University of Sheffield

The University of Sheffield is a public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Firth College in 1879 and Sheffield Technical School in 1884. The University College of Sheffield was subsequently formed by the amalgamation of the three institutions in 1897. It was granted a royal charter as the University of Sheffield in 1905 by King Edward VII. The University of Sheffield was formed by the merger of three local institutions: the Sheffield School of Medicine, Firth College, and the Sheffield Technical School. The oldest of these was the Sheffield School of Medicine. Surgeon-apothecary Hall Overend, began training medical students in Sheffield in 1811, conducting and teaching human dissection in an anatomy museum at his home in Church Street.Sheffield was in the late 1890s the only large city in England without a university college. William Mitchinson Hicks, principal of Firth College from 1892 to 1897, had an ambition to establish a university in the city. To this end, Hicks worked towards the union of the three higher education institutions in Sheffield, to transform Firth College into a university college. He also extended the college by creating new departments and adding new buildings.