About the School

The University of Sheffield has been at the forefront of developments in the information field for more than fifty years, and is one of the few Russell Group universities offering NCTJ (National Council for the Training of Journalists) accredited journalism degrees.

Research Excellence Framework

91% of our research was rated as world-leading or internationally excellent in the fields of information and journalism, according to the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021).

Our REF impact submission was ranked 7th nationally, demonstrating that our research has a real-world impact, directly addressing issues such as media freedom, the spread of disinformation, information literacy and digital solutions to complex problems in healthcare and chemistry. 

We are also pleased to report that our research environment was ranked 10th nationally, showing that our School is a vibrant, progressive and supportive place to undertake research. We believe that this spirit of supportive and collaborative enquiry is crucial to producing world-leading research. 

Teaching and research

As part of our mission to provide world-quality university education, we aim to inspire and help our students to pursue their highest ambitions for their academic and professional careers. We offer students a powerful and distinctive combination of practical skills training with learning grounded in our outstanding academic research.

Our staff backgrounds and research reflect influences from journalism, computing, health, chemistry and different arts and humanities and social sciences disciplines, as well as experience from prestigious professional backgrounds in both journalism and information management.

We have an excellent network of international contacts in the local, national and international media and information industries, as well as in the academic world. We have also developed strong research and teaching links with other academic departments in the University.

History of information at Sheffield

Founded in 1963 as the Postgraduate School of Librarianship, it was only the second University school of its kind in the UK. Wilf Saunders was appointed the school's first director, and by the time the school opened in 1964 he had been joined by three full-time and three part-time members of staff.

One of the objectives of the new School was to attract into library and information work highly motivated postgraduates and to provide them with a professional education in the environment of advanced study and research.

A large proportion of these students were science and technology graduates, for whom existing librarianship programmes held little or no attraction: in the Sheffield School the intention was to provide for them a specially tailored group of courses of scientific and industrial information work, within the framework of a Diploma in Librarianship.

Before the school had completed its third year the University recognised the quality of its students and its programmes by upgrading the original Diploma in Librarianship to a Master's degree, and an additional programme MSc in Information Studies was offered for the first time.

This made Sheffield the only School in the country to provide a Master's degree programme as a basic professional qualification in librarianship, and one of only two to offer a basic information science qualification at Master's level.

In 1964, when the school was founded, research in librarianship and information science, save in certain bibliographical areas, was virtually non-existent. There was no cadre of research-trained personnel; there was no source of systematic research funding; and there was very little awareness within the library and information professions of the need for research.

Within months of opening, the School had been awarded its first research grant, headed by Dr Mike Lynch, to carry out a project on subject indexes and the automatic retrieval of information, which had ramifications in the fields of chemistry, computer science, language and information theory.

Michael Lynch can truly be regarded as the founding father of information science research at Sheffield: starting in 1965 as a Senior Research Fellow, he joined the permanent staff in 1968, and in 1974 he was appointed to the Personal Chair which made him the first Professor of Information Science in the UK.

History of journalism at Sheffield

The Department of Journalism Studies was launched in 1994 and within 10 years became one of the major journalism teaching and research establishments in the UK.