Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) is a public university in East Anglia, United Kingdom. It has 39,400 students worldwide and has campuses in Cambridge, Chelmsford, Peterborough and London. It also shares campuses with the College of West Anglia in King's Lynn, Wisbech and Cambridge. Anglia Ruskin has a range of different courses available and also welcomes study abroad students, along with a study abroad programme.

It has its origins in the Cambridge School of Art, founded by William John Beamont in 1858. The school became Anglia Polytechnic after the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology and the Essex Institute of Higher Education merged. It became a university in 1992 and was renamed Anglia Ruskin University (after John Ruskin) in 2005.

It has been listed in the Times Higher Education's (THE) World University Rankings – being named as one of the top 350 institutions in the world and joint 39th best in the UK. The higher education strategy consulting firm Firetail recognises Anglia Ruskin University as one of the 20 "rising stars" in global Higher Education. It is the only UK university to feature in the top 20. However, it is ranked as 118th out of 131 universities in the UK in the Complete University Guide.

Anglia Ruskin University has its origins in the Cambridge School of Art, founded by William John Beamont in 1858. The inaugural address was given by John Ruskin (often incorrectly described as the founder; in fact he founded the Ruskin School of Drawing in Oxford). The original location was near Sidney Sussex College, later moving to its present location in East Road, Cambridge. The governing body in the 1920s included two remarkable pioneers in the civic history of Cambridge, Clara Dorothea Rackham and Lilian Mellish Clarke after whom buildings on the East Road campus were later named. In 1960 this became the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology (CCAT) In 1989 CCAT merged with the Essex Institute of Higher Education to form the Anglia Higher Education College. The merged college became a polytechnic in 1991, using the name Anglia Polytechnic, and was then awarded university status in 1992.

Initially Anglia Polytechnic University (APU), it retained the word 'polytechnic' in its title because "the term 'polytechnic' still had value to students and their potential employers, symbolising as it did the sort of education that they were known for – equipping students with effective practical skills for the world of work" although in 2000 there was some self-doubt about including the term 'polytechnic' – it was the only university in the country to have done so. Wanting to keep the 'APU' abbreviation, a suggestion put forward by the governors was 'Anglia Prior University' (after a former Chancellor), but the Governors decided to keep 'polytechnic' in the title.

The university eventually reconsidered a name change and chose Anglia Ruskin University (thus incorporating into the title the surname of John Ruskin, who gave the inaugural address of the Cambridge School of Art), with the new name taking effect following the approval of the Privy Council on 29 September 2005.

Former students included the Victorian poet, Augusta Webster, who signed John Stuart Mill's petition for votes of women in 1866. Past lecturers include Odile Crick, wife of Francis Crick, who created the simple iconic image of DNA.The musician Syd Barrett, song writer and leading guitarist of the band, Pink Floyd is an alumnus. Author Tom Sharpe was a lecturer in History at CCAT between 1963 and 1972 and Anne Campbell, the Labour MP for Cambridge from 1992 to 2005, was formerly a lecturer in Statistics at CCAT. A blue plaque is to be erected to the leading educationalist, Dame Leah Manning in 2019 at the former ragged school in New Street which was acquired by the university in 2006 and converted into the Anglia Ruskin University Institute of Music Therapy.

Chelmsford Campus moveThe Chelmsford Central campus closed at the end of the 2007/8 academic year, with all facilities moving to the new buildings at the Rivermead campus (now called the Chelmsford Campus) on Bishop Hall Lane.

Three buildings were saved – the East building (built 1931), the Frederick Chancellor building (built 1902), and the Grade-2-listed Anne Knight building (built in the mid-19th century), which was used by Quakers. The East and Frederick Chancellor buildings fall under a conservation area, meaning they cannot be demolished without planning permission, as they are historically important due to their uses in the early days of higher education in Essex. The site is currently vacant due to the recession halting development which had been planned for many years; however, new plans have been released by Genesis Housing, who currently own the site.

The Chelmsford Campus facilities include a mock law court, mock hospital wards and operating theatres and labs.

