N ARTICLE in last week’s Swindon Advertiser on numbers attending university (only eight per cent from town go on to top 30 universities, January 21) emphasised for me how important it is for Swindon residents to be able to benefit from individual and societal benefits of higher education.

Oxford Brookes University is extremely proud of the education it provides in Swindon.

As many readers will be aware, our Faculty of Health and Life Sciences offers degree courses at our Ferndale Campus, with close to 400 students this academic year.

Our Adult Nursing and Operating Department programmes have provided a much needed pool of qualified staff for the local NHS for a number of years.

Through our innovative partnership with Swindon College, each year nearly 300 Swindon students are able to study locally and still obtain a Brookes foundation degree or top up to a full Bachelor’s degree. For most, this means they can live at home or continue to work while studying.

This is in addition to the University Technical College Swindon, which officially opened last year and is co-sponsored by Oxford Brookes.

For the future we are working with Swindon College to encourage both young and adult learners to consider the benefits that they can achieve by studying in Swindon at a higher level.

Paul Large Registrar Oxford Brookes University