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Anglia Ruskin University

110

NATIONAL
RANK

51.6%

FIRSTS
2:1s

82.5%

COMPLETION
RATE

Key Stats

n/a

TEACHING
QUALITY

34th=

STUDENT
EXPERIENCE

102nd=

RESEARCH
QUALITY

91st

GRADUATE
PROSPECTS

Contact details

ADDRESS

Bishop Hall Lane, Chelmsford, CM1 1SQ View on map >

Telephone

0845 271 3333

answers@anglia.ac.uk

Website

www.anglia.ac.uk

Open days

September 27; October 18. November 15 (Cambridge only) November 19 (Chelmsford only)

University Profile

Even before it became a university, Anglia Ruskin had strong links with employers, involving them in course design and delivery. Now Harrods, Barclays, UPS, Vision Express, Specsavers, Volvo, the RAF and British Army are among the employers whose staff take the university’s courses. And the university’s business-facing approach has spawned most recently a £6m business innovation centre, which includes a Startup Lab for Anglia Ruskin students to test and develop their entrepreneurial ideas. Anglia Ruskin is one of the largest universities in Eastern England, with over 30,000 students, including part-timers. The two main campuses are at Cambridge and Chelmsford, some 40 miles apart with a smaller campus at Peterborough and University Centres in Harlow, King’s Lynn and Peterborough. For the first time, students beginning their studies this month will be charged the maximum £9,000 a year tuition fees, but scholarships and bursaries will reduce that sum for many. For instance, students entering with ABB or better at A-level (or equivalent) will get a £1,000 cash bursary for each year of their course. The university has invested £122m

in the last five years in the latest learning environments, including the £35m redevelopment of the Cambridge campus and two buildings dedicated to Health and Social Care in Chelmsford. It plans to spend another £98m over the next five years, beginning with the development of a new £9m site five minutes’ walk from the East Road campus, in Cambridge. A new Health Building is already open, as well as a Music Therapy Centre. The remainder of the site should be ready by Autumn 2015. Anglia Ruskin was the last university to retain a polytechnic title, discarding it in 2005 when it took the name of John Ruskin, who founded the Cambridge School of Art, which evolved into Anglia Ruskin. It has since acquired the former Homerton College School of Health Studies in Cambridge, after a long period of partnership, and opened the £9.3m University Centre Harlow with Harlow College, Britain’s oldest journalism school. In Chelmsford, the 22-acre Rivermead campus boasts an impressive business school and a sports hall, as well as the £15m Marconi Building for law students. Recent additions include a new health and social care building with counselling rooms, simulated hospital wards, operating theatres and a complementary medicine suite. The university has a history of providing innovative courses: the BOptom (Hons) is the only qualification of its kind in the UK and the Hearing Aid Audiology course was among the first to lead directly to registration. Paramedic Science is the latest addition. Among the specialist study facilities are an Eye Clinic, forensic science laboratories, a Music Therapy Clinic, multimedia language laboratories, a Human Energetic Sports Science laboratory, and a mock courtroom. Electronic networking and a central administration mean that key academic facilities are available throughout all campuses. Nearly all the students attended state schools or colleges and almost 40% are from working-class homes. The projected dropout rate had improved in the latest survey, and is significantly better than the national average for its subjects and entry grades. Each undergraduate has an adviser to help compile a degree package which looks at the chosen subject from different points of view to maximise future job prospects. Three-quarters of the full-time undergraduate leavers who find jobs in the UK stay in East Anglia. The university has an innovative scheme placing graduates with the region’s small firms – usually the companies that are least likely to take on those emerging from higher education. Anglia Ruskin stresses its green credentials and was the first UK university to sign the Rio+20 Declaration of Higher Education Institutions. Its Global Sustainability Institute, established in 2011, is building an international reputation for its research on behaviour change, resource scarcity and climate finance, and Anglia Ruskin is aiming to make sustainability an important part of every student’s experience. Only 71 academics were entered for the Research Assessment Exercise in 2008, but almost a third of their work was considered world-leading or internationally excellent. All but one of the nine subject areas had some top-rated research, with history, English and psychology producing the best grades. Psychology produced the best results among the post-1992 universities. Famous alumni include Pink Floyd members Dave Gilmour and the late Syd Barrett. The social scene varies between the campuses, but Anglia Ruskin has two art galleries and a theatre. There is limited collaboration with Cambridge University on the Cambridge Centre for Cricketing Excellence, and a base for Anglia Ruskin’s Rowing Club. The university has a flourishing programme to encourage sporting participation and is particularly successful at elite level in judo. Sports facilities in Cambridge are being improved with the addition of a new pavilion, and both grass and artificial pitches, including one 3G surface. In the past, some students have found Chelmsford’s social scene underwhelming, but it is said to be improving, and neither main base is far from London by train.

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