Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) is a public university in East Anglia, United Kingdom. Its origins are in the Cambridge School of Art (CSA), founded by William John Beamont, a Fellow of Trinity College at University of Cambridge, in 1858. It became a university in 1992, and was renamed after John Ruskin, the Oxford University professor and author, in 2005. Ruskin gave the inauguration speech of the Cambridge School of Art in 1858. It is one of the "post-1992 universities". The motto of the university is in Latin Excellentia per societatem, in English Excellence through partnership.

In 2022, Anglia Ruskin has 35,195 students. ARU has six campuses across the south-eastern portion of the United Kingdom in Cambridgeshire, Essex, and Greater London.

The university has campuses in Cambridge, Chelmsford, Writtle, Peterborough, and London.

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

The Cambridge campus has recently been redeveloped, which began with the refurbishment of the main building, named Helmore after the late Roy Helmore, who was principal of the Cambridge College of Arts and Technology from 1977 to 1986. This refurbishment was 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 new business school was opened in 2011. 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, known as Young Street (named for its location between Young Street and New Street,) began hosting nursing and health courses, such as midwifery, paramedic, and ODP. This building is also home to the university's music therapy centre.

Also as of 2015, all sports, computing or technology courses became based at the newly established Compass House building, about 0.3 miles (0.5 km) along East Road from the main campus.

The Chelmsford campus houses the Queen's Building (opened in 1995) and the Sawyer's Building (opened in 2001). The Queen's Building was inaugurated by Queen Elizabeth II. The Michael A. Ashcroft Building opened in 2003 (renamed to Lord Ashcroft Building) by Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex; 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 School of Medicine was opened in 2019 by Prince Edward, Duke of Kent.

ARU London has two locations. Farringdon Building is in Charterhouse Street in Holborn, which is on the border of City of London. East India Building is located in former East India Docks and next to Canary Wharf in London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

Anglia Ruskin University Peterborough was opened in 2022. The University House was the first building at ARU Peterborough. Peterborough Research & Innovation Centre opened in 2024. In 2024, XRP eXtended Reality Peterborough was opened by writer Sandi Toksvig OBE. The second teaching building, which includes specialist biomedical sciences, engineering facilities, and a Living Lab was completed in August 2024.

ARU Writtle offers postgraduate, undergraduate, further education and short courses in the areas of agriculture and animal sciences, with students benefiting from a working farm, a specialist small animal unit and an equine centre based on campus. Writtle has also developed a range of degree programmes in applied life sciences, sport, and health subjects. The Royal Horticultural Society has awarded students multiple tiimes. Students have been awarded at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London.

In 2023, Anglia Ruskin University and Writtle University College announced a merger. Writtle University College will became ARU Writtle. The official merger took place on 29 February 2024.

Cambridge campus has Anastasia House, Peter Taylor House, Swinhoe House Hall of Residence, the Railyard, Sedley Court, CB1, and university houses around the city.

Chelmsford campus has Chelmsford Student Village.

At the new Peterborough campus students use private-sector accommodations.

Students at ARU London use private-sector accommodations.

There are four Faculties of study at Anglia Ruskin University:

• Faculty of Business and Law
• Faculty of Arts, Humanities, Education & Social Sciences
• Faculty of Health, Medicine & Social Care
• Faculty of Science & Engineering

The Faculty of Business and Law is located in Cambridge, Chelmsford, Peterborough, and London.

The faculty has two schools, the School of Economics, Finance and Law, and the School of Management.

In 2014, Bloomberg Financial Markets Lab was opened for finance, banking, accounting, and economics students at Chelmsford campus.

During his time as Chancellor, Lord Ashcroft made donations totalling £10 million to build two Lord Ashcroft International Business School facilities in Chelmsford and Cambridge. Lord Ashcroft Building in Chelmsford was inaugurated by Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex in 2003. Lord Ashcroft Building in Cambridge was opened in 2011.

In 2022, ARU Certificate for Professional Development came 3rd out of over 70 submissions for Most Innovative Approach to Developing Employability Skills at the Pearson HE Innovate Awards.

In 2022, the Faculty of Business and Law was awarded the Small Business Charter Award.

The business school has an Entrepreneurs in Residence programme. In 2023, X-Forces Enterprise joined the programme as a strategic partner.

The Faculty of Science & Technology was one of the largest faculties at Anglia Ruskin University, with six departments spread across both Cambridge and Chelmsford campuses.

The Department of Built Environment was a large multidisciplinary department with the most comprehensive Built Environment portfolio in Eastern England and is based at the Chelmsford campus.

