Sheffield has moved back up The Times League Table this year with good results in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) and high levels of satisfaction among the students.

Student numbers reached 24,000 after 14 per cent growth in three years and there had been another 9 per cent increase in applications at the deadline for courses beginning in 2009.

A new student village and a high-tech library have added to the feeling of a university on the move. The £23-million Information Commons 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.

More than 60 per cent of the work submitted for the RAE was judged to be world-leading or internationally excellent. Politics and information studies achieved the best results in the country, while philosophy, Russian, town planning, architecture and mechanical and aeronautical engineering were near the top in their fields.

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Ratings

Sheffield was only just outside the top ten in the National Student Survey in 2008, producing some of the best results among the big city universities. There was 100 per cent satisfaction among civil engineers, with dentistry, philosophy, biology, Hispanic studies and Asian languages not far behind. The university houses national teaching centres for the arts and social sciences and for enterprise learning.

There has been sustained investment in facilities in recent years: £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.

The conversion of a former hospital at the heart of the campus will provide a new centre for the arts and humanities, which will include a visitor information centre and café. Music will move into a uniquely clad building which will house ultra-modern practice studios, rehearsal rooms and recording facilities. Another new site adjacent to the engineering departments will house high-tech multidisciplinary facilities.

The university has always enjoyed a high ratio of applications to places, despite recent expansion. There are more than 3,600 overseas students from 124 countries. Sheffield is in the top 80 universities in the world, according to both the main global rankings.

Campus

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 intake is more diverse than at most leading universities: over 85 per cent of undergraduates come from state schools or colleges and more than one undergraduate in five comes from a working-class home. 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.

Facilities

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 new Endcliffe Village caters for about 3,500 students in a mix of refurbished Victorian houses and new flats. A second development will add another 1,000 places and take spending on accommodation to £200 million.

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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