SCIENCE and engineering students from the University of Chester have made history as they joined their colleagues from computer science and mathematics to graduate at a ceremony at Chester Cathedral.

The 131 graduates were the first to join the faculty when it started life just over three years ago at Thornton Science Park. Formerly the site of the Shell Research and Technology Centre, Thornton is now home to the first new faculty of science and engineering to be established in the UK in more than two decades, which brought together academics from all over the world to teach its students.

The university’s existing mathematics department and computer science departments joined the new faculty, which now also consists of four new academic departments:

Chemical engineering, electronic and electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and natural sciences. Support is delivered by experts in key sectors, which include cybersecurity, virtual environments, computer gaming, mathematics, energy, automotive, advanced manufacturing, engineering, science and environmental.

Garfield Southall, executive dean for the faculty of science and engineering, said: “It has been a very special day for our graduates, the university and the staff of the faculty of science and engineering. The faculty is still very much in its infancy, and yet so much has been achieved in three short years. Each graduation is special, but to see all 131 of the faculty’s first full cohort of undergraduate students graduating at the cathedral was an especially proud occasion.”