Sheffield has slipped out of the top 20 in The Times League Table after losing the benefit of some of the best grades in the early rounds of teaching assessment, but its stock remains high both in the academic world and among students.

Student numbers rose by 14 per cent in three years, to more than 24,000, and there has been a corresponding increase in academic staff across all seven faculties.

A major new learning facility, the £23-million Information Commons, opened in 2007 and operates 24 hours a day, providing 1,300 study spaces and 500 computers linked to the campus network, as well as 110,000 books and periodicals.

Only one subject (medicine) scored fewer than 20 points out of 24 for teaching quality, while three quarters of the staff assessed for the last Research Assessment Exercise were placed in the top two categories. Nine starred departments were spread around medicine, science, engineering and social science.

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Subjects

The top performers were electrical and electronic engineering, the biosciences, politics and Russian, each of which achieved maximum scores for both teaching and research. The university houses national teaching centres for the arts and social sciences and for enterprise learning. The medical school was allocated more places after a re-inspection found improvements, and it is now the most popular in Britain in terms of applications per place and was the best performer in the first National Student Survey.

Sheffield produced some of the best results among the big city universities in 2007, with students in the biological and physical sciences particularly satisfied. Research excellence, which takes pride of place in Sheffield’s mission statement, has boosted the university’s facilities: £100 million for biological and physical sciences, medicine, engineering and social sciences, and £15 million on an advanced manufacturing research centre in which Boeing is the senior partner, which forms the hub of a technology park.

The university is the lead institution for systems engineering, smart materials and stem-cell technology in a research network of European, American and Chinese universities. Sheffield has always enjoyed a high ratio of applications to places, despite expanding through much of the 1990s. There are more than 3,500 overseas students from 128 countries. But the overall number of applicants rose by a modest 2.7 per cent in 2007 and dropped by more than the national average when the number of choices per applicant was cut in 2008.

Development

The academic buildings are concentrated in an area about a mile from the city centre on the affluent west side of Sheffield, with most university flats and halls of residence a little further into the suburbs. Recent developments mean that the main university precinct now stretches into an almost unbroken mile-long “campus”. The former Jessop Hospital, an imposing building at the heart of the campus, has been purchased by the university for use by academic departments, while another new site adjacent to the engineering departments will house high-tech multidisciplinary facilities. The intake is more diverse than at most leading universities – nearly 84 per cent come from state schools or colleges – and more than one undergraduate in five comes from a working-class home.

Student scene

A famously lively social scene is based on the student union’s extended facilities – twice voted the best in Britain – but also takes full advantage of the city’s burgeoning club life. In addition to its own popular facilities, the union owns a pub in the western suburb where most students live. Town–gown relations are much better and the crime rate lower than in most big cities. The university claims the highest proportion of graduates staying in the city after completing their studies. Residential accommodation is plentiful, with most university-owned places within walking distance of lectures, and private housing reasonably priced.

First years from outside Sheffield are guaranteed accommodation. The main halls of residence are being replaced by a student village in a phased programme, which is due for completion in 2009. A second development will take spending on accommodation to £200 million and provide rooms for 4,000 students. The university’s excellent sports facilities have been the subject of a £6-million makeover, which includes a 170- station fitness centre and a third Astroturf pitch specifically for soccer and rugby. Top-notch facilities were built by the city for the 1991 World Student Games and a £25- million regional centre for the English Institute of Sport opened in 2003. A five-year student sports strategy was launched in 2007, aiming to boost participation at various levels of the sport and recreation.

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