So much more than a University Education

University Centre Peterborough (UCP) offers a range of higher options that give you the training you need to hit the ground running after graduation. But did you know that these courses also have an incredible range of additional skills built in – from planning to lateral thinking, from teamwork to project management – that will give you the edge when it comes to applying for jobs? We spoke to Liz Knight, Academic Director of University Centre Peterborough, to find out more...

First of all – congratulations on being ranked the top university in East Anglia by the National Student Survey (NSS)! I’m guessing that the inclusion of so much extra skills teaching on your courses is part of that.
Our purpose is to prioritise our students and place them at the heart of everything we do. It’s their voices and aspirations that really matter to us, as well as their career aspirations. We often discuss the economic impact that University Centre Peterborough has on the region, because many of our students are, say, the first in their family to engage in higher education, blazing a trail for more skills and training within their communities. And of course there’s not just an economic impact to that, but a social and cultural one as well.

It’s similar to the ethos, ‘It takes a village to raise a child’ – you’re tapping into that ideal of there being many different ways to educate a young person and make them ready for the world.
Our mission, really, is to enable, engage and empower – we were delighted to see that we were ranked 42nd in Times Higher Education university rankings and above benchmark in all key areas, which speaks volumes about the dedication of our academic staff. They constantly strive to enhance their own skills and engage in research, such as exploring neurodiversity and supporting students from Early Years foundation to degree courses.

Our wider team, including student support, plays a crucial role in providing guidance and assistance, and this includes resolving financial issues, arranging nursery services for students with children, and informing them about available financial support. We are committed to continuously adapting our teaching methods and sharing knowledge with our students, so these two particular aspects of our survey results were particularly gratifying. For instance, we’ve now invested in immersive suites, new digital technology and cyber facilities to enhance resources, and we think these strong NSS results are a testament to that kind of effort; it’s also worth noting that this survey is the largest of its kind in the country and contributes to our TEF (Teaching Excellence Framework) rating. One of our standout programmes is our Pyschosocial Studies and Sociology degree provision, which has been highly successful in helping our students take on civic roles, such as some on our programme working as chairs for Peterborough City Council, focusing on preparing SEND students for adulthood.

One of the things that really seems to set UCP apart is the quality of your pastoral care, and how that links with tailoring courses to help students become rounded human beings with core skills that employers often say are lacking in new graduates.
Yes, absolutely – and I think, as well, it’s not just about the young. We need to think about what we term as mature, in the Higher Education world ‘mature’ is 25 and over, and if you look at the demographics of Peterborough and wider Fenland, including parts of Stamford and Rutland, you’ve got skill levels that are below the national average – all of these people working who also need to be upskilled. I’ve got one course, a counselling programme, and it’s all mature students – we’re looking at 95% achieving 2:1 or Firsts.

Coming back to our TEF rating, one of the things noted as an outstanding feature was what they call ‘educational gain’, and that’s basically: all the extra effort we put into the things we do, the extra mile that we go, and how we build these students from the moment they come to us. We’ve got fabulous stories – one of our business graduates came in at Level Two at college, and he’s now exiting with a good classification of degree, ready to embark on a significant management development programme with Enterprise. We always have students on paid placements with the BBC, and I know that a student this year is staying on with BBC Norfolk because she secured a permanent post with them as a news coordinator.

This all ties in with the strong links to businesses you have across the region.
One of the things we do for graduates is work with them 16 months after graduation, so they can constantly come back to us. We’ve recently invested in a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system so we can track students’ progress, match them with employers, that kind of thing. About 75% of our business graduates have already secured positions, and we also have a number of graduates going into teaching, leaving us with the most current understanding of how to work with young people, including students from neurodiverse backgrounds. We work closely with companies such as Anglian Water and, with them, we’re offering a part-time engineering programme that aligns with their graduate needs.

Equally as important as understanding what businesses want is sharing with students the local opportunities available to them – in fact while they study with us, we spend a lot of time preparing them. In the first year, we assure them that we’re here to help them get ready, and by the second year we expect them to be engaging in volunteering and other activities to build skills. We also want to see them working on projects in their second year – for example, this year our digital art students worked on a project with the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), including book illustrations, and student development via these types of projects is a constant thing. We also have our employability hub, the Futures Hub, where students can do things like build their LinkedIn profiles, and we bring employers in for guest lectures, subject expertise and to discuss career opportunities, too. We aim to instil an attitude of continuous evolution in our students – information and research skills are key, but you also need to keep evolving. We cover a wide range of additional topics, including computing, digital technology, VR, AI and ethical considerations in representation, which aligns with the increasing demand for online experiences from big providers like Universal Studios and other leisure facilities.

I think work preparation is key now, especially with competition for graduate jobs being so fierce – I’m sure many of us who graduated, say, 20 years ago can remember some pretty steep learning curves in the workplace that university had just not given us any training in.
Yes, and journalism is a prime example. I can remember, back in the day, doing the job you’d have somebody out there doing the audio work, the camera work, a broadcaster, there would be a dedicated news teams back at HQ – and that’s all gone. Now it’s one person who has to be multi-skilled, and on top of that you have to turn things around quickly because we have the internet and constant news-as-it-happens. That’s why at UCP, we are big on ‘live briefs’ – we want people to experience that, to understand on-the-job problem solving, and when we’re designing our curriculums we’re listening to employers as well, looking at what public sector or professional statutory bodies want. For example, if you’re looking at accountancy, we see what the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) wants; if it’s computing we’re looking at Cisco standards, and so on.

It’s such a positive and encouraging development in higher education, as evidenced by your NSS results.
I think a lot has changed in higher education, and there is a greater expectation that we respond to students’ interests, listen to them, make sure we’re walking the walk and making it real. At the end of the day, we all do our jobs because we want to see those students be successful. And if those students are successful and happy, we’re a successful organisation!

• To find out more, visit ucp.ac.uk, and follow on their socials at facebook.com/ucpeterborough, instagram.com/ucpeterborough and linkedin.com/school/university-centre-peterborough/