Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) is a public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The university is based on two sites; the City Campus is located in the city centre near Sheffield railway station, while the Collegiate Crescent Campus is about two miles away in the Broomhall Estate off Ecclesall Road in south-west Sheffield. A third campus at Brent Cross Town in the London Borough of Barnet is expected to open for the 2025–2026 academic year.
The university is the 14th largest university in the UK (out of 169) with 30,765 students (of whom 4,400 are international students), 4,494 staff and 708 courses.
Contents
History
Foundation and growth
In 1843, as the industrial revolution gathered pace and Sheffield was on the verge of becoming the steel, tool and cutlery making capital of the world, the Sheffield School of Design was founded following lobbying by artist Benjamin Haydon. The day-to-day running was controlled by the local council, whilst the Board of Trade in London appointed the head. Tuition began in a 60x40ft rented room off Glossop Road. In 1850, the School of Design was renamed Sheffield School of Art.
In 1905, the City of Sheffield Training College (later renamed Sheffield City College of Education) on Collegiate Crescent admitted its first 90 students. During the First World War, the Collegiate Hall was requisitioned by the War Office to create the 3rd Northern General Hospital, a facility for the Royal Army Medical Corps to treat military casualties.
A new city centre campus was constructed during the 1960s. During construction, in February 1962, a tower crane on site collapsed during the Great Sheffield Gale. It crashed into the side of what would become the Owen Building, causing serious damage and setting back construction. In 1967, the Owen Building was completed. Built in a functional 1960s design, it has since been modernised and comprehensively renovated with an atrium linking it to four adjacent buildings. In 1969 the Sheffield School of Design merged with the city's College of Technology to form Sheffield Polytechnic. In 1976, Sheffield Polytechnic merged with the city's two teacher training colleges (Sheffield City College and Totley Hall College) and was renamed Sheffield City Polytechnic.
From 1979 to 1988 students from Sheffield City Polytechnic were based at Wentworth Woodhouse, near Rotherham. Two departments, Physical Education and Geography and Environmental Studies, were based on site. In 1987 Sheffield City Polytechnic became a founding member of the Northern Consortium.
University status to present day
In 1992, Sheffield City Polytechnic became Sheffield Hallam University (SHU), with the right to award its own degrees.
In 2005, SHU was reorganised into four faculties. The new Faculty of Development and Society, with an emphasis on 'people, places and spaces', brought together education, geography, humanities, law, and social sciences. At the same time, with the intention of further developing research and teaching in the new Faculty of Health and Wellbeing, a new Clinical Academic Group was launched. The building that had been designed and constructed to house the National Centre for Popular Music became the university's students' union building (the HUBS). The Nelson Mandela Building, the former students' union building (when opened in 1978 was known as the Phoenix building), was sold and has since been demolished.
In 2007, SHU took over the teaching of nursing and midwifery from the University of Sheffield. These activities are now based at the Collegiate Crescent Campus. The following year the Psalter Lane campus (formerly the Sheffield College of Art) was closed, and the activities transferred to the City Campus. The £26 million energy-efficient Furnival Building opened in September (renamed Cantor Building in 2011 in recognition of a major donor to the university). The building, which includes teaching spaces and an art gallery has been described as "the impressive new entry point to the campus". For the 2025–26 academic year, the university expects to open its London campus at the Brent Cross Town development in the London Borough of Barnet. The campus will accommodate up to 5,000 students by 2030.
Organisation and governance
Colleges
In 2020, the university relaunched its structure moving away from four faculties and re-organising academic departments into colleges.
College of Business, Technology and Engineering (BTE)
Sheffield Business School
School of Computing and Digital Technologies
School of Engineering and Built Environment
College of Social Sciences and Arts (SSA)
Sheffield Creative Industries Institute
Sheffield Institute of Law and Social Sciences
Sheffield Institute of Education
College of Health, Wellbeing and Life Sciences (HWLS)
School of Biosciences and Chemistry
School of Health and Social Care
School of Sport and Physical Activity
Research
Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre (AWRC)
Biomolecular Sciences Research Centre (BMRC)
Centre for Behavioural Science and Applied Psychology (CeBSAP)
Centre for Development and Research in Education (CDARE)
Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR)
Centre for Sport and Exercise Science (CSES)
Centre for Sports Engineering Research (CSER)
Design Futures Centre for Industrial Collaboration (Design Futures)
Humanities Research Centre (HRC)
Lab4Living
National Centre of Excellence for Food Engineering (NCEFE)
Sport Industry Research Centre (SIRC)
Sport and Physical Activity Research Centre (SPARC)
Cultural, Communication and Computing Research Institute (C3RI)
Art, Design and Media Research Centre (ADRC)
Communication and Computing Research Centre (CCRC)
Materials and Engineering Research Institute (MERI)
Centre for Automation and Robotics Research (CARR)
Chancellors
The position is currently vacant following the death of Uriah Rennie on 8 June 2025, who had been installed as Chancellor in a ceremony at the university on Thursday 8 May 2025.