The Department of Computing and Technology was located at both the Chelmsford and Cambridge campuses. The department maintained close links with the electronics, software, automotive and creative industries, and is a Cisco Systems Regional Networking Academy.

The Department of Life Sciences was located at the Cambridge campus. Equipment for teaching includes laboratories, gas and liquid chromatographic systems, and facilities for drugs analysis, toxicology, fire investigation and DNA analysis.

The Department of Psychology was based at the Cambridge campus. It was recognised for its performance in the 2008 UK Research Assessment Exercise, making it the UK's top-rated Psychology department in a post-1992 university for the quality of its research.

The Department of Vision & Hearing Sciences was based at the Cambridge Campus for Optometry and Ophthalmic Dispensing

Research: Psychology, Vision, and Environmental Sciences research was rated as "world leading" or of "international" quality in the 2008 UK Research Assessment Exercise. Successes include discoveries of new animal species, design of new car bonnets for improved pedestrian safety, and leading study in the first to study the toxic effects of benzylpiperazine (BZP).

In 2023, the Peterborough Innovation and Research Centre launched XRP eXtended Reality Peterborough, an immersive learning environment.

The Faculty of Arts, Humanities, Education & Social Sciences was newly formed in 2023 bringing together 4 schools; Cambridge School of Art, Cambridge School of Creative Industries, School of Education and School of Humanities and Social Sciences. It is also home to 3 research institutes: Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy Research (CIMTR), International Policing and Public Protection Research Institute (IPPPRI) and Storylab.

Cambridge School of Art was opened in 1858 by renowned art critic and social reformer John Ruskin. In 1953, in collaboration with Crick and Watson across town at Cambridge University, lecturer Odile Crick drew the original sketch to illustrate the complex concept of DNA’s double helix—an iconic image that is still used toda.

Cambridge School of Art was home to many forward-thinking students including caricaturists Roger Law and Peter Fluck, of TV’s Spitting Image fame, and Pink Floyd members Syd Barrett and Dave Gilmour, who played one of their first gigs in 1966 from the balcony of what is now the illustration studios.

Cambridge School of Art is known world-wide for its MA Children's Book Illustration.

Anglia Ruskin is a member of the Creative East.

In 2023, Anglia Ruskin University and University of Cambridge formed a partnership to support PhD researchers in social sciences.

On 10 October 2016, Anglia Ruskin announced that they planned to open Essex's first School of Medicine at its Chelmsford Campus. The purpose built brand new medical school would be the first undergraduate medical school in Essex and would cost £20-million to build. The medical school would include state-of-the-art skills facilities, specialist teaching space, a lecture theatre and a cadaveric anatomy suite.

On 19 May 2017, Anglia Ruskin announced that it has begun works to build the purpose built medical school on its Chelmsford Campus, due to be opened in September 2018. Chief Executive of Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust and Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Clare Panniker, attended the event alongside other officials.

On 21 September 2017, the university announced that the General Medical Council had approved its curriculum and that the university now had official School of Medicine status. In 2019 the School was formally opened by Prince Edward, Duke of Kent.

In 2022, ARU founded the first university hub in the UK for Samaritans, a charity for emotional support.

In 2023, Anglia Ruskin was rated as tenth, amongst the top ten British universities in social work, by the Guardian newspaper.

Anglia Ruskin has six research institutes.

• Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy Research
• Global Sustainability Institute
• Policing Institute for the Eastern Region
• StoryLab Research Institute
• Veterans and Families Research Institute
• Vision and Eye Research Institute (formerly Vision and Eye Research Unit, VERU)

National partners are School of Osteopathy in London, Cambridge Regional College, Cambridge Theological Federation, College of West Anglia, Renew Counselling in Chelmsford, and University Centre Peterborough.

Distance learning partners are CNET Training and Cambridge Spark.

International partners are Imperium International College, First City University College, and MAHSA University in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and The School of Accounting and Management, located at the University-Town of St Augustine - Trinidad and Tobago.

Anglia Ruskin University's past and present working life partners are NHS, British Armed Forces, Cambridge University Press, Essex County Council, UPS, Barclays, Capita, Russian Railways, Willmott Dixon, Morgan Sindall Infrastructure, Softwerx, Triangular Alliance, Greenwoods Legal, Virgin Money, Timberland, Volvo, and Harrods.

The 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.

On 14 July 2020 the Minister of State for Universities Michelle Donelan announced Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) as the official higher education partner for a new employment-focused university in Peterborough, an initiative by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA) in collaboration with Peterborough City Council (PCC). The campus will also include a materials and manufacturing research and development centre inhabited by 3D printing specialists Photocentric, who have teamed up with the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority to create the facility on the new Peterborough university campus.

