The Huddersfield Narrow Canal is an inland waterway in northern England. It runs just under 20 miles (32 km) from Lock 1E at the rear of the University of Huddersfield campus, near Aspley Basin in Huddersfield, to the junction with the Ashton Canal at Whitelands Basin in Ashton-under-Lyne. It crosses the Pennines by means of 74 locks and the Standedge Tunnel.

The University of Huddersfield is a public research university located in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. It has been a University since 1992, but has its origins in a series of institutions dating back to the 19th century. It has made teaching quality a particular focus of its activities, winning the inaugural Higher Education Academy Global Teaching Excellence Award in 2017, and achieving a Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) Gold Award, in 2017 and 2023. It has consistently been ranked among the leading universities in England for the proportion of its staff with a teaching qualification, and in 2022 was at the top with 94%. The University has also put an increasing focus on research quality, and as of 2022 more than three quarters of its academic staff hold a doctorate, the third highest rate in England.