University of Sheffield
Sheffield Law School

Why Sheffield?
Sheffield Law School is one of the top providers of postgraduate legal education. With top rankings for both research and teaching you can be sure this is a law school with an international reputation for excellence. You’ll also find support and encouragement here throughout your degree. In joining us you become part of a body of highly valued postgraduate students with their own identity, sense of community and dedicated study facilities. Sheffield Law School is superbly connected with the legal profession and offers a professional careers service second to none.

An excellent choice
A modern law school with excellent facilities including a dedicated postgraduate common room, superb IT provision and quiet study areas, we are based in an impressive, historic building, just a minute’s walk away from the main University campus. We are also a law school with a considerable reputation and a tradition of excellence stretching back over a hundred years. In the most recent national assessments we were awarded a rating of Excellent for the quality of our teaching and 5 (out of 5) for our research activity – this means that our research work is of the highest international quality. We confidently await the results of our 2008 research assessment. Among your teachers will be scholars known throughout the world for diverse areas of legal or criminological study. Many have also been involved in informing government policy debate, both at home and abroad, in advising on law reform and commenting about their subject in the media.

A law school to be proud of
Sheffield Law School has its own dedicated building, Bartolomé House. You see it, you love it – you just can’t help it. Built at the end of the 1800s, it combines the old and the new: once inside you’ll find all the facilities you would expect of a top law school including excellent IT provision, a dedicated postgraduate study suite, quiet areas and an internet café. We’re only a minute’s walk away from all the activity and services of the main campus, with 1.3 million volumes of published work in the University’s main library and a new 24-hour Information Commons study centre with printed and online collections.

Choosing the right degree for you
We offer the following taught programmes here at Sheffield, taught by staff respected throughout the world for their research and teaching:

• LLM Commercial Law
• LLM International and European Law
• LLM International Legal Studies
• LLM Conflict and Security Law (jointly with the University of Utrecht)
• MA International Criminology
• MA Biotechnological Law and Ethics
• MA Socio-legal Research
• MA Global Politics and Law
• MA European Law, Politics and Governance
• MA Law.

No exams
With the exception of the MA Law, all our programmes are assessed by coursework. Students on all programmes also undertake a dissertation of 10,000 to 12,000 words which, unlike dissertations at some law schools, is supervised by a member of our academic staff.

The School runs a highly active seminar and lecture programme in each of the main research areas; hence your particular interest can be informed both by our own academic expertise and by external speakers. Sheffield Law School is renowned for its particular expertise in criminology, all aspects of commercial law, public law and biotechnological law and ethics.

A bit about Sheffield…
Located in the very heart of England, Sheffield is the fourth largest English city, built on seven hills and their river valleys. It all seems to be either uphill or downhill – but you get to love it. It’s a large city, with a buzzing, redesigned city centre. A little further out you’ll find some of the UK’s top suburbs where the University’s student village is situated. Originally famous for steel manufacturing, Sheffield is clean, green and has a good reputation for safety.

It’s a city within a park – a third of Sheffield is set within the Peak District National Park with all its magnificent scenery, and this is a mere 10 to 15 minutes away from the city centre! Derbyshire is just on the doorstep, offering plenty of opportunities for walking, cycling, pub lunches and some of the best rock climbing in the UK.

In a large city like Sheffield, so much is going on that there’s something for everyone. We’re world-famous for our indie-band and club scene. We can offer cinema, theatre, dance, classical music and art in a packed year-round programme of events, as well as major venues used by the big names in rock and pop. In addition, a recent survey found that Sheffield is one of the cheapest places to live as a student in the whole of the UK – so you’ll find you can afford the occasional treat that might put you out of pocket elsewhere.

