The University of Sheffield

The University of Sheffield was originally formed by the merger of three colleges. The Sheffield School of Medicine was founded in 1828, followed by the opening of Firth College in 1879 by Mark Firth, a steel manufacturer, to teach arts and science subjects. Then Firth College helped to fund the opening of the Sheffield Technical School in 1884 to teach applied science. The three institutions merged to form the University College of Sheffield which was granted its royal Charter by Edward VII in 1905 and became the University of Sheffield.

From 114 full-time students in 1905, the university grew slowly until 1950s and 1960s when it began to expand rapidly. Many new buildings were built and student numbers increased to their present levels of nearly 25,000 including 3,700 international students from 120 countries. Sheffield is one of the most popular universities in terms of applications per place. Almost 1,400 academic staff are engaged in both research and teaching. Within the university there are 80 research centres and 75 academic departments grouped into five faculties. These are the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, the Faculty of Engineering, the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health, the Faculty of Pure Science and the Faculty of Social Sciences.

The university has its own newspaper, The Steel Press, printed every fortnight, an online newspaper, and a student radio station called Sure Radio.

Over the years, the university has been home to a number of writers and scholars including the author Angela Carter, David Blunkett, a well-known Labour Party politician and five Nobel Prize winners: Howard Florey (1945), Hans Adolf Krebs (1953), Richard J.Roberts (1993) – Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, and George Porter (1967), Harry Kroto (1996) –Nobel Prize in chemistry.

There are several bodies which form the governance of the University. The Council manages the University's business side (finance and property).

The Senate manages the academic side of the University. It is the highest academic authority of the University. The Members of the Senate are: the Vice-Chancellor, the Pro-Vice-Chancellors and the Deans of the Faculties.

The university is ranked 82nd in the World's top 100 Universities and is constantly ranked amongst the top 20 universities in Britain.