£20m funding bid for new Peterborough university teaching building

The project has been chosen by the city council for the Levelling Up Fund ahead of the June 18 deadline for submissions.

The Peterborough Telegraph revealed recently that the second teaching facility (phase three of ARU Peterborough) was one of the schemes being considered as part of a new university quarter, with a curriculum focused on: sports science, art and design, creative and digital and architecture.

This would also include the provision of a number of new public culture and sports facilities, as well improvements to the Embankment athletics track and links between the new university and the city’s main museum, library and the Key Theatre.

The aim is to have the building open by September 2024 to help ARU Peterborough reach its goal of 5,500 students by 2027.

The university based at the Embankment is set to welcome 2,000 students when it opens next year, with that total reaching 12,500 by 2030.

In total, it is due to have three teaching buildings and two research centres.

Peterborough was chosen as one of 45 towns or cities which can bid for a share of the Government’s new £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund, with each constituency area allowed to make a single application.

In total, the city council received six potential projects to support, with a final decision on which bid to back chosen by a panel of civic leaders including MP for Peterborough Paul Bristow, North West Cambridgeshire MP Shailesh Vara and the Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Dr Nik Johnson.

Phase three of the university project is expected to cost £28 million in total, with £4 million coming from Anglia Ruskin University, £2 million from the city council in the form of land contribution and £2 million from the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority - the county’s mayoral body.

The £20 million funding bid is the maximum allowed by the Levelling Up Fund.