New education partner for Peterborough’s £30m university promises ‘life-changing opportunities’ for city residents

Anglia Ruskin University will deliver the curriculum for the new university - which will now be known as ARU Peterborough - until 2028 and will soon begin recruiting its first cohort of students.

The university at the Embankment is set to open its doors to 2,000 students in 2022 with the aim of offering courses for up to 12,500 by 2030.

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Announcing the choice of Anglia Ruskin as its higher education partner, the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority - which is leading on the project - said: “The curriculum will be designed to meet local economic needs, providing both opportunities for local residents to receive a top-class vocational education and a well skilled local workforce for businesses to employ.”

Anglia Ruskin, which was chosen by the combined authority after a tender process, already has a presence in Peterborough with a campus in Oundle Road.

The tender process began after University Centre Peterborough, which had originally been chosen to be the education provider, was told it needed to reapply for the role despite being ready to submit a crucial application to the independent regulator which is deciding whether the university can go ahead.

UCP, which is a joint venture between Peterborough Regional College and Anglia Ruskin, was later given just shy of £150,000 by the combined authority after it complained that its sudden demotion and loss of funding left it with “unfunded staff costs”.

Announcing the decision for the combined authority to partner with Anglia Ruskin this morning (Tuesday), Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough James Palmer said:

“After decades of false starts I am beyond pleased to be officially launching a new employment focused university for Peterborough which will drastically improve the life chances of people in Peterborough and the surrounding area.

“The university will breathe new life into the city and region, helping to empower people with the skills and training they need to find jobs and careers that will be fulfilling and rewarding and in turn creating a new generation of highly skilled workers to meet the needs of emerging markets.”

The combined authority - the county’s mayoral body - said that ARU Peterborough will “deliver a practical solution to the acute shortage of degree-level employees in the workforce, with Peterborough ranked in the bottom 10 per cent in the UK for skills levels.

“By widening participation and attracting a diverse student population from non-traditional backgrounds it will both redress the skills gap and improve social mobility in an area that has been a long-term higher education ‘cold spot’.”

A recent Centre for Cities study declared Peterborough as the fifth most ‘at risk’ city in the UK from the economic impacts of Covid-19.

This stems from the city’s industrial base - which is characterised by increasing levels of administration and logistics employment - a waning high-value manufacturing sector and a falling proportion of knowledge-intense jobs.

Courses at the new university will be delivered through a mixture of on-campus lessons, in-work training and apprenticeships, with distance learning and outreach programmes to improve accessibility.

The campus will have “state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly facilities, with specialist teaching spaces including skills labs,” the combined authority said.

The Peterborough Telegraph has previously revealed that a masterplan for 13.5 acres of land in and around the Embankment includes not just the new campus, but a new events arena, nightclubs and riverside bars.

This is expected to include a new 17,500 capacity stadium for Peterborough United, while there are plans to convert the Regional Fitness & Swimming Centre in Bishop’s Road into a student union complex with accommodation, restaurants, nightclubs and bars, on top of further evening entertainment by the river.

However, leader of Peterborough City Council Cllr John Holdich has said he still hopes to see the regional pool redeveloped and kept where it is as part of a sports village at the site, while the masterplan also proposes facilities including a leisure centre, football pitches and keeping the existing athletics track.

Cllr Holdich, who is also deputy mayor at the combined authority, said: “One of my greatest ambitions as leader of the council is to see a dedicated university for Peterborough so I am delighted that we are partnering with a higher education provider of the calibre of Anglia Ruskin University which has a fantastic track record.

“Establishing a university is the single biggest thing we can do to stop our talented young people from leaving to build their lives elsewhere and ensures that our businesses have a good crop of people with the skills and talent they need to apply for jobs. It will lead to higher skilled and better paid jobs and create significant economic benefits for the whole city.

“I am confident that together with ARU we will deliver the university that Peterborough needs and that the people of the city deserve.”

The first four faculties at ARU Peterborough will be:

. The Faculty of Business, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

. The Faculty of Creative and Digital Arts and Sciences

. The Faculty of Agriculture, Environment and Sustainability

. The Faulty of Health and Education

Professor Roderick Watkins, Vice Chancellor of ARU, which also has campuses in Cambridge and Chelmmsford, said: “We are delighted to be appointed as the university partner in this exciting initiative which will be transformative for the city of Peterborough and the region.

“Only last month we were named as one of the top 10 mainstream universities in the country for graduate employment thanks to the talent and hard work of our students and staff.

“By working closely with employers in and around Peterborough to design and deliver courses that match their needs ARU Peterborough will generate economic growth and provide life-changing opportunities for many local people who may not have previously considered going to university.”

The combined authority added: “While Peterborough has seen a rapid increase in both population and growth, with generally high employment levels across the region, skills growth has not kept up.

“Local businesses are struggling to recruit the staff they need and companies offering high value jobs have been discouraged from moving in, leading to a decline in the overall prosperity of the city and surrounding areas.

“Peterborough has a workforce of 103,000 and, in comparison to the average city in the UK, it is estimated it needs to mobilise at least 17,000 more workers with degrees to become competitive.”