Bryan Nicholson 1992–2001
Robert Winston, 2001–2018
Helena Kennedy, 2018–2025
Uriah Rennie May–June 2025
Academic profile
Lifelong Learning Network
SHU is the lead partner for Higher Futures, the Lifelong Learning Network (LLN) for South Yorkshire, North Derbyshire and North Nottinghamshire.
Rankings and reputational issues
In the National Student Survey, several subject areas at SHU have performed very well in terms of overall student satisfaction with their courses: for example, architecture and geography have both been placed first, and planning has been placed second.
In the university league tables, Sheffield Hallam University was placed 47th out of 121 UK universities by The Guardian University Guide 2021; 65th out of 131 by The Times & Sunday Times Good University Guide 2020; and 67th out of 130 by the Complete University Guide 2021. In 2019, it ranked 485th among the universities around the world by SCImago Institutions Rankings.
Hallam received a First Class award and was ranked 15th out of 151 universities in the People & Planet University League 2015 which assesses universities on their environmental credentials. In 2020, the university was awarded The Times and Sunday Times University of the Year award for teaching quality.
In 2022, the university's vice-chancellor taken some pride in Laura Murphy's research into Uyghur forced labour in China, even though this might reduce the number of Chinese students at the university. In 2025, the university apologised to Murphy, after she had been told that she could not continue her research into human rights abuses in China. The instruction for Laura Murphy to halt her research came six months after the Sheffield Hallam university decided to abandon the planned report on the risk of Uyghur forced labour in the critical minerals supply chain, and return the funding associated with that research to the original grantor, Global Rights Compliance. UK counter-terrorism police subsequently commenced an investigation into the matter. In November 2025, it was announced that the foreign affairs select committee's inquiry into review of UK-China relations was to be broadened after Sheffield Hallam University disclosures.
Notable alumni
Nazir Ahmed, Labour Party peer
Kid Acne, artist and musician
Andy Akinwolere, TV presenter on Blue Peter
Emily Asquith, boxer
Roma Babuniak, artist
Graham Barnfield, pundit and happy slapping analyst
Lee Blackett, Leeds Tykes rugby union player
Peter Booth, Australian modern bleak landscape painter
Samuel Brooksworth, businessman
Josephine Bunch, British physicist
Richard Caborn, former Labour MP for Sheffield Central, and former minister of sport
Andy Carthy, AKA Mr. Scruff, British DJ and artist
Joanna Constantinidis, ceramist
Eric Dancer, Lord Lieutenant of Devon
Kate Dover, 1870s student of Sheffield School of Art, and arsenic poisoner
Richard O'Dwyer, TV Shack creator
Natalie Finnemore, installation artist
Dave Godin, Tamla Motown enthusiast, cinema proprietor and political activist
Graham Gristwood and Emily Benham, World Champions in Orienteering.
Notable staff
Alison Adam, professor of science, technology and society.
Geoff Cartwright, senior lecturer in Environmental Conservation 1995–2012: joint winner of the 2011 Individual award in the Environment Awards of the Sheffield Telegraph for his work on the development of a nature reserve at Blackburn Meadows on the site of the former Tinsley sewage farm.
I. M. Dharmadasa, applied physicist and researcher of low cost solar cells
Hywel
Jones, materials scientist and inventor in advanced ceramics and metals, Principal Research Fellow
Marina Lewycka (1946– ), senior lecturer in Media Studies 1998–2012, author of several novels including A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (2005)
Laura Murphy, Professor of Human Rights
Frederick Brian Pickering (1927–2017), metallurgist
Jane Rogers, winner of the 2012 Arthur C. Clarke Award for the 'best science fiction novel of the year' for The Testament of Jessie Lamb
Jawed Siddiqi, Professor of Software Engineering and political activist
Frances Spalding, art historian, former lecturer