1. UK Information
2. Sheffield Information
3. The universities of Sheffield

The universities of Sheffield

Sheffield Hallam University

Sheffield Hallam University was awarded university status in 1992; but its history stretches back more than a century and a half, to the reign of the young Queen Victoria. In 1843 the first of the institutions that were to form Sheffield Hallam University was born, out of the proud heritage of Sheffield craftsmanship, when the Sheffield School of Design was founded. In 1850 it changed its name to the Sheffield School of Art, which in turn eventually became one of the constituent colleges that were to merge with the College of Technology to form Sheffield Polytechnic in 1969. In 1976 Sheffield Polytechnic expanded, now named Sheffield City Polytechnic, when it took the city’s two teacher training colleges – one of which was itself founded as long ago as 1902. Finally, in 1992 the City Polytechnic in turn became Sheffield Hallam University

Sheffield Hallam University is centrally located with three main campuses, City, Collegiate and Psalter Lane.With almost 24,000 students, 3,000 staff and more than 400 courses to choose from, the University is now the country’s sixth largest. These students are from a diverse selection of the country and many are from abroad. The central campus is an award winning building, which cost £50 million to perfect. Hallam is also home to one of the countries most advanced library complexes. The Adsetts Centre. Here there is more study space than at the British Library. There are many students that attend the university who stay in the city after they have graduated because they love the place and the warm atmosphere so much.

Sheffield Hallam University is renowned for its excellent Business School and School of Leisure and Food management. Since the university gained its status as a university it has been able to develop its facilities to cater to a much higher standard for the students who attend. Sheffield Hallam University is one of the best polytechnics turned universities in the country and this is often forgotten because of the high regard that the traditional universities hold in our society.

Many students live in rented accommodation at the university because the numbers are so vast, that there is simply not enough accommodation in the many halls of residences that the university has to cater for everyone who wants to attend here.

Schools of study available at Sheffield Hallam include:

• Business and Finance
• Computing
• Cultural Studies
• Education
• Engineering
• Environmental Studies
• Health and Social Care
• Leisure and Food Management
• Science and Maths
• Social Science and Law

The University of Sheffield

The University of Sheffield is developed from three local institutions: the Sheffield School of Medicine, Firth College and the Sheffield Technical School. In 1897, the three institutions were amalgamated by Royal Charter to form the University College of Sheffield. This step was part of the plan to link up with the Victoria University, a federation of the University Colleges at Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds. On 31 May 1905 the University of Sheffield came into being on the grant of its Royal Charter. At the time of the University's foundation in 1905 there were 114 full-time students reading for degrees in Arts, Pure Science, Medicine and Applied Science. In 1919 when returning ex-servicemen were admitted in large numbers, the full-time student figure rose to a short-lived peak of about 1,000. Between the two wars full-time student numbers stabilised at about 750 and expansion into new areas of specialist teaching and research continued slowly.

Since the Second World War, many older houses have been brought into academic use and major new buildings have been constructed - the Main Library in 1959, and the Arts Tower, Hicks Building, Alfred Denny Building, Sir Robert Hadfield Building, Chemical Engineering, University House, five Halls of Residence and the Students' Union in the 1960s. New buildings for Geography and Psychology followed in the 1970s, along with the Crookesmoor Building (for Law and Management), the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, and purpose-built student flats. The next decade saw the opening of the Octagon Centre, the Sir Henry Stephenson Building (for engineering), and major extensions at the Northern General Hospital. The Union of Students has undergone a £5 million development programme, aimed at improving welfare, social and meetings facilities.

Following the University's integration with the Sheffield and North Trent College of Nursing and Midwifery on 31 March 1995, a building programme is being implemented to provide new facilities for nursing and midwifery teaching and research. This includes the extension and conversion of the St George's Hospital site on Winter Street, and the construction of a new building at the Northern General Hospital.

The mile-long 'campus' now stretches almost unbroken from Mappin Street into Crookesmoor, with student residences concentrated in suburbs to the west of the University. The full-time student population now numbers 16,400, with a further 4,000 students studying part-time.

Some Famous graduates of Sheffield University:

• David Blunkett, Secretary of State for Education and Employment
• Helen Sharman, Britain's first astronaut
• Eddie Izzard, Comedian
• Amy Johnson, pioneering aviator of the 1930s

Sources used : www.su.co.uk/www.scci.org.uk/SHUp.htm

Contributed by Abby Rawlingson