. As well as educating full-time students, in the early 20th century, the university taught non-degree courses that covered non-conventional, occupation-focused subjects such as cow-keeping, railway economics, mining and razor-grinding.
The university has currently five faculties comprising 50 departments and 82 research centres and institutes, plus an international faculty. The current faculty structure is:
* Faculty of Arts and Humanities
** Archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
** School of English
** East Asian Studies
** School of Languages and Cultures
** History
** Modern Languages Teaching Centre
** Music
** Philosophy
** Sheffield Institute for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies
** Digital Humanities Institute
* Faculty of Engineering
** Aerospace Engineering
** Automatic Control and Systems Engineering
** Bioengineering
** Chemical and Biological Engineering
** Civil and Structural Engineering
** Computer Science
** Electronic and Electrical Engineering
** Material Science and Engineering
** Mechanical Engineering
* Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health
** Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Medicine
** School of Dentistry
** Medical School
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, M ...
** Neuroscience
** Health Sciences School
** Oncology and Metabolism
** School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR)
* Faculty of Science
** Animal and Plant Science
** School of Mathematics and Statistics
** Biomedical Science
** Chemistry
** Molecular Biology and Biotechnology
** Physics and Astronomy
** Psychology
* Faculty of Social Sciences
** Architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...
** Economics
** Education
** Geography
** The Information School
** Journalism
** Landscape Architecture
** Law
** Management School
A business school is a university-level institution that confers degrees in business administration or management. A business school may also be referred to as school of management, management school, school of business administration, or ...
** Politics and International Relations
** Sheffield Methods Institute
** Sociology
** Urban Studies and Planning
* International Faculty – CITY College
** Business Administration & Economics
** Computer Science
** Psychology
** Humanities and Social Sciences
** Executive MBA
Faculty of Arts and Humanities
The Faculty of Arts and Humanities is made up of eight schools and departments. It is also home to three institutes (Humanities Research
Institute, Sheffield Institute for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies, and Digital Humanities Institute) and 16 research centres. The Centre for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism of the faculty was the first centre devoted to scholarly research into Freemasonry
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
in a UK university. The centre was closed in 2010, ten years after its establishment, due to its failure to capture substantial grants to support the centre's activities. In May 2021, archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
staff at the university have been told their jobs could be at risk after a review. A petition to save the department has gathered more than 35,000 signatures but the university said no decisions had yet been taken, but later changed to announcing they intended to dissolve the department, which was met with international outcry.
Faculty of Engineering
The precursor to the Faculty of Engineering is the Sheffield Technical School established in the 1880s, which offered part-time and evening class programme to adults working in the steel industry. During 1917, departments of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Civil and Structural Engineering and Mechanical Engineering were founded in response to the needs of the First World War. The departments provided training courses for injured and incapacitated soldiers, and manufactured inspection gauges and munition shells. The Faculty of Engineering has now over 6,700 students and 1,000 staff. Over 90% of the research from the department was rated as 4* (world-leading) or 3* (internationally excellent).
Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health
The Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health is made up of four schools, including the Medical School, Health Sciences School, School of Clinical Dentistry and School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR). The Medical School
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, M ...
is the oldest school of the university. It operated independently as the Sheffield School of Medicine until its mergers with Firth College and with Sheffield Technical School. The Medical School is located next to the Royal Hallamshire Hospital
The Royal Hallamshire Hospital is a general and teaching hospital located in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It is in the city's West End, facing Glossop Road and close to the main campus of University of Sheffield and the Collegiate Cresc ...
, one of the Sheffield's teaching hospitals, and the school is associated with Sheffield Children's Hospital
The Sheffield Children's Hospital is a healthcare facility for children in Broomhill, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It is managed by the Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust.
History
The hospital first opened on 15 November 1876 ...
, Northern General Hospital
The Northern General Hospital is a large teaching hospital and Major Trauma Centre in Sheffield, England. Its departments include Accident and Emergency for adults, with children being treated at the Sheffield Children's Hospital on Western Ban ...
, Weston Park Hospital
Weston Park Hospital is a health facility specialising in the treatment of cancer in Broomhill, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It is managed by the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
History
The hospital has its origins i ...
and Charles Clifford Dental Hospital
The Charles Clifford Dental Hospital is a major dental facility in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It is managed by the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and affiliated with the University of Sheffield.
History
The hospital h ...
. It is one of 32 bodies entitled to award medical degrees in the United Kingdom by the General Medical Council (GMC), the body responsible for registering doctors to practise medicine as well as regulating medical education and training in the United Kingdom.
Faculty of Science
The Faculty of Science comprises seven classical science departments: Animal and Plant Sciences, Biomedical Science, Chemistry, Mathematics and Statistics, Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Physics and Astronomy, and Psychology. All of the university's six Nobel Laureate
The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make out ...
s have been affiliated with this faculty.
