Anglia Ruskin University has published Transforming Lives, a ten-year strategy setting out its ambitions for the decade ahead, and has appointed Professor Lady Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome, as its new Chancellor.
The strategy builds on ARU’s mission to transform lives through innovative, inclusive and entrepreneurial education and research, setting out the difference the university intends to make for its students, its communities and the wider region it serves.
Five strategic goals will guide that work over the next ten years: Empowering Learning, Discovery with Purpose, Thriving Places, Belonging and Achieving, and Growth and Sustainability. Between them they cover creating opportunities for learners, advancing research and innovation, strengthening communities, fostering belonging and achievement, and building a sustainable future.
Professor Lady Black is one of the UK’s most distinguished academics. A world-leading forensic scientist, she is President of St John’s College, Oxford, and an Honorary Doctor of Science of ARU. She joins as Chancellor as the university begins delivery of the new strategy.
ARU is an active partner in the UK Innovation Corridor and a member of its Universities Group. The university is investing in agritech, including a new vertical farming facility, and has created a dedicated partnerships team to support collaboration across the Corridor’s geography; work that feeds directly into the Group’s agritech programme with São Paulo State, which launches this autumn.
Professor Roderick Watkins, Vice Chancellor of Anglia Ruskin University, said: “Our new strategy has been shaped through extensive engagement with students, staff, alumni, partners, supporters and stakeholders. Your insight, experience and challenge have played an important role in shaping the strategy and strengthening our ambitions for the future. Partnership has been central to ARU’s success, and it will remain central to our future.”
The full strategy is available at aru.ac.uk/strategy.
