The arms depict a gold-edged open book with the Latin inscription Disce Doce ("Learn and Teach"), two sheaves of eight silver arrows on either side, the Crown of Success and the White Rose of York.

[5] In heraldic terminology, it is blazoned as: 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.

[2]Below the azure shield is a scroll that carries the Latin motto Rerum Cognoscere Causas ("To Discover the Causes of Things"), which was also used by Firth College, the predecessor of the University of Sheffield.

[6] The charges on the field of the escutcheon of the University of Sheffield are mainly inanimate objects - arrows, crown and book - as well as a plant - rose.

The sheaves of arrows are a wordplay on the River Sheaf which runs through Sheffield, and also are a reference to the iron- and steel-making heritage of the city.