The Department of Animal and Plant Sciences is one of the largest departments dedicated for whole-organism biology studies in the UK. Biology has been taught in Sheffield since 1884 in Firth College. Appointed the first Professor of Biology in 1888, Alfred Denny was the only biologist in the Department of Biology at the college who taught zoology and botany to science and medical students. In 1896, a second biologist, botanist Bertram H. Bentley, joined the college. Soon after the university was founded, in 1908, two separate departments were established: Zoology (head by Denny) and Botany (head by Bentley). The departments were not merged until the establishment of the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences in 1988, as part of a major rationalisation at the university. David H. Lewis, who was Head of Botany, was the first Head of Animal and Plant Sciences. The department was awarded a maximum score of 24 points in the QAA Teaching Quality Assessment in 1999, and top five for biological sciences research in the REF 2014.
Faculty of Social Sciences
The Sheffield School of Architecture
The Sheffield School of Architecture is an architecture school in Sheffield, England, and part of the University of Sheffield. It is located on the top six floors of the Arts Tower. The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2015 placed SSo ...
is consistently ranked among the top 10 in Europe and the UK for "Architecture and the Built-Environment" and is one of the longest established architecture schools in the UK, opening in 1908. It was first located in the tower of Firth Court but soon moved to the Sunday School in Shearwood Road and is located on the top 6 floors of the Arts Tower since 1965. The school has courses accredited by the Architects Registration Board (ARB) and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), and has an active student society (SUAS). In the Research Excellence Framework
The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is a research impact evaluation of British higher education institutions. It is the successor to the Research Assessment Exercise and it was first used in 2014 to assess the period 2008–2013. REF is underta ...
(REF) 2014, Sheffield School of Architecture ranked 4th in the UK.
Established in 1986, the Management School
A business school is a university-level institution that confers degrees in business administration or management. A business school may also be referred to as school of management, management school, school of business administration, or ...
is a triple-accredited (AMBA, AACSB and EQUIS) business school. In 2013 the school moved into newly refurbished facilities close to the University of Sheffield campus and Broomhill. It now has dedicated learning and teaching space, a courtyard, dedicated café and Employability Hub.
The Information School
An information school (sometimes abbreviated I-school or iSchool) is a university-level institution committed to understanding the role of information in nature and human endeavors. Synonyms include school of information, department of informati ...
(iSchool) is a constituent school of the Faculty of Social Sciences. It was founded as Postgraduate School of Librarianship in 1963 and became the Department of Information Studies in 1981. In 2010, the Information School devoting to the study of the information field was established. The current head of school is Professor Peter Bath. The school is ranked second in the world and first in Europe for Library and Information Studies in the ''QS World University Rankings'' 2020.
The Department of Urban Studies and Planning (USP) was founded as the Department of Town and Regional Planning (TRP) in 1965 and is located in the Geography Building in the Western Bank Campus. It was ranked as the top RTPI
The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) is the professional body representing planners in the United Kingdom, and Ireland. It promotes and develops policy affecting planning and the built environment. Founded in 1914, the institute was gran ...
accredited planning school in the UK by the 2014 Research Excellence Framework
The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is a research impact evaluation of British higher education institutions. It is the successor to the Research Assessment Exercise and it was first used in 2014 to assess the period 2008–2013. REF is underta ...
(REF) and second for "Building and town and country planning" by the ''Guardian University Rankings'' 2021.
International faculty
The university has an international faculty called CITY College, International Faculty of the University of Sheffield, CITY College in Thessaloniki, the second largest city of Greece, which is the only faculty operating outside the UK. The faculty was established in 1989 in order to bridge the UK with the Southeast and Eastern Europe. It is a private legal entity operating as CITY College according to the local law in Greece. The International Faculty consists of four departments, namely Business Administration and Economics, Psychology, Computer Science and English Studies. These departments are housed in the L. Sofou Building and the Strategakis Building, two buildings in close proximity in Thessaloniki city centre. The faculty also operates the South East European Research Centre (SEERC), a multidisciplinary research centre established in 2003.
Governance
There are several bodies which govern the university, including the council, the Senate and the faculties. The council is the governing body of the university, which is responsible for the strategic development, legal and regulatory affairs, and performance of university business (finance and property). Council membership comprises a majority of non-executive lay members appointed under the statutes of the university. The chair and pro-chancellor of the council is currently Tony Pedder. The Senate manages the academic side of the university. It is the highest academic authority of the university, and is also responsible for the regulation of research work and students' discipline. The Senate is chaired by the vice-chancellor, with its membership drawn mainly from the university's academic staff. The five faculties regulates departmental teaching, research, examination, and also admission. They are responsible for making recommendations to the Senate on the award of degrees, fellowships, and academic staff appointments and promotions.
