Four years ago we agreed our Vision for Anglia Ruskin University as a whole community:

• We are passionate about the advancement of knowledge and the education of students
• We take university education in imaginative new directions
• We are important to the region and want to be viewed in the UK and internationally as exceptional
• Our key contribution is to the enhancement of social, cultural and economic well-being.

Our Corporate Plan 2009-2011 set out in a level of detail unusual in the university sector eleven objectives and strategies and goals which if met would ensure that we would be on course to make that Vision a reality. It is pleasing to record that we are on track. We have met the vast majority of the targets we set ourselves, be they academic or financial. Many will be exceeded while some will require further effort in the coming months and years - a clear indication of the high level of challenge we set ourselves.

We revisited both our Vision and Values at the start of last academic year during the preparation of our new Corporate Plan 2012-2014 and came to the conclusion that both are fit for purpose as we approach a period of unprecedented government-inspired change in the UK university system. And on top of deliberate change we, like the rest of the UK university system, have had to deal with the (presumably unintended) consequences of changes in immigration policy. At the time of writing these have led to a collapse of the market for UK higher education in India, one of the UK's key markets. The UK university system is highly geared to international success, as is Anglia Ruskin. While our international student numbers continue to grow year on year, we are conscious that such changes increase the risk of us not achieving key financial and academic goals. Nevertheless, our new Corporate Plan sets even higher goals and standards for us to reach, such is the self-confidence of the Anglia Ruskin community which believes that our work to date has put us in a better position than many to face up to these changes - as I hope this set of annual accounts shows. Of course, there is no room for complacency and our underlying planning principle has been 'plan for the worst, hope for the best': not the other way round. This means that year on year we are seeking further efficiencies not only in the way in which we organise and manage ourselves but also in our academic programme and in the means by which we monitor and control academic quality. As well as financial robustness and security this work has also had the benefit of releasing academic energy to focus better on our core purposes of teaching, research and knowledge transfer.

We have been able to support a remarkable amount of capital development in the last few years, much of which has finally come to fruition during academic year 2010-2011. We have now completed both the first phase of our major Cambridge campus revamp and the final (at least, for the time being) phase of our new campus in Chelmsford. Both have been met with great critical acclaim, with visitors using phrases such as 'unrecognisable' to describe the positive changes they see in this new physical manifestation of Anglia Ruskin University. In the Spring students in our Faculty of Health, Social Care & Education in Peterborough moved into the excellent environment offered them in the newly refurbished Guild House and, as recently as October, students in Harlow now follow their higher education courses in a custom built new building. In the meantime work continues on new student accommodation which will be provided through partnership with the private sector and on preparatory work for further academic accommodation in Cambridge. With our student retention statistics now better than key benchmarks, our employment statistics for undergraduates in the East of England second only to Cambridge University (whose figure is less than 1% higher) and with a 5% improvement in the National Student Satisfaction survey this last year, we remain focused on improving both the environment and the learning outcomes for our students; to which our recent re-accreditation under the Customer Service Excellence scheme speaks volumes.

Universities are no more or less than the people in them, the staff and the students. It is a privilege here at Anglia Ruskin University to be working among such a group of talented and committed staff and with a student population which is exceptionally broadly based in terms of ages and backgrounds and which is highly supportive of our efforts to develop and improve across the board. We are rightly proud of them and of the achievements of students and staff alike.

Professor Michael Thorne BSc (Hons) PhD FIMA FBCS FRSA
Vice Chancellor

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