A TOP cat unofficially adopted by Essex University has been given his own student card.

Pebbles wanders into lectures and relaxes in the Teaching Centre on the Wivenhoe campus.

The witty kitty been recognised as a key part of campus life to such an extent he has been registered as an honorary undergraduate with his own identity card.

He is due to graduate in 2017.

Pebbles, who started prowling around campus in 2013, even has 4,000 Likes on his Facebook page – three times more than Colchester’s MP Will Quince.

Kate Clayton, an Essex University spokesman, said: “Staff and students at our Colchester Campus are very fond of Campus Cat.

“He has made his home here and we wanted him to feel like a true member of our Essex community.

“The registration card will also mean he can access our brand-new, multi-million pound Silberrad Student Centre.”

The news of Pebbles’s student card has gone down well with his fans, who include Colchester’s Mayor Theresa Higgins.

Nearly 1,200 people “Liked” the post announcing the student card on his Facebook page.

Mrs Higgins said: “It is good fun. It does a lot of good publicity for the university.”

Campus mascots having their own student cards are a rare breed.

Edinburgh University’s cat was recently given his own library card, while Bangor University had a cat which resided in the student halls’ security office before he died last year.

Pebbles was first noticed on campus two years go.

He was later reunited with owner Heather Smith, of Greenstead, after a member of Student Support took him to a vet and found he had a microchip.

But Pebbles had clearly got the student bug and returned to campus in February last year with his owner acknowledging he is well-liked and looked after there.