The university central committees also include the University Executive Board, whose members are: president and vice-chancellor (or simply vice-chancellor), provost and deputy vice chancellor, chief financial officer, executive director of corporate services, executive director of academic services, five faculty vice-presidents, three cross-cutting vice-presidents (education, innovation and research), and university secretary. The board provides leadership and management, as well as advises the vice-chancellor on operational matters. the vice-chancellor is the chief executive and accountable officer of the university. The current vice-chancellor is Koen Lamberts
Koenraad Lamberts (born 1964) is a British/Belgian psychologist and academic. Since 2018, he has served as President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield. From 2014 to 2018, he was the Vice-Chancellor of the University of York. Prev ...
, and the provost and deputy vice chancellor is Gill Valentine.
The university court, Court of the university is no longer a university committee. The Court was a large body which fosters relations between the university and the community, and included lay members, many of whom are university alumni. Ex-officio members of the Court included all the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), members of Parliament (MPs) of Sheffield, the Bishops of Sheffield and Hallam, and the chief constable of South Yorkshire Police. It also included representatives of professional bodies such as the Arts Council of England, Arts Council, Royal Society and the General Medical Council. The Court met annually to receive reports from the council, the Senate and the Students' Union. It served many official functions including chancellor election.
Vice-chancellors
*1905: William Mitchinson Hicks
William Mitchinson Hicks, FRS (23 September 1850, in Launceston, Cornwall – 17 August 1934, in Crowhurst, Sussex) was a British mathematician and physicist. He studied at St John's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1873, and became a Fello ...
*1905: Charles Eliot (diplomat), Charles Eliot
*1912: H. A. L. Fisher, Herbert Fisher
*1917: William Ripper (acting)
*1919: William Henry Hadow
*1930: Sir Arthur Pickard-Cambridge
*1938: Irvine Masson
*1953: John Macnaghten Whittaker
*1965: Arthur Roy Clapham (acting)
*1966: Hugh Robson (educator), Hugh Robson
*1974: Geoffrey Sims
*1991: Gareth Roberts (physicist), Gareth Roberts
*2001: Bob Boucher
*2007: Sir Keith Burnett
*2018: Koen Lamberts
Koenraad Lamberts (born 1964) is a British/Belgian psychologist and academic. Since 2018, he has served as President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield. From 2014 to 2018, he was the Vice-Chancellor of the University of York. Prev ...
Finances
The university's annual income for 2019–20 was £737.5 million, of which £171 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £609.2 million resulting in a surplus of £127.1 million. Its endowment was £45.5 million.
Coat of arms
The arms of the university was granted by the College of Arms on 28 June 1905. It is on an azure shield with a gold-edged book inscribed with the Latin ''Disce Doce'' (Learn and Teach) at its centre, a sheaf of eight silver arrows on either side (from the arms of the city), the Crown of Success and the White Rose of York. Below is a scroll carrying the motto ''Rerum cognoscere causas'' (To Discover the Causes of Things; from the ''Georgics'' by Latin poet Virgil), which was also the motto of Firth College since 1879. In heraldic terminology, the official coat of arms is blazoned as follows:
''Azure, an open book proper, edged gold, inscribed with the words Disce Doce between in fess two sheaves of eight arrows interlaced saltireways and banded argent, in chief an open crown or, and in base a rose also argent barbed and seeded proper.''
The current university's logo, consists of a redrawn version of the coat of arms and the name of the institution, is introduced in 2005, the centenary year of the university. However, the logo should not supersede and be confused with the coat of arms, which remains the official heraldic symbol of the university.
University Fonts
The Stephenson Blake#Use within Sheffield, university's fonts are TUOS Stephenson (serif) and TUOS Blake (sans-serif). Both TUOS Stephenson and TUOS Blake are modified versions of a typeface designed by Sheffield company Stephenson & Blake Co. The two fonts are the copyright property of the University of Sheffield and are restricted only to university users. The university brand (encompassing the visual identity) is led by its motto ''Rerum cognoscere causas'' and centred on the theme of "discovery". The theme has been applied across print, screen and other areas such as signage, vehicle livery and merchandising.
Ceremony
Academic dress
As at most universities, Sheffield graduands wear academic dress appropriate to the degree they are to be received when graduating. Bachelors wear a black Oxford BA [b1] gown (see Groves classification system). The hood is in green, half-lined with white fur, and edged with two inches of silk of the colour distinctive of the degree or the faculty. Masters wear a black Oxford MA [m1] gown with a hood of green silk which is lined throughout with the faculty colour. The Master of Philosophy, MPhil hood is lined in green. Doctors have a fine scarlet cloth gown with green silk, with bell-shaped sleeves [d2]. The hood is of the Cambridge shape [f1] and is made of red ottoman silk. In 1993, the postgraduate diplomate hood is entered in the Calendar of the University of Sheffield. It is a blend of Bachelors' and Masters' hoods, with a hood of green silk and a neckband of the faculty colour.
