Vice Chancellor to tell listeners how Waterside can spark start-ups and spin outs

The University of Northampton’s Vice Chancellor will explain how Waterside Campus will help to kick-start the town as a centre for start-up businesses when he appears on the radio this week.

Professor Nick Petford will outline the financial and social benefits of Waterside when he appears on the Open For Business programme, which airs on Wednesday evening on Northampton’s community radio station, NLive.

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

Prof 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.”

Nick will be joined in the studio by Chancellor, Rev Richard Coles, and the programme’s presenter, Adrian Pryce, who is Senior Lecturer in Strategy and International Business at the University.

Waterside Campus has impressed 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.”

Reports have shown the University as a whole creates a £290m boost to the county and generates more than 2,700 jobs. This is before the impact of Waterside has been taken into account.

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

The show runs from 7pm to 9pm on Wednesday and you can listen online at Nliveradio.com or on 106.9fm in Northampton.

Find out more about Waterside on the website.