Our Vision for Anglia Ruskin University as a whole community is as follows:

• 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 new Corporate Plan 2012 - 2014 sets out in a level of detail unusual in the university sector, fifteen 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 made great progress with our previous Corporate Plan 2010 - 2012 and delivered on most objectives if not all: thereby demonstrating that the targets in that plan (both academic and financial) were seriously demanding.

Like most English universities we approached this period of unprecedented government-inspired change in the UK university system with a great deal of concern, to some extent relieved by careful planning. And on top of deliberate change we, like the rest of the UK university system, continue to have to deal with the worsening consequences of changes in immigration policy and our Government's refusal to listen to common sense. As a result, students from key markets such as India are flocking to countries like Canada - at one time barely on the UK university system's competitor radar and now benefiting from what seems like a UK Government benefaction to those countries who still 'get' the benefits of overseas student recruitment: the bolstering of key academic disciplines such as Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics; the long-term sourcing of doctoral degree students who in many disciplines now make up the majority of our new academic staff; the vital contribution to the internationalisation of the student experience essential to employees' need to operate in today's global market-places; and, of course, the financial benefits. 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.

We continue to seek 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 and thereby offer a better prospect to incoming well-qualified academic staff who we have been recruiting in record numbers. At the time of writing we have managed to recruit not only UK full-time undergraduate students at record levels (despite fees which have almost tripled) but also a record number of overseas students. In the febrile UK higher education market place only a fool would take that success for granted and so our maxim continues to be 'plan for the worst, hope for the best': not the other way round.

Following major capital developments in the last few years, we have spent much of academic year 2011 - 2012 on detailed classroom-focussed renovations (including a £1million recording studio to support our new areas of Computer Games and Music Technology and a new 200-seater computer laboratory (within the Chelmsford library), planning a new campus on Young Street in Cambridge (to which the activities of our Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education will relocate in approximately two years time) and making plans for the second phase of our major Cambridge Campus revamp (the final building of Phase I, our new Eye Clinic on Bradmore Street just having been completed at the time of writing). Two separate private-sector led developments of new student accommodation were completed and fully taken up by students in Cambridge.

The most recent statistics show that 89.6% of our students were in work or further study within six months of graduating - remarkable figures in these troubled times. Four out of five go into jobs classified as professional or managerial, with a median starting salary of £21,000. I have no doubt that our students' success in the world of work stems directly from our close relationships with such international brands as Timberland, Specsavers, UPS, Harrods, Volvo, Willmott Dixon, Barclays Bank and the RAF, for all of whom we deliver degree level programmes in the workplace. The clear benefits to business in this innovative approach to degree delivery were recognised by the CIPD through their national award for Talent Management when our joint project with Barclays Bank fought off tough competition from across the whole of the UK.

We saw yet another 3% improvement (the fourth annual improvement in a row) 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 - the third in a row - under the Customer Service Excellence scheme speaks volumes), and our Student Services team were recognised as the best in the country at the recent Times Higher Education awards ceremony for Leadership and Management in London.

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

View our Annual Report & Accounts archive