The faculty and degree colours are: Arts and Humanities—crushed strawberry; Music—cream brocade; Engineering—purple; Medicine and Surgery—red; Dental Surgery—pale rose pink; Health—cerise (color), cerise; Science—apricot (color), apricot; Social Sciences—lemon (color), lemon yellow; International Faculty—Saxon blue; Board of Extra Faculty Provision—pale blue. Some schools at Sheffield had previously their own colours but are no longer used. They were: Metallurgy—steel grey; Education—pearl (color), pearl; Architecture—old gold; Law—olive (color), olive green. The old colour of the Faculty of Social Sciences was pale green.
University mace
The university mace is an ornament of governance of the University of Sheffield. It is silver-gilt and carries the coats of arms of both the university and the city of Sheffield, and the White Rose of York. A figure of Minerva holding a wreath and palm branch on a heraldic crown adorns the top of the mace. Used for the first time in 1909, the mace is carried in academic procession as the symbol of authority, which precedes the presiding officer.
Academics
Reputation and rankings
The university has been described by ''The Times'' as one of the powerhouses of British higher education. The university is a member of the Russell Group
The Russell Group is a self-selected association of twenty-four public university, public research university, research universities in the United Kingdom. The group is headquartered in Cambridge and was established in 1994 to represent its memb ...
, the European University Association, the Worldwide Universities Network
The Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) is a non-profit consortium of 24 research-intensive universities founded in 2000. It provides financial and infrastructural support to member universities to support international research collaboration a ...
and the White Rose University Consortium
The White Rose University Consortium is a partnership among three universities in Yorkshire, England consisting of the University of Leeds, the University of Sheffield, and the University of York.
History
It was formed in 1997 to combine the ...
. Meanwhile, it was among the top 10 of the Russell Group for research output and top 12 for research strength in Research Excellence Framework 2014. In terms of research citations, Sheffield was ranked 93rd worldwide and 9th in the UK by the CWUR 2018–19. It was also ranked 20th overall in Europe and 10th in the UK for number of signed EU grant agreements according to the data since 2007. Over the last decade until now, Sheffield sits within 9–13 in the UK if ranked by the overall academic performance.
Sheffield has received the Queen's Anniversary Prize five times in 1998, 2000, 2002, 2007 and 2019. In 2011 it was named 'University of the Year' in the ''Times Higher Education'' awards. The latest Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey 2014 ranked the University of Sheffield 1st for student experience, social life, university facilities and accommodation, among other categories. It was also named as one of the top 50 most international universities in 2018 around the world and its reputation of outstanding teaching has been underlined in the most recent league table which put Sheffield joint 9th in the UK and 11th across Europe.
In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF) Sheffield was ranked 11th for research power in the UK, moving up from 13th in REF2014, with 92% of the research submitted by the academic staff having been rigorously judged as world leading (4*) or internationally excellent (3*). The university was one of only ten in the country to include more than 1500 staffs for the submissions in a wide range of subject areas. A number of areas of research at the University of Sheffield are in the top 10 nationally in terms of the assessment of their research and impact as world-leading or internationally excellent. Some highlights include: Physics and Astronomy - which achieved 100 per cent and came top for research and impact; Biological Sciences - which came in the top five with 98 per cent; Architecture, Built Environment and Planning - which came in the top three with 95 per cent and Engineering - which achieved 96 per cent and came in the top 10.
Admissions
The University of Sheffield has a total of 30,195 students in the 2018–19 academic year, including 19,610 undergraduates and 10,585 postgraduates. In terms of average UCAS points of entrants, Sheffield ranked 29th in Britain in 2014. The university gives offers of admission to 85.6% of its applicants, the 4th highest amongst the Russell Group
The Russell Group is a self-selected association of twenty-four public university, public research university, research universities in the United Kingdom. The group is headquartered in Cambridge and was established in 1994 to represent its memb ...
.
According to the 2017 ''Times'' and ''Sunday Times'' Good University Guide, approximately 13% of Sheffield's undergraduates come from independent schools. In the 2016–17 academic year, the university had a domicile breakdown of 71:5:24 of UK:EU:non-EU students respectively with a female to male ratio of 51:49.
