Sheffield Hallam University has risen eight positions in the Guardian’s annual league table of best UK universities, breaking into the top 50 for the first time. It marks the fourth consecutive year of improvement, with Hallam up 39 places since 2017.

Press contact: Nicky Swire | n.swire@shu.ac.uk

The university is now ranked 47th in the Guardian league table for 2021, representing the highest position for a modern university in the Yorkshire region. 

Hallam has also been named University of the Year for Teaching Quality in the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2020.

Sheffield Hallam Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Chris Husbands, said: “This is Sheffield Hallam’s highest ever position in the Guardian university guide; it shows the impressive impacts of our long-term change strategy which has placed students, engagement with our community and global ambitions at the heart of our thinking.

“It’s a reminder too, after the challenges of responding to Covid-19, that the university has resilience and strength and the real capability to realise its mission to transform lives.”

Sheffield Hallam’s social work and languages courses are ranked amongst the top 10 in the national subject tables.

Several of the university’s other courses – including hospitality, events management and tourism, design, criminology, fashion and chemistry – also made it into the top 20 rankings for their respective course tables. 

The independent national league table ranks universities according to graduate career prospects, spending per student, the student/staff ratio, required applicant grades, a value-added score and how satisfied final year students are with their courses, based on results from the annual National Student Survey.