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

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

Medical students at the first and only medical school in Surrey met The Duchess of Edinburgh to demonstrate the collaborative training that will shape their careers in the NHS. The Duchess returned to the University of Surrey'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 UK government-funded medical students 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 Surrey 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 Surrey 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. 

The visit marked a return to sites with strong royal connections. Queen Elizabeth II visited the University’s Guildford campus three times during her 70-year reign: in 1992, where she inaugurated the University’s Centre for Satellite Engineering Research; 1998, when she once again paid a visit to the Surrey Space Centre; and in 2015, when she opened Surrey’s School of Veterinary Medicine.