Libraries
The University of Sheffield has currently four libraries: Western Bank Library, the Information Commons, Health Sciences Library (Royal Hallamshire Hospital and Northern General Hospital), and The Diamond, holding a total of 1.5 million printed books. Western Bank Library was the university's main library until the opening of the Information Commons in 2007. The Grade II* listed library has 730 study spaces and contains 1.2 million texts for most subjects, as well as archives and special collections. The Information Commons (IC) is a 24/7 learning centre combining both library and IT services, which was the first of its kind in the UK. The IC houses 120,000 core textbooks for all undergraduate and postgraduate subjects, and has approximately 1,300 study spaces and 550 PCs. The university has two medical libraries collectively called the Health Sciences Library. It was opened at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital
The Royal Hallamshire Hospital is a general and teaching hospital located in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It is in the city's West End, facing Glossop Road and close to the main campus of University of Sheffield and the Collegiate Cresc ...
in 1978, and a year later a branch at the Northern General Hospital
The Northern General Hospital is a large teaching hospital and Major Trauma Centre in Sheffield, England. Its departments include Accident and Emergency for adults, with children being treated at the Sheffield Children's Hospital on Western Ban ...
was opened. The Royal Hallamshire Hospital library has collections cover medicine, dentistry, nursing and midwifery, and the Northern General Hospital library contains material for medicine and nursing. Opened its door in 2018, the Diamond provides 24-hour library services (and other teaching facilities), with in-demand textbooks, a non-loanable reference collection and over 1,000 study spaces. It replaces the 1992 St George's Library on St George's Campus as the main engineering library and study space. The University of Sheffield Library is a member of Research Libraries UK.
Former libraries include Edgar Allen Library closed by the late 1950s and St George's Library closed on 14 June 2015. Edgar Allen Library was the first university library. In 1905 when the university was established, the library was housed in a lecture room due to lack of funds to construct a purpose-built library. William Edgar Allen, a member of the University Council, provided £10,000 to build a proper library named Edgar Allen Library, locating beside the main university building (Firth Court). Edgar Allen Library had 100 seats in its reading room, shelves for 20,000 books, and a stack space for 60,000 more books. Charles Firth (historian), Sir Charles Harding Firth, the first lecturer in Modern History in Firth College, donated part of his personal collection to the library. Sheffield Town Trustee also helped the university to transform the General Lecture Theatre into a reading room housing the Firth Collection (rare book collection of approximately 20,000 volumes) in 1931. As the university rapidly expanded in the 1950s, it became necessary to replace Edgar Allen Library with a modern post-war era library. The library, later known as the Western Bank Library, was opened on 12 May 1959. Edgar Allen Library (now the Rotunda in Firth Court) became the Registrar and Secretary's Office. St George's Library (now 38 Mappin Street) was refurbished as an exam venue.
Museums and collections
The Alfred Denny Museum is a zoology museum operated by the university. Established in 1905, the museum was located in Firth Court, spanning three floors, and was named after the first professor of biology at Sheffield in 1950. It has specimens from all major phyla, and two letters written from Charles Darwin to Henry Denny, father of Alfred Denny. Many of the specimens have been collected since the 1900s, but much of the information about the collection was lost during the Second World War. The museum, now reduced in size, has been moved to Alfred Denny Building after the war. The museum is not open to the public at all time but usually on the first Saturday of each month.
The Turner Museum of Glass
The Turner Museum of Glass is housed in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Sheffield, in England. It is in the Sir Robert Hadfield Building with the entrance from Portobello Street. It contains examples fr ...
houses the university's collections of 19th and 20th century glass. It contains items mainly from major European and American glassworkers and examples from ancient Egypt and Rome. It is in the Hadfield Building. It was founded by W. E. S. Turner of the university in 1943. One of the exhibits is the wedding dress of Helen Nairn (Turner's wife) which is made of glass fibre. This has been selected as one of the items in the BBC's A History of the World in 100 Objects.[BBC A History of the World](_blank)
Glass Fibre Wedding Dress
The Traditional Heritage Museum (THM) was opened to the public in 1985 as part of the National Centre for English Cultural Tradition. It was created (and curated) by Prof John Widdowson in 1964 and was entirely run by volunteers and students. The THM housed collections including a replica kitchen from the 1920s, reconstructed workshops and retail shops, such as Pollard's tea and coffee. The university decided to close the Museum in 2011 because the building could not afford continued public access. In 2013, the collections from the Traditional Heritage Museum were relocated and are accessible again to the public. The majority of the items was transferred to not-for-profit organisation Green Estate (operators of the Sheffield Manor Lodge). Other major recipients include Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust, Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust and Ken Hawley Trust.
The Western Bank Library has an Exhibition Gallery. It is located on the mezzanine level of the library, enabling special collections from the university library and the National Fairground Archive to be displayed in controlled conditions. In 2010, the gallery was restored and refurbished by a grant from the Wolfson Foundation. The library usually schedules three temporary exhibitions per year, and most of the exhibitions are free to visit during library opening hours.
The Henry Clifton Sorby Collection contains glass lantern slides of marine organisms prepared and donated by Henry Clifton Sorby in the 1900s. Sorby was president of Firth College after the death of Mark Firth, vice-president of the University College of Sheffield, and a member of the Council of the University of Sheffield. His broad interests included marine biology, and he had developed a technique for preparing and mounting invertebrate marine animals onto slides. The specimens were cleared and stained so that enabling projection onto a screen for viewing. The glass lantern slides are now held in the Department Animal and Plant Sciences.
