Dear Student
With the academic year racing to its conclusion, I hope this is an opportune moment to reflect on our position, upcoming events, and changes for 2023/24.
2023 has proved a good year to date in so many ways.
1. Revised Curriculum:
- I am delighted to announce that we have now successfully completed the revalidation of our undergraduate and postgraduate courses. This was a huge amount of work, involving student input, employers' feedback, reference to external examiners and benchmarks, and considerable effort from our faculty team. Suffice to say the outcome is a curriculum for every course which is fully up-to-date and ready to prepare you for the future.
- We also validated 3 new postgraduate courses (Accounting & Financial Management, Hospitality & Tourism Management, and an LLM)
- Our new curriculum and courses will all launch in September 2023.
- All undergraduate students (except those studying the LLB) will move onto the new syllabus from September 2023
- All full-time postgraduate students starting on or after May 2023 will move onto the new syllabus from September 2023
- Part-time postgraduate students will move onto the new equivalent modules as soon as their study plans allow.
- You will receive an email outlining your new syllabus by the end of July with the opportunity to explore the changes and what they mean for you.
- To view our new curriculum, click on this link https://london.aru.ac.uk/courses
This was a huge amount of work resulting in a fabulous set of updated courses, so many thanks to everyone involved. We were commended once again on our VLE, the quality of our staff base, and our paperwork; a fantastic outcome.
2. Return to Campus Post-Covid:
We have progressed through the full return to campus post-pandemic, with attendance now back to pre-Covid levels. It is wonderful to see so much activity and vibrancy on Campus with a tremendous number of events and activities taking place including our first International days organised by the SU, numerous employability events many led by some of our brilliant employers, top achiever events, awards ceremonies, student led charity events, and so much more.
We have now completed the analysis of our hybrid delivery pilot, whereby student cohorts at each level studied one day physically on campus and the second date virtually. Student feedback and achievement were collected and compared with those cohorts' attending campus for two days, and feedback was collected from the delivering academics. Student feedback was comparable, but student achievement and academic feedback clearly suggested that hybrid delivery did not enable the same level of academic achievement as the traditional two day on campus model. The pilot ran for a full academic year and came to an end in May 2023. From September 2023 all cohorts will return to our traditional two day on campus model.
3. Highlights of 2022/23
One highlight of the year to date was our inaugural Leavers Ball held in the Westminster Plaza Hotel in April, when approximately 300 completing students and staff enjoyed a jubilant evening celebrating our students' success. Feedback on the evening was excellent and we hope to repeat the experience in future years. To read details of the event and browse photos https://london.aru.ac.uk/discover-aru-london/events/leavers-ball-2023
Another significant highlight was the second annual Founders Festival event held synchronously in our EID building, and in the USA; with entrepreneurs, business experts and students mixing to celebrate and stimulate new business start-ups. For such an event to be hosted by ARUL and open to our students and alumni show the standing of ARUL and our links with the world of entrepreneurship. Many congratulations and thanks to all staff and students involved in this and all of our brilliant events. Details and photos of all of our events can be seen on our website.
4. Plans for 2023/24
The next academic year will once again prove exciting at ARUL, with the movement to the newly validated courses at the top of our agenda. We will also see developments in:
- Our Employability Services - embedding the Graduate Attributes of Accountability, Aspiration, Awareness and Authenticity. These will aid all of our graduates in taking those steps from university into graduate employment.
- The expansion of our postgraduate courses to cover Law, accounting and financial management, and both hospitality and tourism management.
- New course orientated societies to help you build the networks and skills to kick-start your career.
I hope this gives a flavour of the developments underway to protect and enhance your experience and prepare you for the challenges of a fast changing environment.
Best wishes
Dr. David Sexton
ARU London Principal