Waterside Campus will kick-start new businesses in Northampton, says vice-chancellor

The University of Northampton's vice-chancellor will explain how the upcoming Waterside Campus will help to kick-start the town as a centre for start-up businesses when he appears on the radio tomorrow.
Left to right: Vice-chancellor Nick Petford, Adrian Pryce and Rev Richard Coles will appear on NLive tomorrow at 7pm.Left to right: Vice-chancellor Nick Petford, Adrian Pryce and Rev Richard Coles will appear on NLive tomorrow at 7pm.
Left to right: Vice-chancellor Nick Petford, Adrian Pryce and Rev Richard Coles will appear on NLive tomorrow at 7pm.

Professor Nick Petford will speak on community radio station NLive on Wednesday (July 11) to talk about how the new campus will help revitalise Northampton.

The £330m development, which is located on the banks of the River Nene across the water from Beckets Park, opens to students in September.

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Nick will be joined in the studio by chancellor Rev Richard Coles, and the programme’s presenter, Adrian Pryce, a senior lecturer at the University.

Richard Coles, who said: “Northampton has struggled in recent years, so to see something of this prestige, excitement and dynamism coming here is amazing. It has a huge impact on not just the town, but the region.

“There’s a giant video screen at Waterside Campus and it seems to me to be proclaiming that there’s a new show in town and this is the place to be.”

The university says on a whole it creates a £290m boost to the county and generates more than 2,700 jobs.

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Professor Petford said: “A disused brownfield site is being brought back to life by a higher education institution, which performs research, is innovative, is one of the county’s biggest employers and has a huge attraction to both UK and overseas companies.

“It also has the ability to retain graduates in the area, through internships, spin-out businesses and start-ups.

“No other type of organisation has the ability to do this. Universities are unique in this respect.”

The show on Wednesday runs from 7pm to 9pm. It is available to listen online at Nliveradio.com or on 106.9fm in Northampton.

Waterside has already seen 755 local people employed through the project's supply chain, 40 local suppliers engaged and more than 200 new jobs created.