The Sheffield Herbarium is also operated by the Department Animal and Plant Sciences, with a herbarium, collection of preserved plant specimens collected in the late 19th century and early to mid 20th century. The collection is mainly from the British Isles and Europe focusing on tracheophytes, bryophytes, charophytes and fungi. Many of the micro-fungi specimens are from the collection of mycologist and Sheffield alumnus John Webster (mycologist), John Webster.
The National Fairground and Circus Archive (NFCA) is a living archive that collects material from the fairground, circus and the allied entertainment industries. NFCA was in 1994 developed out of the PhD research by Vanessa Toulmin, who was later director of the archive from its inception until 2016. With its own Reading Room situated in Western Bank Library, the archive holds 150,000 photographs, 4,000 books and journals, together with over 20,000 items of printed and video ephemera. Major collections include the Shufflebottom Family Collection, the John Bramwell Taylor Collection, the Malcolm Airey Collection and the John Turner Collection.
Flagship institutes
Sheffield has four research institutes. Launched in 2019, the institutes focus on clean energy generation, sustainable food, health improvement and quality of life. The Energy Institute is one of the largest energy research centres in Europe. It has over 300 researchers working on energy-related problems, including improving energy efficiency and developing ways to achieve clean growth. The Neuroscience Institute works on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders. This includes the exploration of artificial intelligence applications in healthcare for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease and improving prognosis. The Healthy Lifespan Institute researches multimorbidity and slowing down the ageing process. The Institute for Sustainable Food studies food security and environmental sustainability.
Academic and industrial partners
The University of Sheffield's major research partners and clients include Boeing, Rolls-Royce plc, Rolls-Royce, Siemens, Unilever, Alliance Boots, Boots, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, GSK, Imperial Chemical Industries, ICI, and Slazenger, as well as UK and overseas government agencies and charitable foundations. Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre is a network of centres and a partnership between the university and over a hundred industrial companies on the Advanced Manufacturing Park. The university also works with local small and medium enterprises through the dedicated physical spaces at the Sheffield Bioincubator
The Ella Armitage Building, formerly known as the Sheffield Bioincubator is a former innovation centre in Sheffield, England. It contained offices and laboratories for small and medium enterprises in emerging technology and related areas and wit ...
and Kroto Innovation Centre
The Kroto Innovation Centre is an innovation centre for small and medium enterprises at the University of Sheffield. The centre is collocated in the Nanoscience building with the EPSRC Centre for III-V technologies. The centre is named after Sir ...
. For many years the university has been engaged in theological publishing through Sheffield Academic Press and JSOT Press. The university is also a partner organisation in Higher Futures, a collaborative association of institutions set up under the government's Lifelong Learning Networks initiative, to co-ordinate vocational and work-based education.
As well as the research carried out in departments, the university has over 180 specialised research centres or institutes. The last Teaching Quality Assessment awarded Sheffield University grades of "excellent" in 29 subject areas, a record equalled by only a few other UK universities.
The University of Sheffield has around 250 student exchange partners in nearly 40 countries world-wide including exchange programs with Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Texas at Austin, National University of Singapore, University of Munich and University of Melbourne.
Controversies
Proposed closure of the Department of Archaeology
On 25 May 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of Sheffield Executive Board (UEB) including Vice Chancellor Koen Lamberts
Koenraad Lamberts (born 1964) is a British/Belgian psychologist and academic. Since 2018, he has served as President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield. From 2014 to 2018, he was the Vice-Chancellor of the University of York. Prev ...
and Deputy Vice Chancellor Gill Valentine voted to close the Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield, Department of Archaeology and move two areas into other departments; a world leading institution since its formation in 1976. The decision had been made through a commissioned Institutional Review process chaired by Valentine and was met with national and international outcry including a petition signed by over 40,000 people. The decision was announced first on 19 May. The review process had begun in February 2022 led by Valentine.
Involvement with the arms trade
Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre is run in partnership with Boeing, which conducts research projects funded by arms industry, arms manufacturers such as BAE Systems. In 2008, the university partnered with BAE Systems to launch a new Centre for Research in Active Control which aimed to improve the stealth of BAE Systems' submarines. In 2012 the Students Union voted in favour of the university ending all links with the arms trade.
In October 2022, students occupied 'The Diamond, Sheffield, The Diamond' over the university's alleged links with Rolls-Royce Holdings, Rolls-Royce, and their involvement in arms manufacture. This resulted in the closure of the building, with the occupiers refusing to leave until negotiations with the Koen Lamberts, Vice-Chancellor commenced. Over the past eight years, the university has received some £47 million from Rolls-Royce.
Student life
Students' Union
The University of Sheffield Students' Union was founded in 1906 and has nearly 300 student societies and nearly 50 sports teams. The Students' Union has been voted best in the UK for ten consecutive years, from 2009 to 2018, by the Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey.
