Our history

Our story starts in 1858, when the art critic, patron and philanthropist John Ruskin opened Cambridge School of Art. The art school grew to become Anglia Ruskin University, shortened to ARU, and it’s still at the heart of our modern-day campus in Cambridge.

Becoming ARU

Over the years, a number of colleges and institutes have become part of ARU. They include the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology (CCAT) and the Essex Institute of Higher Education (formerly the Chelmer Institute – itself formed from the Mid-Essex Technical College and the Brentwood College of Education). At first, these colleges combined to become Anglia Polytechnic, and then Anglia Polytechnic University in 1992.

We’re proud to count graduates of all these institutions among our alumni.

Four main campuses

As well as Cambridge, we have campuses in Chelmsford, London and Peterborough. Our Chelmsford campus was originally in the city centre but moved to a new, purpose-built site in 1992. Today, you’ll find our striking, modern buildings nestled by the river in the city’s University and Innovation Quarter. Meanwhile, our campus at Guild House, Peterborough opened in 2011. It’s a dedicated health, social care and education site where we train many of our region’s nurses and social workers.

In 2015 we were pleased to introduce a new campus in the heart of London, where students study subjects including business, law and finance at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

We’ve invested over £115 million in our campuses in recent years. Cambridge benefitted from a major redevelopment in 2011, and in 2014 we completed work on our dedicated healthcare site on Young Street. It houses state-of-the-art clinical skills labs including mock hospital wards. Young Street is also home to our specialist Music Therapy Centre. In 2018, we opened a brand new Science Centre and a Law Clinic.

Meanwhile, in Chelmsford we’ve embarked upon an ambitious programme of development. In 1995, Her Majesty The Queen opened the fittingly named Queen’s building, which is home to the University Library. It’s since been joined by (among others) our eye-catching Lord Ashcroft building; Sawyers Building with its SuperLabs; the Michael Salmon Building, which houses cutting-edge medical simulation suites; and Arise Chelmsford, which offers labs, workshops and office space to small businesses in the medical and advanced engineering sectors. The most recent major development is our School of Medicine, which opened in September 2018, and is training the region's future doctors in a purpose-built space featuring state-of-the-art skills facilities.

Looking to the future, we're proud to be involved in establishing ARU Peterborough – a brand new university for the city which will open its doors in September 2022.

A national and international presence

As well as our four main campuses, we have a number of partner institutions in the UK and overseas, giving you the chance to study for an ARU qualification near to home. The first partnerships were formed in the early 1990s.

Our International Office, set up in 1992, fosters further links, and makes sure that our international students receive the support and information they need.

Developing our expertise

Courses

Our early expertise in the arts and education has broadened, and today we offer courses in computing and technology, engineering, law, business, economics, life sciences and more.

We’ve been a leader in the field of health and social care since 1992, when nursing training was transferred from local health authorities to ARU. As well as our three highly regarded nursing courses, we train midwives, paramedics, operating department practitioners and social workers.

Of course, the arts and education are still important to us. We train early years professionals on our Chelmsford campus, and at our partner college in Peterborough. Our MA Children’s Book Illustration is a world-renowned course that builds on the long tradition of Cambridge School of Art. We’ve embraced 21st-century variations on our more traditional arts courses, too – including computer games art and music technology.

Research

In the last decade, we’ve forged ahead with our research work. We have research-active staff across the University, and a growing reputation in this area.

You’ll now find six high-profile research institutes here. StoryLab was originally known as the Culture of the Digital Economy Research Institute when it formed in 2010. Today, it asks how – in our digital-by default era – people experience the world and their place in it, and experiments with modern, multimodal approaches to storytelling. In 2011, we established the Global Sustainability Institute. It focuses on issues surrounding climate change and sustainability and has quickly gained a reputation for its topical, high-impact research and reports. Next came the Veterans and Families Institute for Military Social Research in 2014, which is carrying out valuable research into the impact of military experience on veterans and their loved ones.

Our newest research institutes were introduced between 2016-2019. The Policing Institute for the Eastern Region, formed in 2016, focuses on research, professional development and knowledge exchange that will improve policing practice in the East of England. Meanwhile, Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy Research is dedicated to advancing the understanding of music therapy and its ability to effect positive change on health and human wellbeing. Most recently one of our specialist research units, which had long carried out high-quality research into vision and eye diseases, became the Vision and Eye Research Institute.

Alongside these institutes is a range of research groups, dedicated to subjects as diverse as ecology, finance and economics, cyber security, and political history.

In 2014, 12 of our research areas were ranked as ‘world-leading’ in the Government’s Research Excellence Framework (REF).

ARU today

We’ve seen lots of changes since 1858, but one thing has remained the same. We’re still passionate about transforming lives through innovative, inclusive and entrepreneurial education and research.

Today, students from more than 185 countries study with us. Our students are at the heart of our University: their educational experience engages, challenges and empowers them to reach their full potential.

We have always been inclusive, and actively encourage students from a wide range of academic and societal backgrounds to study with us. We measure our success by their success.

Our research and innovation draw on the breadth of ARU strengths to develop ideas and solutions which have the potential to transform lives and communities and enrich our curriculum.

We’re known for being welcoming, and are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer, a Stonewall Diversity Champion and a Mindful Employer.

We also value the wider ARU community, as it has the potential to create a university that is greater than the sum of its parts.

ARU in the future

Our strategy outlines the goals we've set ourselves for the next ten years. Published on 16 June 2017, the 25th anniversary of us being awarded university status, it's the latest chapter in ARU’s story.

