About us

ARU is an innovative global university with students from 185 countries coming to study with us. We're the Times Higher Education University of the Year 2023.

Why choose ARU?

Ambition

We’re not only academically ambitious for ourselves but for our students.

We've received a Gold award for the quality of our education in the Teaching Excellence Framework, a UK-wide review of university teaching standards.

We're also rated in the top 10% of universities in the country for graduate employment, and received the University of the Year title at the prestigious UK Social Mobility Awards 2023.

Excellence

We were named Times Higher Education University of the Year 2023. This prestigious award recognised our success in delivering high-impact initiatives across our campuses.

In November 2021, we were proud to receive The Queen’s Anniversary Prize for our world-leading music therapy work – and in particular our research with people living with dementia, and their families. The Queen’s Anniversary Prizes recognise outstanding work by UK universities and colleges that shows the highest levels of quality and innovation and delivers significant public benefit.

Collaboration

We’re a place where collaboration, research and scholarly activity informs everything we do. Many of our courses are recognised by industry and a large number are professionally accredited, making our students career-ready.

Each year, we also help 2,000 businesses grow with interns, training, research and collaborative programmes. 

Impact

We’re purposeful, challenging and curious about our world. We deliver impactful research which tackles pressing issues and makes a difference, from addressing health inequalities to enhancing public safety.*

Our community is incredibly important to us, and we're proud of the role we play in our cities and the wider region – including the positive effect on jobs and the local economy.** Many of our facilities, activities and events are open to the wider community.

Enterprise

While our head is full of ambition, our feet are planted in the world around us. We pride ourselves on being as enterprising as we are innovative and nurture those qualities in our students, with mentorship, support and start-up funding on offer through the Anglia Ruskin Enterprise Academy.

We're the first in the UK to receive the prestigious Entrepreneurial University Award from the National Centre for Entrepreneurship in Education (NCEE), in part because of our support for enterprise and student entrepreneurship.

Students, businesses, and partners all benefit from the outstanding facilities at our University.

Enthusiasm

Our sheer can-do attitude sets us apart from others. We find that enthusiasm is infectious, letting the results speak for themselves and being the only UK university to be named a global 'rising star'.***

* Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021
** Research carried out by Hatch Regeneris for the University and College Union, 2020
*** Higher education consultants Firetail, table published in the Times Higher Education, August 2016