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With the academic year drawing to a close, final-year students’ thoughts are turning to the summer, graduation – and then what happens next.

Throughout this week, BBC Radio Four’s Farming Today will be talking to some of these students from across the UK.

They began their series by speaking with ÌìÃÀÊÓƵ Vice-Chancellor Professor Ken Sloan about what the institution’s upcoming graduates – and students up and down the country – might be doing next.

With 97.5 per cent of its Degree or Top Up undergraduates in employment or further study on the most recent figures , the programme makers were also keen to hear how Harper Adams is preparing students for their future careers.

Professor Sloan began by explaining the diversity of courses which the University offers students in addition to its agriculture degrees.

He said: “They also study everything from veterinary science, to medicine and nursing, they do vet physio.  

“We also do business, agri-business, engineering, agricultural engineering, everything from entomology to environmental science to zoology.

“Everything that's connected to the natural system, the choices we make with it, and what we produce - we will be teaching a course in that area.”

This portfolio of courses – and the way each are taught – has developed to meet employers’ needs, and Professor Sloan discussed some of the changing trends which have fed their evolution.

He added: “There are a couple of things that I think have really come to the fore.

“Firstly, the UK as a centre of global trade. It's really important we make sure our graduates understand the role of UK farming and the UK resources system in the context of global trade, because most of them are producing things which will go not just across the UK but elsewhere.

“The other aspect of it is around new and modern ways of doing things.

“The role of data, the role of AI and the role of automation has become a significant part of it.

“So if you're an engineer, you need to learn how to do that. But if you are an economist or you're looking at it from a business perspective, you need to be able to understand how to regulate it, how to price it so it can actually be deployed in the economy.”

As these new opportunities lead prospective students to consider a different kind of degree at Harper Adams, Professor Sloan explained how the University has  been working to expand its offer – with its first urban hub for more than a century.

He added: “We know that we are seeing a more diverse cohort of students coming to Harper, an increasing number of students that are coming from urban backgrounds as well as rural backgrounds, an increasing number of students that are coming without a direct experience of farming and agriculture.

“But we've also done something in the last year to really focus on that.

“So Harper has had its location in Edgmond for 124 years - but this year we've opened a new urban hub in central Telford, and we're offering different courses - robotics, automation, mechatronics, data science and AI.

“We've located it right next door to a railway station so that it makes it easier for people from a range of different backgrounds, particularly around Telford and Shropshire, but elsewhere in the country, to be able to come and access it.”

With the focus of this week’s programmes firmly on graduates, Professor Sloan was keen to emphasise the vast range of roles which Harper Adams alumni go on to in their professional lives.

He added: “In some cases, they're obviously going to either be part of a farming team, or to be a farm manager or a farm developer.

“We've got a large group of students, as have other universities, that go off into land and property management. So they're going into surveying, and they're going into construction and all of the things around that.

“And then obviously, we've got a significant number of people that are going into veterinary science.”

He also emphasised how the working world is changing for the University’s agriculture graduates – and how this, too, offered graduates new opportunities.

He added: “We know through the eyes of our graduates that go outside - I'm sure it's the case for the other universities that offer similar degrees -  that actually what is happening is there's a hugely vibrant, modern resurgence of interest in agriculture, the type of technologies that have been used and deployed within the automotive industry, the defence industry, the aerospace industry are now being now being deployed in agriculture.

“So it is a very bright and positive prospect for young people.”