Celebrating five years of Ruskin Modules at ARU
This academic year marks a special milestone for ARU’s innovative Ruskin Modules, as colleagues from across the University came together to celebrate five years of this unique interdisciplinary offer for our undergraduate students.
Since being approved by Senate in March 2019 and launched in 2021/22, the Ruskin Modules have grown into a valued part of the ARU experience.
Each Ruskin Module gives students the chance to explore big ideas, collaborate across disciplines, and discover new strengths. Students choose a question-led module and explore it with students from other courses, using creative assessment options, to broaden perspectives and develop new ways of thinking.
As one student put it:
“I felt like my Ruskin Module was the piece that I was missing… I got so much information about myself out of it.”
In numbers
Students
- 14,100+ students enrolled on Ruskin Modules
- 138 Student Assistants for Learning and Teaching (SALTs) recruited
- 186 Spark Award applications
- 16 Ruskin Module Ambassadors
- 4 Keynote Ambassadors
Teaching
- 63 Ruskin Module Leaders
- 246 ideas proposed
- 56 modules approved
- 39 modules delivered so far
- 18 Expressions of Interest currently in development
Awards and recognition
- National Green Gown Award (Next Generation Learning and Skills), plus international commendation
- Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellent Education: Leadership
- Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellent Education: Collaborative Activities
- Partnerships with 17 institutions worldwide, including Newcastle University’s School X, the University of Edinburgh, and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
These achievements haven’t gone unnoticed. In the 2024/25 Annual Report, an External Examiner praised ARU’s ambition:
“I commend the team on the development and successful implementation of perhaps the widest and most ambitious interdisciplinary provision for undergraduate students in the UK.”