Student Complaints, 2014

In a BBC News article from 3 June 2014, Anglia Ruskin University was reported to have received more complaints and appeals from its students than any of the other 120 universities who responded to freedom of information requests. In the year 2012/13 it received 992 "complaints and appeals". In response, Lesley Dobree, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic), said that only 9 of the 992 recorded complaints were actual complaints – the others were protests about examination and assignment marking. It is not known if the BBC responded to this, or if the other universities in the list were assessed by the same criteria.

The article further stated the case of a group of students from the Chelmsford campus, who were abruptly informed that their Legal Practice Course was moved 45 miles to the Cambridge campus. They would therefore be limited to only two days of face-to-face teaching, having to watch the remaining lectures online rather than attend them live.

Anglia Ruskin's Cambridge Campus is home to one of only 9 optometry schools in the UK, having its own optometry clinic.

Hallway through Helmore toward Mumford Library. The university reception as well as the bookshop and the utility shop are situated by this hallway.

The Cambridge campus has recently been redeveloped, which began with the refurbishment of Helmore, the main building on East Road, completed in 2006. In 2009, one of the University's largest buildings, Rackham, in the centre of the campus, was demolished to make way for the new Lord Ashcroft International Business School. The Mumford Theatre, which presents a range of professional touring, local community and student theatre for both the public and members of the University, is housed at the centre of the campus. From 2015, a new building at Young Street hosted the health courses, like nursing, midwifery, paramedic, ODP etc.

The Chelmsford campus houses the Queen's Building (opened in 1995) and the Sawyer's Building (opened in 2001). The Michael A Ashcroft Building opened in 2003 (renamed the Lord Ashcroft Building); the Mildmay Sports Centre, and the Tindal Building, in 2005; the William Harvey Building in 2007; The Faculty Building (renamed The Marconi Building in 2011) in 2008; and the Postgraduate Medical Institute building – named as Michael Salmon Building in 2017 -, opened 2011. In May 2017, the work has started on the building of Essex's first School of Medicine.

The Cambridge, Chelmsford, and Peterborough campuses have accommodation for students to live in during term-time.


Anglia Ruskin University's academic excellence has been recognised by the UK's Higher Education funding bodies, with 12 areas classed as generating "world-leading" research. The results of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014 released on 18 December show that Anglia Ruskin is making a significant impact on economies, societies, the environment and culture in all corners of the globe. The 12 subject areas within Anglia Ruskin classified by REF 2014 as producing world-leading research are: Allied Health Professions, Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy; Architecture, Built Environment and Planning; Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory; Business and Management Studies; Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management; English Language and Literature; Geography, Environmental Studies and Archaeology; History; Law; Music, Drama, Dance and Performing Arts; Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience and Social Work and Social Policy.

An investigation performed at the end of 2007 by the QAA reveal that as a result of its investigations, the audit team's view of Anglia Ruskin University is that "confidence can reasonably be placed in the soundness of the institution's present and likely future management of the academic standards of the awards that it offers and the quality of the learning opportunities available to students". However, an external inspection of Initial Teacher Education revealed inadequacies in 2010. The areas highlighted were the effectiveness of the provision in securing high quality outcomes for trainees, and the extent to which the training and assessment ensures that all trainees progress to fulfill their potential given their ability and starting points. It was only the Primary ITE that was found to be inadequate in the inspection, the Secondary and FE ITE were awarded a mark of satisfactory. Since this inspection, the Primary ITE has been awarded 'satisfactory' grades by Ofsted in May 2011 and 'good' in 2012.

Anglia Ruskin was named the UK 'Entrepreneurial University of the Year' at the Times Higher Education (THE) Awards 2014. Anglia Ruskin University was awarded a First in the Green League 2012 by People & Planet. The league is based on ten environmental criteria, both policy and performance related. It incorporates data obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, including the percentage of waste recycled and CO2 emissions for each individual institution. Anglia Ruskin University has been named as one of the most upwardly mobile universities in the world. The list, produced by Higher Education strategy consultants Firetail and published by Times Higher Education, includes Anglia Ruskin as one of the 20 "rising stars" in global Higher Education. Anglia Ruskin is the only UK university to feature in the top 20. Nine of the "rising stars" are located in the United States, with universities in Australia, South Korea, Japan, Germany, and Finland completing the list. It has been listed in the Times Higher Education's (THE) World University Rankings for the first time – being named as one of the top 350 institutions in the world and joint 38th best in the UK.