On 28th January, The Duchess of Edinburgh and The Duke of Kent joined forces for a joint engagement by visiting the University of Surrey, having last been seen together at the same event last year when they attended the Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph.
This visit marked a rare public engagement for the Duke who is aged 90 and conducted fewer public engagements in recent years.
The Duke, as Chancellor of the University, and The Duchess paired up 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. Sophie then went on to help fit a panel engraved with Prince Edward and Sophie’s Royal Cyphers to Jovian-1, a satellite which Surrey students helped develop.
It was then time for the pair to head off and conduct solo parts of the visit. The Duchess, who opened the Kate Granger building (home to the University’s School of Health Sciences is) six years ago, went on to meet with paramedic, midwifery, medical and nursing students. She also joined a virtual reality anatomy teaching session after meeting the University’s first group of government funded medical students who started their studies in September 2025.
Whilst, Prince Edward had the opportunity to visit the Engineering Design Centre to see their projects which included rocket designs and Formula E racing cars.
This isn’t the first royal visit to the University of Surrey’s Guildford campus, with Elizabeth II visiting three times during her reign. The first was in 1992 when she inaugurated the University’s Centre for Satellite Engineering. This was followed by a visit to the Space Centre in 1998 and then opening Surrey’s School of Veterinary Medicine in 2015.
Professor Stephen Jarvis, President and Vice Chancellor of the University said ‘Training medical students alongside nursing, midwifery and paramedic students reflects how the NHS operates in practice. Our students graduate already equipped to work effectively in multidisciplinary teams, rather than having to learn this solely once they enter the workplace. The Duchess saw first hand in our training wards, where students from different disciplines learn together in realistic clinical settings’.
Professor Jarvis continued ‘Her Royal Highness also saw our engineering students working on satellites they have designed and built themselves – hardware that will ultimately be launched into orbit. That combination of world class research and practical, employer ready skills lies at the heart of what we do. For our students, whether still studying or already well into their careers, having two members of the Royal Family witness this work first hand is an experience they will long remember. It was a truly memorable day for our entire community’.
The Duchess of Edinburgh joined our medical students for a VR anatomy session – experiencing how Surrey’s first cohort of NHS-funded medical students are learning with cutting-edge technology.
Read more about the visit – https://t.co/DR73NdX45M#ProudToBeSurrey… pic.twitter.com/f43ljIrKQp
— University of Surrey (@UniOfSurrey) January 29, 2026
Speaking on the Royal visit, Patrick Degg, Vice President of Global said ‘We thank both The Duchess of Edinburgh and The Duke of Kent for their continued support for Surrey. The Duke has served as our Chancellor since June 1976, To have him return in this 50th year of his Chancellorship alongside The Duchess, and for them both to see the breadth of the research and teaching Surrey delivers has been a moment of collective pride’.
‘A programme that took in our pioneering space engineering, our new medical school and other aspects of our multidisciplinary research and teaching, spoke to the transformation The Duke has witnessed and championed throughout his tenure. His presence continues to inspire our community and affirm the values at the heart of this institution’.