There is every major sport – and then some. As the first city to be designated a National City of Sport, Sheffield offers plenty of active and spectator sports for you to enjoy, from club to world-class level, from football to basketball, speedway to snooker. Why not try your snowboarding skills at Europe’s largest all-weather ski slope, carved into the side on one of the many Sheffield hills? And as a student here you’ll be able to join the University’s health club, with 150 fitness stations on two levels and a top-class indoor swimming pool with poolside sauna and steam rooms. There’s also a bouldering arena for indoor climbing, and high-quality grass and turf pitches so you’ll find you can play every major sport here and perhaps try your hand at some different ones.

A safe city
While nowhere is crime-free, Sheffield has a good reputation for safety, and research conducted here in Sheffield Law School helped to confirm this, the particular areas of commendation being ‘crime against the person’ and ‘crime against property’. In comparison with other major cities our reputation for being peaceful remains very good. The University encourages all staff and students to look after themselves and their property. In particular, the Students’ Union organises inter-site transport together with a pre-bookable women-only taxi service to take you door to door.

A few words on the University…
There’s a real sense of law postgraduate student identity here, and yet we never forget that we’re part of a large, thriving and prestigious university dating back to the 1800s and officially opened in 1905 by King Edward VII. And while we’re name-dropping, the University of Sheffield has produced no fewer than five Nobel Prize winners and also has a glittering array of alumni – among them, astronaut Helen Sharman and comic genius Eddie Izzard.

The University has 73 academic departments and some 24,000 students. It is spread over a mile in the leafy and pleasant west of the city, housed in ivy-clad redbrick or modern purpose-built architecture. The main central site occupies both sides of Western Bank, a major Sheffield route through to the city centre or the ring roads. Local transport facilities are excellent, with plenty of buses, and the futuristic supertram links the University with other areas of the city and the rail and bus stations.

Where you’ll live
We reserve some accommodation specifically for postgraduate students in University self-catering flats. Most are in the pleasant southwest of the city in one of the top suburbs in the UK – a pleasant, leafy area of low crime and high-quality housing. There is also a large selection of privately owned accommodation, though you should always choose to organise this through the University’s ‘private sector bureau’. You can find more information about the accommodation options at www.shef.ac.uk/housing.

Connected globally… international students
International students from all around the world have joined us at Sheffield Law School – across all the continents, and from Antigua to Zambia. Your varied perspectives enrich us, and the knowledge and skills you develop here equip you for life with a legal understanding that can be transferred back home or taken further as you wish. You’ll also find Sheffield has a friendly, cosmopolitan outlook and a range of services for international students that is second to none.

Here’s what some of our past students have said:

"I chose Sheffield because of its reputation as a top European university. I felt sure I was making the right choice academically, but after a long flight I arrived late in the evening at Manchester Airport and at that point felt a bit low in spirits. Thankfully I had booked the meet-and-greet service, so that I was met by a University person who took me and a few others in a minibus to the University accommodation. It was such a help. You have to be quite organised and book all this in advance, including sorting out your University accommodation, but it was well worth it and I recommend you do the same. I found the information out on www.shef.ac.uk/international and www.shef.ac.uk/housing."

"Sheffield is an amazing, happening city… The people in Sheffield are very friendly and will happily explain where everything is. They will call you “love”! How good is that?"

The Students’ Union runs an international students’ orientation week to help you adapt and provides a lot of information on adjusting to studying and living in Britain.

If English isn’t your first language you will of course need a good command of it before you apply. We usually ask for IELTS grade 7 with a minimum of 6 in each component, or a similar qualification. You can, however, improve your language skills while you’re here, and courses of various types are run by our English Language Teaching Centre – see www.shef.ac.uk/eltc for details.

Tuition fees and scholarships
Of course, fees vary from time to time, as do available scholarships – for the latest information please see www.shef.ac.uk/ssid/finance/pgt.

Contact
Mrs Lilian Bloodworth
Admissions Officer
Sheffield Law School
The University of Sheffield
Bartolomé House
Winter Street
Sheffield S3 7ND 

T +44 (0)114 222 6770
E L.Bloodworth@sheffield.ac.uk
W www.shef.ac.uk/law