United Kingdom, island country located off the northwestern coast of mainland Europe. The United Kingdom comprises the whole of the island of Great Britain—which contains England, Wales, and Scotland—as well as the northern portion of the island of Ireland. The name Britain is sometimes used to refer to the United Kingdom as a whole. The capital is London, which is among the world’s leading commercial, financial, and cultural centres. Other major cities include Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester in England, Belfast and Londonderry in Northern Ireland, Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland, and Swansea and Cardiff in Wales.

The origins of the United Kingdom can be traced to the time of the Anglo-Saxon king Athelstan, who in the early 10th century CE secured the allegiance of neighbouring Celtic kingdoms and became “the first to rule what previously many kings shared between them,” in the words of a contemporary chronicle. Through subsequent conquest over the following centuries, kingdoms lying farther afield came under English dominion. Wales, a congeries of Celtic kingdoms lying in Great Britain’s southwest, was formally united with England by the Acts of Union of 1536 and 1542. Scotland, ruled from London since 1603, formally was joined with England and Wales in 1707 to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain. (The adjective “British” came into use at this time to refer to all the kingdom’s peoples.) Ireland came under English control during the 1600s and was formally united with Great Britain through the Act of Union of 1800. The republic of Ireland gained its independence in 1922, but six of Ulster’s nine counties remained part of the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland. Relations between these constituent states and England have been marked by controversy and, at times, open rebellion and even warfare. These tensions relaxed somewhat during the late 20th century, when devolved assemblies were introduced in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Nonetheless, even with the establishment of a power-sharing assembly after referenda in both Northern Ireland and the Irish republic, relations between Northern Ireland’s unionists (who favour continued British sovereignty over Northern Ireland) and nationalists (who favour unification with the republic of Ireland) remained tense into the 21st century.

The United Kingdom has made significant contributions to the world economy, especially in technology and industry. Since World War II, however, the United Kingdom’s most prominent exports have been cultural, including literature, theatre, film, television, and popular music that draw on all parts of the country. Perhaps Britain’s greatest export has been the English language, now spoken in every corner of the world as one of the leading international mediums of cultural and economic exchange.

The United Kingdom retains links with parts of its former empire through the Commonwealth. It also benefits from historical and cultural links with the United States and is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Moreover, the United Kingdom became a member of the European Union in 1973. Many Britons, however, were sometimes reluctant EU members, holding to the sentiments of the great wartime prime minister Winston Churchill, who sonorously remarked, “We see nothing but good and hope in a richer, freer, more contented European commonalty. But we have our own dream and our own task. We are with Europe, but not of it. We are linked, but not comprised. We are interested and associated, but not absorbed.” Indeed, in June 2016, in a referendum on whether the United Kingdom should remain in the EU, 52 percent of British voters chose to leave. That set the stage for the U.K. to become the first country to do so, pending the negotiations between the U.K. and the EU on the details of the separation.

Land

The United Kingdom comprises four geographic and historical parts—England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom contains most of the area and population of the British Isles—the geographic term for the group of islands that includes Great Britain, Ireland, and many smaller islands. Together England, Wales, and Scotland constitute Great Britain, the larger of the two principal islands, while Northern Ireland and the republic of Ireland constitute the second largest island, Ireland. England, occupying most of southern Great Britain, includes the Isles of Scilly off the southwest coast and the Isle of Wight off the southern coast. Scotland, occupying northern Great Britain, includes the Orkney and Shetland islands off the northern coast and the Hebrides off the northwestern coast. Wales lies west of England and includes the island of Anglesey to the northwest.

Apart from the land border with the Irish republic, the United Kingdom is surrounded by sea. To the south of England and between the United Kingdom and France is the English Channel. The North Sea lies to the east. To the west of Wales and northern England and to the southeast of Northern Ireland, the Irish Sea separates Great Britain from Ireland, while southwestern England, the northwestern coast of Northern Ireland, and western Scotland face the Atlantic Ocean. At its widest the United Kingdom is 300 miles (500 km) across. From the northern tip of Scotland to the southern coast of England, it is about 600 miles (1,000 km). No part is more than 75 miles (120 km) from the sea. The capital, London, is situated on the tidal River Thames in southeastern England.

The archipelago formed by Great Britain and the numerous smaller islands is as irregular in shape as it is diverse in geology and landscape. This diversity stems largely from the nature and disposition of the underlying rocks, which are westward extensions of European structures, with the shallow waters of the Strait of Dover and the North Sea concealing former land links. Northern Ireland contains a westward extension of the rock structures of Scotland. These common rock structures are breached by the narrow North Channel.

On a global scale, this natural endowment covers a small area—approximating that of the U.S. state of Oregon or the African country of Guinea—and its internal diversity, accompanied by rapid changes of often beautiful scenery, may convey to visitors from larger countries a striking sense of compactness and consolidation. The peoples who, over the centuries, have hewed an existence from this Atlantic extremity of Eurasia have put their own imprint on the environment, and the ancient and distinctive palimpsest of their field patterns and settlements complements the natural diversity.

Relief

Great Britain is traditionally divided into a highland and a lowland zone. A line running from the mouth of the River Exe, in the southwest, to that of the Tees, in the northeast, is a crude expression of this division. The course of the 700-foot (213-metre) contour, or of the boundary separating the older rocks of the north and west from the younger southeastern strata, provides a more accurate indication of the extent of the highlands.