The Ruskin Gallery is the university's public art gallery. Admission is free. Exhibits have included historic and contemporary art, as well as works by students and staff. The gallery is surrounded by fine art, illustration, design, and media studios. On 9 May 2011 Ruskin Gallery unveiled its new digital gallery, which displays art in a digital format on High Definition screens, including the world's first Panasonic 103" 3D Full HD plasma screen.

Anglia Ruskin University founded Arise Innovations Hubs, which are located in Chelmsford and Harlow. Essex-based innovation hubs promote entrepreneurship and innovations by supporting startups and scaleups.

Anglia Ruskin Enterprise Academy supports entrepreneurship among university students and alumni. AREA organises annually #ThinkBigARU business plan competition for students and alumni. The Entrepreneurs' Community connects students with alumni and external entrepreneurs. ARU is approved by the Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs (IOEE), and National Centre for Entrepreneurship in Education (NCEE).

The 12 subject areas within Anglia Ruskin classified by the Research Excellence Framework (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.

In October 2023, Anglia Ruskin University was the first university in the United Kingdom to sign the UNISON's Anti-Racism Charter. The signing ceremony was held in Cambridge.

Rankings

National rankings
Complete (2025)	122
Guardian (2025)	98
Times / Sunday Times (2025)	130
Global rankings
THE (2025)	501–600

• 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.
• Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) is ranked within the top 350 universities in the world and ranked joint 38th in the UK by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020.
• In 2021, Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) was in the top 10% of English higher education institutions (HEIs) for skills, enterprise and entrepreneurship and in the top 20% for local growth and regeneration, according to a report by Research England.
• In 2023, the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) revelead that ARU was in top 15% in the country for graduates in employment and/or further study. ARU was ranked 3rd in the country for graduates who are employed as managers, directors or senior officials.
• In 2023, Times Higher Education ranked ARU London as 3rd for overall positivity among higher education institutions in the UK.
• In 2024, Anglia Ruskin University was ranked among the top 6.8% of universities worldwide.

• 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.
• Anglia Ruskin was awarded Entrepreneurial University of the Year in the 2014 Times Higher Education Awards.
• The university won the Duke of York Award for University Entrepreneurship at the Lloyds Bank National Business Awards 2016.
• In 2021, Anglia Ruskin was awarded The Queen's Anniversary Prize for music therapy research.
• In 2022, the Times Higher Education placed ARU as 1st in the UK for Good Health and Wellbeing.
• In May 2023, ARU was recognised for advancing race equality with a Bronze Race Equality Charter award. ARU was one of 38 UK universities who have achieved Bronze status, while only one has achieved Silver.
• In 2023, ARU Peterborough won the University Impact Initiative of the Year from the Association of University Directors of Estates.
• In 2023, ARU Peterborough won the Alliance Award for successful collaborations.
• In 2023, ARU Peterborough was shortlisted for the AJ Architecture Awards.
• In 2023, Anglia Ruskin University won the University of the Year title at the Social Mobility Awards (SOMO) which is a fundraising initiative for a charity. The Social Mobility Awards have been organized since 2017 and supported by the Prime Minister of the UK.
• In 2023, ARU received Gold Award from The Teaching Excellence Framework. (TEF).
• In December 2023, ARU won the national Green Gown Award for sustainability.
• In 2023, Anglia Ruskin won the University of the Year top prize at the Times Higher Education (THE) 2023 awards.
• In 2024, ARU was awarded the Athena SWAN Silver Award from Advance HE for gender equality progress.
• In 2024, ARU Law Clinic was nominated for the Alliance Award.
• In 2024, ARU became the first university in the United Kingdom to win the National Centre for Entrepreneurship in Education (NCEE) Entrepreurial University Award.
• In 2024, ARU received the Gold Award in the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme from the Ministry of Defence.

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 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, which was originally a vocational school named Chelmsford School of Science and Art and was later known as Mid Essex Technical College and Chelmer 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, songwriter 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.

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.

In 2019, Hongkonger Pok Wong, a 2014 graduate of Anglia Ruskin University, received a £61,000 out-of-court settlement from the university after suing it for false advertising, alleging a low quality of teaching. The university has maintained that the payout does not prove that the university was at fault. In 2018, the London County Court ruled in the university's favour and ordered Wong to pay £13,700 of Anglia Ruskin's legal costs. However, the university's insurers then wrote to the former student and offered to settle her £15,000 claim and cover her legal costs. Anglia Ruskin added that it did not support the decision made by its insurer's solicitors.

