Alumni also include several heads of state, Home Secretaries, Court of Appeal judges, Booker Prize winners, astronauts and Olympic gold medallists.

Steel manufacturer and former mayor of Sheffield Mark Firth and clergyman Samuel Earnshaw therefore organised courses in English literature and political economy.

[33] The university announced proposals for development in 1947, which emphasised the need for new departments, medical school, library, administration building, halls of residence, as well as the completion of the Western Bank quadrangle and the extension of the Students' Union.

George Porter joined the university as Professor of Physical Chemistry in 1955 and he further developed his later Nobel Prize-winning work flash photolysis at Sheffield.

[47] The Upper Hanover Street section of the ring road splits university buildings into the Western Bank and the St George's campus areas.

[a] Instead of growing from a single centre, since receiving its royal charter, the university has expanded from two academic foci about 1 km apart: Firth Court on Western Bank and Sir Frederick Mappin Building on St George's.

Until the completion of three pedestrian crossings on Western Bank in 2017, the concourse underpass was the only link that allowed students to easily move between buildings in this cluster.

The formerly Grade II-listed Edwardian wing of the Jessop Hospital was demolished after Sheffield City Council's planning committee voted for approval.

[63][64] Amongst the more recent additions to the university's estate located on this campus are the Soundhouse (2008; a music practice and studio facility) and the Jessop West building (2009; the first UK project by Berlin architects Sauerbruch Hutton).

[74] Situated on 7 Leopold Street opposite Firth College, the old Medical School building was designed by John Dodsley Webster and completed in 1888.

[77] In 2004, the university disagreed with the South Yorkshire Strategic Health Authority's decision to take away part of its nursing and midwifery training contract, and declined the offer due to financial and operational constraints.

[78] From 2022 to 2023, students protested against the university working with and accepting payment for various activities from companies including Rolls Royce, BAE Systems, and Boeing who are involved in the arms manufacturing industry.

[23] As well as educating full-time students, in the early 20th century, the university taught non-degree courses that covered non-conventional, occupation-focused subjects such as cow-keeping, railway economics, mining and razor-grinding.

[83][84] The precursor to the Faculty of Engineering is the Sheffield Technical School established in the 1880s, which offered part-time and evening class programme to adults working in the steel industry.

[93] The department was awarded a maximum score of 24 points in the QAA Teaching Quality Assessment in 1999, and top five for biological sciences research in the REF 2014.

[102] The International Faculty consists of four departments, namely Business Administration and Economics, Psychology, Computer Science and English Studies.

It is on an azure shield with a gold-edged book inscribed with the Latin Disce Doce (Learn and Teach) at its centre, a sheaf of eight silver arrows on either side (from the arms of the city), the Crown of Success and the White Rose of York.

[114] In heraldic terminology, the official coat of arms is blazoned as follows: 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.

It was also named as one of the top 50 most international universities in 2018 around the world[140] and its reputation of outstanding teaching has been underlined in the most recent league table which put Sheffield joint 9th in the UK and 11th across Europe.

[161] Opened its door in 2018, the Diamond provides 24-hour library services (and other teaching facilities), with in-demand textbooks, a non-loanable reference collection and over 1,000 study spaces.

[186] With its own Reading Room situated in Western Bank Library, the archive holds 150,000 photographs, 4,000 books and journals, together with over 20,000 items of printed and video ephemera.

[192][188] The University of Sheffield's major research partners and clients include Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Siemens, Unilever, Boots, AstraZeneca, GSK, ICI, and Slazenger, as well as UK and overseas government agencies and charitable foundations.

[194] The university also works with local small and medium enterprises through the dedicated physical spaces at the Sheffield Bioincubator and Kroto Innovation Centre.

The university is also a partner organisation in Higher Futures, a collaborative association of institutions set up under the government's Lifelong Learning Networks initiative, to co-ordinate vocational and work-based education.

[202] The decision had been made through a commissioned Institutional Review process chaired by Valentine and was met with national and international outcry including a petition signed by over 40,000 people.

[212] In November 2009 a development project began to redevelop the Students' Union building, funded by £5 million by the HEFCE, which was completed and re-opened in September 2010.

Notable public servants who have studied at the university includes Secretary General of the Higher Commission for Industrial Security of Saudi Arabia Khalid S. Al-Ageel,[226] Chief Economist at the Bank of England Andy Haldane,[227] head of London Metropolitan Police Bernard Hogan-Howe,[228] Chief of the Defence Staff Stuart Peach,[229][230] and Children's Commissioner for England Maggie Atkinson.

[239] Writers who attended the university include two-times Booker Prize winner Hilary Mantel,[233] Lee Child,[233] Andrew Grant,[233] Brooke Magnanti (Belle de Jour), Lindsay Ashford and Katie B. Edwards.

Many pioneers were students at the university, including first British astronaut Helen Sharman,[242] Polar explorer Roy Koerner, and the first female pilot to fly solo from London to Australia Amy Johnson.

Notable alumni in sports also include Herbert Chapman, Zara Dampney, Catherine Faux, Tim Robinson and David Wetherill.