I can’t quite believe that I have got to number 9 on my list without mentioning our two Universities. The University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University are really key component parts of the City.

Nottingham University has it’s campus to the West of the City on land originally gifted by Jesse Boot. There are overseas campuses in Malaysia and Ningbo. I have been to Ningbo – you can read about it here. The University has 50 departments, institutes and research centres. There are around 34,000 students and 9,000 staff. Total income was £520 million in 2012/13, of which £100 million was from research grants and contracts. A 2014 survey suggested it is the most targeted university by the UK’s top employers – that story is here.

Nottingham Trent University was created when a number of Polytechnics were given ‘University’ stays in 1992. It has three campuses all in Nottingham. It is one of the largest universities in the UK with around 28,000 students. And the University has “one of the best employability records of any university in England and Wales”. It maintains close ties to over 6,000 businesses and 94% of students progress to full-time employment or further education within six months of graduating.

The two Institutions are of huge importance to the City across many areas. Apart from the obvious aspect of bringing young people to the City (with their money and parents!), it brings some of the brightest people around not our patch. But they also have, in recent years, been consistently building new facilities – you only need to look at Triumph Road or The Clifton Campus to see the massive investment that has taken place.

The two Universities continue to attract new talent to the City and if we can retain them then that can only bode well of the future?