Shortlisted for the University of the Year accolade at the Times Higher Education 2023 awards.

University Campus

Founded 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.

Four main campuses

As well as Cambridge, they have campuses in Chelmsford, London and Peterborough, the newest campus, ARU Peterborough, a brand new university for the city, will open its doors in September 2022. The Chelmsford campus was originally in the city centre but moved to a new, purpose-built site in 1992. Today, you’ll find their striking, modern buildings nestled by the river in the city’s University and Innovation Quarter. The campus at Guild House, Peterborough opened in 2011 as a dedicated health, social care and education site where they train many nurses and social workers, and these courses will continue to run alongside a number of new courses at ARU Peterborough.

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

They have 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 their specialist Music Therapy Centre. In 2018, we opened a brand new Science Centre and a Law Clinic.

Meanwhile, in Chelmsford they 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) 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 their 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.