Sheffield University F.C., Sheffield University Football Club has been established for many decades and has previously competed in the FA Amateur Cup and FA Vase. The Union building contains society and union workplaces and coffee shops, restaurants, shops, and the student run cinema Film Unit. Facilities include two bars (''Bar One'' – which has a book-able function room with its own bar, ''The Raynor Lounge'' – and ''The Interval''); a three-room club venue (''Foundry''); There is also a student radio station called Forge Radio, a TV station called Forge TV, and a newspaper called ''Forge Press'', which are run under the umbrella of Forge Media since 2008.
In November 2009 a development project began to redevelop the Students' Union building, funded by £5 million by the HEFCE, which was completed and re-opened in September 2010. Works centred on improving circulation around the building by aligning previously disjointed floors, improving internal access between the Union building and neighbouring University House, and constructing a new entrance and lobby that incorporates the university's traditional colours of black and gold. During 2012–13 the Students' Union went under a further redevelopment costing £20 million which led to the refurbishment of the University House. University House, completed in 1963, has been integrated with the university's Students' Union in one single building.
Student accommodation
The university halls of residence comprises two separate sites: Ranmoor/Endcliffe and City. Ranmoor/Endcliffe is situated in the western suburb of Sheffield, which is close to Broomhill, Sheffield, Broomhill and Ecclesall Road. The Endcliffe Student Village, Endcliffe Village was opened in 2008 and the Ranmoor Village in 2009. Ranmoor House, opened in the autumn term of 1968, was once the largest hall of residence at the university, housing around 800 students. As part of the university's Student Residences Strategy, Ranmoor House was demolished in March 2008, a year before the new Ranmoor Village was scheduled to open. The Endcliffe and Ranmoor villages have been together referred to as Ranmoor/Endcliffe since 2016. The Endcliffe Village was renamed "South accommodation (near Endcliffe)", and the Ranmoor Village "North accommodation (near Ranmoor)". City accommodation, including Allen Court, Broad Lane Court, St. George's Flats, Mappin Court and Studio 300, are located on the Main Campus, on St George's Campus, or near the North Campus.
Off campus can be found Sheffield Student Housing Co-operative, a student housing cooperative providing not-for-profit, student-managed housing for its members. They currently manage a property on Northfield Road in Crookes, Sheffield.
Sheffield Varsity
The annual Sheffield Varsity is an annual varsity match that takes place between sports teams from the university and its rival Sheffield Hallam University
Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) is a public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The university is based on two sites; the City Campus is located in the city centre near Sheffield railway station, while the Collegiate Cr ...
starting from 1996. The varsity is divided into winter and summer competitions. Over 1,000 students from both universities compete in over 30 varsity sports in more than 70 events. The university's sports colours are black and gold. Sheffield won the Varsity competition in 2013, beating Hallam for the first time in ten years. It extended the newfound winning streak to seven years in a row; winning again from 2014 to 2019.
People associated with the university
Notable alumni
Many notable people in a number of disciplines have attended Sheffield. A number of politicians are alumni of the university, including President of Dominica Nicholas Liverpool, Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey Nurettin Canikli, Home Secretary David Blunkett, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Seychelles Jean-Paul Adam, Downing Street Chief of Staff Nick Timothy. At least ten Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Members of the UK Parliament and two Member of the European Parliament, Members of the European Parliament have studied at Sheffield. Notable public servants who have studied at the university includes Secretary General of the Higher Commission for Industrial Security of Saudi Arabia Khalid S. Al-Ageel, Chief Economist at the Bank of England Andy Haldane, head of London Metropolitan Police Bernard Hogan-Howe, Chief of the Defence Staff Stuart Peach,[''Who's Who (UK), Who's Who 2014'', A & C Black, 2010, ] and Children's Commissioner for England Maggie Atkinson.
Sheffield has educated a number of judges and lawyers. The university has the highest number of alumni appointed to the bench of the Court of Appeal (England and Wales), Court of Appeal after Oxford and Cambridge. In November 2013, the court had a bench consisting of judges all graduated at Sheffield; the sitting judges were Lord and Lady Justices of Appeal Maurice Kay, Anne Rafferty and Julia Macur. The Sheffield School of Law has also produced lawyers around the world. This includes Deputy Minister of Justice of Afghanistan Mohammad Qasim Hashimzai, Chief Justice of Bangladesh Md. Muzammel Hossain, Supreme Court Justice of Sierra Leone Henry M. Joko-Smart, and Chief Justice of Malaysia Arifin Zakaria.
