The University of Sheffield (informally Sheffield University) is a public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It received its royal charter in 1905 as successor to the University College of Sheffield, which was established in 1897 by the merger of Sheffield Medical School (founded in 1828), Firth College (1879) andsheffield Technical School (1884). The university has five main faculties organised into multiple departments. It has about 26,000 students and 2,000 staff.
Sheffield is a member of the Russell Group of leading research-intensive universities, the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN), Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and Universitas 21. In 2011, QS World University Rankings ranked it 147th worldwide (“Top 200”), while Times Higher Education World University Rankings placed it 151–160th worldwide (“Top 400”). In 2009 and 2010, Times Higher Education named it “University Of The Year”. The results for Research Fortnight’s REF2014 ranking placed Sheffield 146th out of 154 institutions; this was a decrease from its position at 59th out of 153 institutions in 2008.