Anglia Ruskin's Chelmsford Campus

On Monday I had the opportunity to visit Anglia Ruskin's Chelmsford campus. Chelmsford is named after the River Chelmer and is the birthplace of radio!! The physical environment of the campus is quite different from the Cambridge campus - it is more spread out, there is more green space and it sits on the river.

The Chelmsford Campus

Student Services is on the 3rd floor of the Tindal building, so there is marketing facing out to let students know they are there.

During my time there I went on a tour of the campus, learned about how Anglia Ruskin uses Survey Monkey to collect data, and spoke with one of the advisors from the Student Money Advice team. The conversation with the Money Advice advisor was quite interesting as I learned more about what they do and I had a chance to talk about our funding model as well. Next year, the UK is moving to a new funding model for their students where students will be required to pay substantially more than they currently do for higher education. Several years ago, students did not have to pay any of their tuition and fees! Knowing that we require our students to take on quite a bit of debt for their degrees, one of the areas of interest from all people I have spoken with has been how we handle this.

Looking out on the River Chelmer

In the past, I haven't really consciously thought about how we deal with our students as being "customers" of the university. In class, we talk about the consumerism of higher education and the demands some students have for the level of their experience while in college, but to me, this is just the way it is. I am not sure I have really known it any differently in the time I have been in college. Having to talk articulate our services has given me a different perspective on all that we offer and made me more reflective. I have enjoyed talking about what we do, and learning about the transition that the UK is in with regards to the expectations on higher education. It will be interesting to see how the universities here progress over the next several years.

A residence hall on the Chelmsford campus


One of the buildings on campus was opened by the Queen


Until Next Time!

Megan