Writers who attended the university include two-times Booker Prize winner Hilary Mantel, Lee Child, Andrew Grant (writer), Andrew Grant, Brooke Magnanti (Belle de Jour), Lindsay Ashford and Katie B. Edwards. Actors and actress Brian Glover, Ian Hallard, Rachel Shelley and Eddie Izzard were students at the university. Notable Sheffield alumni in religion includes Dean of Westminster Abbey Wesley Carr, Dean of Christ Church of Oxford Martyn Percy, General Secretary of Action of Churches Together in Scotland Stephen Smyth, and Archbishop of Sydney Glenn Davies. Many pioneers were students at the university, including first British astronaut Helen Sharman, Polar explorer Roy Koerner, and the first female pilot to fly solo from London to Australia Amy Johnson. Sheffield students have also excelled in sports. Jessica Ennis-Hill and Hollie Webb are Olympic gold medalists. Bryony Page and Nick Beighton have won medals at the Olympics and Paralympics respectively. Notable alumni in sports also include Herbert Chapman, Zara Dampney, Catherine Faux, Tim Robinson (English cricketer), Tim Robinson and David Wetherill.
Warburg Medal winning scientist Hans Kornberg have been studied at Sheffield, along with Olive Scott and Donald Bailey (civil engineer), Donald Bailey, inventor of the Bailey bridge. Sheffield's Department of Chemistry has also educated two winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
File:David Blunkett MP Where Next for Welfare.jpg, Lord David Blunkett
File:Lee Child, Bouchercon 2010.jpg, Lee Child
File:Met Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe speaks at Policy Exchange on 'Total Policing' and reform priorities for Scotland Yard.jpg, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe
File:Amy Johnson 1930-06-14.jpg, Amy Johnson
File:Jessica Ennis Daegu 2011.jpg, Jessica Ennis-Hill
File:Andy Haldane - Festival Economia 2013.JPG, Andy Haldane
Nobel prizes
The university's Faculty of Science is associated with six Nobel laureates, two for the Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology:
* 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (joint award) Howard Florey, for his work on penicillin
* 1953 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Hans Adolf Krebs
Sir Hans Adolf Krebs, FRS (, ; 25 August 1900 – 22 November 1981) was a German-born British biologist, physician and biochemist. He was a pioneer scientist in the study of cellular respiration, a biochemical process in living cells that ex ...
, "for the discovery of the citric acid cycle
The citric acid cycle (CAC)—also known as the Krebs cycle or the TCA cycle (tricarboxylic acid cycle)—is a series of chemical reactions to release stored energy through the oxidation of acetyl-CoA derived from carbohydrates, fats, and proteins ...
in cellular respiration"
And four to its Department of Chemistry:
* 1967 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (joint award), George Porter
George Porter, Baron Porter of Luddenham (6 December 1920 – 31 August 2002) was a British chemist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1967.
Education and early life
Porter was born in Stainforth, near Thorne, in the then West ...
, "for their work on extremely fast chemical reactions" (see Flash photolysis)
* 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (joint award), Richard J. Roberts, "for the discovery that genes in eukaryotes are not contiguous strings but contain introns, and that the splicing of messenger RNA to delete those introns can occur in different ways, yielding different proteins from the same DNA sequence"
* 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (joint award), Harry Kroto, Sir Harry Kroto, "for their discovery of fullerenes"
* 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (joint award), Fraser Stoddart, Sir James Fraser Stoddart, "for the design and synthesis of molecular machines"
File:Howard Walter Florey 1945.jpg,
File:Hans_Adolf_Krebs.jpg,
File:George Porter Nobel.jpg,
File:Roberts,_Richard_John_(1943).jpg,
File:Harold_Kroto_1c389_8471.sweden.jpg,
File:Nobel Laureates Fraser Stoddart 2016 (31117136180).jpg,
Two Nobel laureates associated with the university are not officially counted. They are: John Vane, Sir John Vane (research worker) and Wole Soyinka (visiting professor).
In popular culture
A fictionalized version of the University of Sheffield is the setting of the award-winning comic book series, ''Giant Days''. Comedy ''Love in the Time of Britpop'' is set at the university in the 1990s Cool Britannia era. The university's Western Bank Library is featured in Barry Libin's novel ''Mystery of the Milton Manuscript''.
See also
* Armorial of UK universities
* List of modern universities in Europe (1801–1945)
* List of UK universities
* Sheffield school
* Sheffield Hallam University
Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) is a public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The university is based on two sites; the City Campus is located in the city centre near Sheffield railway station, while the Collegiate Cr ...
Notes
References
Further reading
There are two official histories of the university:
* Arthur W. Chapman (1955) ''The Story of a Modern University: A History of the University of Sheffield'', Oxford University Press.
* Helen Mathers (2005) ''Steel City Scholars: The Centenary History of the University of Sheffield'', London: James & James.
External links
*
University of Sheffield's Union of Students
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheffield, University Of
University of Sheffield,
1897 establishments in England
Buildings and structures in Sheffield, University of Sheffield
Culture in Sheffield, University of Sheffield
Educational institutions established in 1897
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