Keele University: Strengthening Our Community in Staffordshire
Keele has been supporting communities in Staffordshire since the University’s foundation in 1949. Today, the University supports the equivalent of almost 5,500 jobs in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire, and contributes £345 million to the area’s economy. Dozens of our academics also work clinically in the local NHS, from delivering babies at Royal Stoke University Hospital to frontline paramedics with West Midlands Ambulance Service.
From Leek to Lichfield and Clayton to Cannock, we’re proud to have been the university of choice for thousands of students from all corners of the county for more than 75 years, helping them to achieve their career goals. Currently, almost 3,000 students from Staffordshire are studying at Keele.
Working with Staffordshire schools and colleges
We’re proud to be partnered with Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group, City of Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College and Stoke-on-Trent College.
The partnerships help bridge the gap between further education and higher education for students, with hundreds of applications for entry to Keele coming from the colleges each year.
In 2023-24, Keele had more than 330 interactions with 113 schools and colleges across Staffordshire, including inviting students to visit Keele, or providing careers advice or subject-specific support in their settings.
Institute of Technology
Keele is the higher education partner for the brand new Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Institute of Technology, which is due to open to learners in September 2025.
Specialising in higher level technical programmes, the new employer led Institute brings together the training offer of Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group in collaboration with Keele, Burton and South Derbyshire College and Axia Solutions, with curriculum influenced by key employer partners including; Dell, Hitachi, MOOG, Siemens and St Modwen Logistics.
The development will bring together industry, education and research to jointly design and develop education and training opportunities, with an expected college community of more than 3,500 learners by academic year 2028/9.
Higher Horizons
Through Higher Horizons, thousands of young people in secondary schools, sixth forms and colleges in Staffordshire have been supported to make informed decisions about their future.
Higher Horizons is a government-funded programme based at Keele, which aims to widen participation in higher education among under-represented groups.
Working with a total of 53 education establishments across Staffordshire, young people who engage in the programme are twice as likely to apply to go to university.
Since 2017 the network has worked with more than 50,000 young people across Staffordshire, Cheshire and Shropshire, 60% of whom were from the most deprived areas.
Our Health Impact in Staffordshire 
At Keele, our healthcare academics don’t just prepare students for working in the NHS of tomorrow.
With over 200 of our colleagues also working clinically in the NHS, some quite literally go from the lecture theatre to the operating theatre.
From delivering babies to saving lives, the wealth of expertise at Keele has a positive impact not just on our students, but also on local people on a daily basis.
In the news – supporting the Staffordshire community
Students at Keele have worked with Port Vale Football Club to help improve their energy consumption performance and enhance biodiversity around their stadium.
Fire and rescue service staff could help healthcare providers reach more patients in need by including early detection of mental ill health in older adults as part of their routine Home Fire Safety Visits. Researchers at Keele worked alongside staff at Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service on the study.
Keele academics are working with Staffordshire Wildlife Trust in a project that will support communities to revive green spaces in the area.
Investing in Communities
Staffordshire-based Keele Alumna
Eran Cutliffe OBE graduated from Keele in 2005 with a degree from the University’s School of Law. From Newcastle-under-Lyme, Eran is now one of the Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS) leading lawyers and advises on and prosecutes a range of high profile and complex cases including those involving ‘disasters’, corporate manslaughter, gross negligence manslaughter, serious police corruption, election offences and assisted suicide.
Three Counties Open Art Exhibition
Featuring artists from Staffordshire, Shropshire and Cheshire, we’re proud to host the long-standing Three Counties Open Art Exhibition with our partners. The event, held at the Burslem School of Art, is a celebration of contemporary local artists, from emerging to established practitioners. Several awards are handed out and in 2024 organisers received a record 268 individual submissions, which were short-listed to 98 artists for the exhibition. Staffordshire artist Jeffrey Barnard, winner of the Arthur Berry Prize in 2023, is pictured.
Keele Region Applicants
Since our foundation in 1949, we’ve been deeply rooted in our region - Staffordshire, Shropshire and Cheshire. We are committed to our civic role and want to support applicants who choose to study locally - for whatever reason - and commuter students who have fewer local study options available. On that basis, applicants studying at a school or college in the defined ‘Keele Region’, or independent applicants living in the region, will receive an alternative offer.
Shaping Staffordshire: Keele’s Investments and Partnerships
