Students praise university's influence on city

Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) Peterborough has been praised by students and businesses for its influence on the city four years after the campus opened.

They said the university has created new educational and career opportunities in the area, allowing residents to study and work locally rather than move away.

The Duke of Gloucester joined the anniversary celebrations on Tuesday, where the university's principal, Ross Renton, described the occasion as "a milestone for the city and the region".

"Over half of our undergraduate students are from PE [Peterborough] postcodes... and within those students about 40% said they would have not gone to university had we not existed," he said.

The campus on Bishop's Road offers courses including law, artificial intelligence, computer data science, biomedical science and nursing.

Louise Jones, from Peterborough, is preparing to graduate from ARU Peterborough as a paediatric nurse.

She said studying locally had enabled her to pursue a career that would otherwise have been out of reach.

"I have two children and I wouldn't have been able to go off and study somewhere," she said.

"My son's got a healthcare condition and that's how I saw the paediatric nursing. I was in awe with how they were with him and that's why I got into it and I wanted to give back.

"The university opens a lot of opportunities for individuals like me who aren't able to go off somewhere to study. It also opens up opportunities for jobs, especially for courses like ours."

Figures from the Department for Education showed that in 2025 3.9% of 16 to17-year-olds living in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough were not in education, employment or training (NEET) - which was above the national average of 3.4%.

Renton said the university was working to address this issue.

He added: "We are proud to work with those in NEET, our upscale programmes are fantastic examples of that. We also promote our degree apprenticeships - you earn while you learn. This means people can see what opportunities are out there.

"We want to see this university thrive. Our next phase will be an industrial research facility, bringing knowledge into the city. Working with employers to see the kind of things you might see happening in Cambridge and London, will be happening in Peterborough."

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