£30m university for Peterborough officially launches

A new £30m university in Peterborough is set to open its doors in 2022 to help train and upskill local residents.

The new campus will be run by Anglia Ruskin University and the project is being backed by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority in collaboration with Peterborough City Council.

The ARU Peterborough campus will open its doors in to 2,000 students in 2022, with an ambition to offer courses for up to 12,500 by 2030.

The curriculum will be designed to provide both opportunities for local residents to receive a top-class vocational education and a well skilled local workforce for businesses to employ.

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 low-tech 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.

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.

‘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,’ said Peterborough City Council leader, Cllr John Holdich.

‘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,’ he added.

Photo Credit – RobTowne0 (Pixabay)