Their Royal Highnesses The Duchess of Edinburgh and The Duke of Kent spotlight �ۿ۴�ý's research and teaching strengths across medicine and engineering

press release

Published: 28 January 2026

Their Royal Highnesses The Duchess of Edinburgh and The Duke of Kent spotlight �ۿ۴�ý's research and teaching strengths across medicine and engineering

Today (28 January), HRH The Duchess of Edinburgh and the �ۿ۴�ý’s Chancellor, HRH The Duke of Kent, visited �ۿ۴�ý to celebrate the University’s innovation, research and hands-on learning.

HRH The Duchess of Edinburgh speaking to students

During their visit, they met students and staff from across campus, gaining insight into �ۿ۴�ý’s multidisciplinary approach to education.

Medical students at the first and only medical school in �ۿ۴�ý met The Duchess of Edinburgh to demonstrate the collaborative training that will shape their careers in the NHS. The Duchess returned to the �ۿ۴�ý's Kate Granger Building six years after she opened it as the home of its School of Health Sciences. Her Royal Highness met some of the University's first cohort of who began their studies in September 2025.

The Duchess also met medical, nursing, midwifery and paramedic students learning together in the collaborative training wards before joining a virtual reality anatomy teaching session.

The University’s Chancellor, The Duke of Kent, joined her Royal Highness at the �ۿ۴�ý Space Centre, where they visited labs to see a student-designed satellite deploy pod which will push a payload from a rocket into space.

At the Space Centre, The Duchess visited the satellite clean room toured by Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 1998. In the clean room, Her Royal Highness helped to fit a panel engraved with Their Royal Highnesses’ Royal Cyphers to Jovian-1, a satellite which �ۿ۴�ý students helped develop.

Schoolchildren who took part in the University’s widening participation summer schools returned to campus to show off the hands-on STEM projects they enjoyed last year, with The Duke and Duchess joining in. Students from the University’s Engineering Design Centre also had the opportunity to show His Royal Highness a range of projects, including rocket designs and Formula E racing cars.

Training medical students alongside nursing, midwifery and paramedic students reflects how the NHS operates in practice. Our students graduate already equipped to work effectively in multidisciplinary teams, rather than having to learn this solely once they enter the workplace. The Duchess saw this first-hand in our training wards, where students from different disciplines learn together in realistic clinical settings.

Her Royal Highness also saw our engineering students working on satellites they have designed and built themselves – hardware that will ultimately be launched into orbit. That combination of world-class research and practical, employer-ready skills lies at the heart of what we do. For our students, whether still studying or already well into their careers, having two members of the Royal Family witness this work first-hand is an experience they will long remember. It was a truly memorable day for our entire community. Professor Stephen Jarvis, President and Vice-Chancellor

The visit marked a return to sites with strong royal connections. Queen Elizabeth II visited the University’s Guildford campus : in 1992, where she inaugurated the University’s Centre for Satellite Engineering Research; 1998, when she once again paid a visit to the �ۿ۴�ý Space Centre; and in 2015, when she opened �ۿ۴�ý’s School of Veterinary Medicine.

We thank both The Duchess of Edinburgh and The Duke of Kent for their continued support for �ۿ۴�ý. The Duke has served as our Chancellor since June 1976. To have him return in this 50th year of his Chancellorship alongside The Duchess, and for them both to see the breadth of the research and teaching �ۿ۴�ý delivers has been a moment of collective pride.

A programme that took in our pioneering space engineering, our new medical school and other aspects of our multidisciplinary research and teaching, spoke to the transformation The Duke has witnessed and championed throughout his tenure. His presence continues to inspire our community and affirm the values at the heart of this institution. Patrick Degg, Vice-President, Global

More photographs from the Royal visit are available in .

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Featured Academics

Prof Stephen Jarvis

President and Vice-Chancellor

Patrick Degg

Vice-President, Global

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