Anglia Ruskin bestowed Junius Ho, a pro-Beijing lawmaker in Hong Kong, with an Honorary Doctor of Laws in 2011. During the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests, Ho was accused of supporting the people who committed the 2019 Yuen Long attack. In response to the controversial speech by Ho, David Alton wrote to the university regarding the matter. Lord Alton urged the University to retract Ho's honorary doctoral degree. It was confirmed by the university that Ho was deprived of his degree on 29 October 2019.

• James Prior (1992-1999)
• Michael Ashcroft (2001–2020)
• Bernard Ribeiro (2021–)

• Michael Thorne (2007–2016)
• Iain Martin (2016–2018)
• Roderick Watkins (2019–)

• Michael Ashcroft, English investor, billionaire and former Conservative vice chairman
• Eddie Ballard, former English cricketer for Cambridge UCCE and Hertfordshire
• Syd Barrett and David Gilmour, Pink Floyd members
• Chris Beckett, academic, author and science-fiction novelist
• Manish Bhasin, sports journalist and BBC presenter
• Henry Brock, specialist linguist at University of Cambridge and illustrator
• Pips Bunce, banking executive and LGBTQ activist
• John Burnside, academic and T. S. Eliot Prize winning author
• Elsie Vera Cole, artist
• Nick Crane, English geographer and TV presenter
• Sarah-Jane Crawford, TV presenter, radio presenter, and model
• Hugh Crossley, 4th Baron Somerleyton, restaurateur, hotel owner, landowner, conservationist
• Grahame Davies, poet, novelist, and lyricist
• Geraldine Finlayson, researcher and director of John Mackintosh Hall
• Peter Fluck and Roger Law, creators of Spitting Image
• Angela Hartnett, entrepreneur and chef
• Kim Howells, Labour politician and former Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee
• Lon Kirkop, Maltese visual artist, award winning published author, songwriter and theatre practitioner
• Patrick Le Quément, automobile engineer and former chief designer at Renault
• Emilia Monjowa Lifaka, Chairperson of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association
• Ricardo P. Lloyd, British actor
• Devant Maharaj, former Senator and Minister of Food Production, Trinidad and Tobago
• Ian Miller, English footballer
• Magdalene Odundo, a ceramic artist graduate and 2022 Honorary Doctorate of Arts.
• Tony Palladino, English cricketer
• Sarah Perry, author
• Ama Pomaa Boateng
• Anders Holch Povlsen, owner and CEO of Bestseller
• Shoo Rayner, author and illustrator
• Philip Reeve, author and illustrator of children's books
• Nicky Richards, CEO and Chief Investment Officer MLC Asset Management
• Andrew Sayer, English economist, professor of Social Theory and Political Economy at Lancaster University
• Patricia Scotland, Baroness Scotland of Asthal, Labour politician, Commonwealth Secretary-General, government policy-maker, former minister, attorney general and president of Chatham House
• Ronald Searle, creator of St Trinian's
• Michal Shalev, author and illustrator of children's books
• Tim Stokely, founder and CEO of OnlyFans
• Hannah Van De Peer, journalist and author
• Barbara Yung, Hong Kong actress
• Mark Wood, businessman, accountant and chairman of NSPCC

• Stephen Bustin, medicine
• Peter Carter, nursing
• Malcolm Gaskill, history
• Jon Hare, game design
• Dave Hill, education
• Ray Iles, biomedics
• John Lawrence, illustration
• Patricia MacCormack, philosophy
• Una McCormack, creative writing
• Farah Mendlesohn, literature
• Helen Odell-Miller, music therapy
• Guido Rings, postcolonial studies
• Ash Sarkar, global politics
• Tom Sharpe, history
• Justin Stebbing, biomedics

• Jason Arday
• Michael Ashcroft
• Anne Campbell
• Jilly Cooper
• Richard Dannatt
• Robert Dixon-Smith
• Mark Foster
• Stephen Fry
• Anthony Giddens
• David Gilmour
• Germaine Greer
• Dido Harding
• Hermann Hauser
• Anya Hindmarch
• Wilko Johnson
• Griff Rhys Jones
• Kylie Minogue
• Katie Piper
• Anders Holch Povlsen
• David Prior
• Jim Prior
• Suzi Quatro
• Bernard Ribeiro
• Andrew Sentance
• Barbara Young

• Armorial of UK universities
• Cambridge Theological Federation
• List of universities in the United Kingdom

• Official website
• Media related to Anglia Ruskin University at Wikimedia Commons