High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The University of Sheffield is a research university based in the city of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It is one of the original `red brick` universities and is a member of the Russell Group of leading research intensive universities. The university ranked 17th in the United Kingdom in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) and is consistently ranked in the top 20 universities in the United Kingdom according to The Good University Guide. It was the Sunday Times University of the Year in 2001. In 2012, QS World University Rankings placed Sheffield as the 66th university worldwide. It was named `University of the Year` 2011 in the Times Higher Education awards.