In our latest article showcasing those universities shortlisted for the THE Awards Outstanding Entrepreneurial University 2021, we look at how entrepreneurship is written into the core values of Anglia Ruskin University.
What makes you an Entrepreneurial University?
Entrepreneurship is written into the core values of Anglia Ruskin University – transforming lives through innovative, inclusive and entrepreneurial education and research. This encourages creative and entrepreneurial behaviour in our staff, students, partners and the wider ARU community.
This mission has never been more vital than through the Covid-19 pandemic. We prize innovation and value the contributions of all our staff, students and partners in our community and around the world.
Entrepreneurship underpins all our programmes and ARU has always cherished creativity, whether that is in the arts or business, charities or councils. We foster an environment where innovative thinking and behaviour is expected – in our nurses, lawyers, police officers, business leaders and business owners, scientists and software developers.
ARU’s 22 Degree Apprenticeships, developed in partnership with local and national employers, use digital, ARU-led and employer-led learning to deliver qualifications for 300 organisations. In public services, we develop entrepreneurial skills that improve our communities, including providing Police Constable Degree Apprenticeships for the Metropolitan Police and seven forces in our region. We are one of the country’s largest providers of Health and Social Care Degree Apprenticeships and in January 2019, ARU’s Nursing Associates became the first to graduate in the UK.
New Ruskin Modules are an exciting new addition to our curriculum designed to enhance students’ learning and give them an additional edge in the workplace. These are standalone modules that aim to bring together students from a range of disciplines and encourage them to work together to develop possible solutions to challenges, using the UN Sustainable Development Goals as a guide.
Anglia Ruskin Enterprise Academy delivers entrepreneurship activities and competitions across ARU. In 2019-20, hundreds of students benefited from various competitions and initiatives such as Be Your Own Boss, The Big Pitch, Impact 24, Going it Alone, Venture Camp online and Design Make Sell.
Since its launch in 2018, ARU’s Law Clinic has given students experience with real-life problems alongside professionals, providing vital access to justice to hundreds of clients across family, employment and immigration law. It works with local legal firms across the east, and won the Cambridgeshire Law Society’s 2021 award for Excellence in Pro Bono.
This June saw a number of highlights in entrepreneurship. In June, it was announced that ARU would work with NHS England and NHS Improvement to deliver its Clinical Entrepreneur Programme, the largest health entrepreneur programme in the world. Launched in 2016, this programme has helped more than 500 NHS clinicians gain the skills, knowledge and experience to transform the way health and care is delivered, and ARU will now provide formal training for those entrepreneurs.
The creation of ARISE Harlow – a hub on the town’s Science Park – has provided physical office space, access to professional networks, expertise and facilities for research and development to start-ups and small companies.
In May, ARU announced a new partnership with TWI Ltd, creating the Anglia Ruskin Innovation Centre (ARIC) in Cambridge to focus on the digitisation of products and services, new business models and transformative management, driving innovation and sustainable economic growth.
In September 2022, a new university for Peterborough will open its doors to students, with ARU having been chosen as the academic partner. Realising a long-held dream for a city with a reputation as a higher education ‘cold-spot’, ARU Peterborough’s curriculum has been co-created with more than 100 companies to ensure graduates will be furnished with the skills employers need. By 2030, ARU Peterborough will provide courses for around 12,500 students.
What would winning Outstanding Entrepreneurial University mean to you?
This award will recognise the successful outcomes which we have achieved so far in support of our students and partners in a whole range of enterprising initiatives. It will also give us additional confidence to further develop our enterprise and entrepreneurial activities to support graduate employability.
This can be done through knowledge-based business creation and student and alumni social enterprises, through our growing network of Innovation Centres (ARISE Chelmsford and Harlow, and ARIC) to support the germination and incubation of new businesses from our research activities, and by supporting local aspiring entrepreneurs.