Why study with us?

Graduate destinations

Our students regularly find successful careers when they graduate, as well as receiving industry recognition by winning major competitions and awards during and after their studies.

What roles have past students found after graduating?

Art and design

BA (Hons) Animation & Illustration

  • Hannah Lane: Animator/Illustrator currently at Aardman Academy; work selected for various screenings including Los Angeles International Children's Film Festival, Bitesize Film Festival, and Apex Film Awards; shortlisted for Cinemagic Film Festival Young Filmmaker Award.
  • Steven Goodison: Founder of Studio Puddock, with clients including The National Trust and Museums Galleries Scotland; short film Wee Shadows selected for screening at @FrightFest UK and various other festivals.

BA (Hons) Digital Media Production

  • Manon Raja: Trade Marketing Executive at Mr Fothergills.
  • Gwent Odai-Stephenson: Camera Trainee working in film, TV and commercials; previous roles include runner/ front of house with Endemol/Shine UK and Story Development Writer with New Forest Film.
  • Liam Conway: Content Services Operator for Motion Picture Solutions; Associate Lecturer at Cambridge School of Art.

BA (Hons) Fashion Design

  • Cosmin Diaconu (pictured): established own fashion brand Retrogusto and repairs company Repair My Denim; worked on costumes for Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour with fellow graduates Bruno Coelho and Roberto Duarte.
  • Olivia Welsh: established own fashion house Olivia Annabelle.
  • Amy Kiernan: landed internship with AllSaints founder Stuart Trevor, working on new sustainable and vintage-focused brand.

BA (Hons) Fine Art

  • Endless: ground-breaking artist who combines street art with contemporary practices. As well as working with Karl Lagerfeld, Gilbert & George and more, he is the first ever street artist to have work accepted into the historic Uffizi collection and included in the official Venice Biennale.
  • Ian Wolter: Award-winning artist with high profile commissions including Save the Children, Art Refuge UK; previously founded recruitment business that became NGage; Director of a Training and Enterprise Council.
  • Susie Johnson: Cambridge-based artist exhibiting for over a decade.
  • Stepanka Facerova: Practising artist with work in a number of private collections.

BA (Hons) Graphic Design

  • María Valero: Content Creator & Graphic Designer; clients have included Iloomina, Kombiotik, Cambridge Dining Co and Asociación Española de Cinematografía.
  • Blessing Raimi: Digital Designer at award-winning media agency DTV Group.
  • Mardiya Aurangzeb: Freelance Graphic Designer; teaches graphic design to FE students.

BA (Hons) Illustration

  • Catherine Rowe: freelance designer, selling internationally to big names in retail; leads design courses online and through Pallant House Gallery’s Care for Art programme; won the Contribution to Culture Award at the ARU Alumni Awards 2024.
  • Olivia Daw: Freelance Illustrator; made shortlist of V&A Illustration Awards.
  • Jodie Howard: Cambridge-based illustrator with clients including New York Times, Tiffany & Co, Gucci, and Chatsworth House.

BA (Hons) Interior Design

  • Eleanor Penny: Found various roles in design-related companies before taking up role as workplace designer with Cambridge-based studio Layrd Design
  • Chloe Thompson: Lead Expo Co-Ordinator at Howdens
  • Chiara Melillo: 3D designer; clients have included Lutron and the Qatar F1 Grand Prix.
  • Carlota Gándara López: Store Design Project Manager specialist at Pepe Jeans

MA Children's Book Illustration

  • Aditi Anand: Internationally exhibiting illustrator, author and printmaker with clients including Penguin Random House India, Walker Books UK, and Victoria & Albert Museum; winner of The V&A Illustration Awards: Emerging Illustrator, Walker Books 'Picture This' competition, Picture Hooks Illustration Competition; runner-up in The Batsford Prize and Sebastian Walker Award for Illustration.
  • Kate Winter: Illustrator and writer of non-fiction children’s books; winner of Klaus-Flugge Prize; Course Director and Senior Lecturer for ARU's BA Illustration degree.
  • Forest Xiao: signed three-book deal with Hachette Publishing; won Batsford Prize for How To Catch An Idea.

See many more on our dedicated MA Children's Book Illustration successes page.

MA Fine Art

  • Niall MacCrann: Painter and printmaker based at St. Barnabas Press in Cambridge; won East London Printmakers prize at International Original Print Exhibition; selected to show work at Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair.
  • Rosie Ruoxi: established herself as practising artist in China, as well as preparing for her PhD.
  • Sarah Strachan: Transdisciplinary artist practitioner; Senior Lecturer Practitioner for ARU's Global Sustainability Institute; selected for Aesthetica Art Prize alongside Larry Achiampong and Hope Strickland.

MA Graphic Design

  • Ausra Cerkauskaite: UX Architect with UX design company Akendi
  • Danielle Rippengill: Senior graphic designer and visiting lecturer; currently working in-house for Bloomsbury Publishing, London.
  • Dennis Amoah: Freelance graphic designer; industry experience includes 14-month placement with multinational healthcare company Roche.

MA Illustration

Screen media

BA (Hons) Film

  • Ed Frost: Theatrical Marketing Executive – Curzon/Artificial Eye.
  • Kayleigh Barnes: Marketing Professional with Cambridge Film Trust.
  • Jon Hazell: Junior Editor at VICE News.
  • Seyi Odusanya: Screenwriter (worked in BBC/CBeebies writers' room).
  • Shayne Thomas-Gordon: Sky Production Content Producer.
  • Mike Cooper: Media and Film Studies Teacher at JCoSS
  • Elle Haywood: Account Executive/Freelance Film Reviewer.
  • Alex Turner: Camera Trainee and 2nd Assistant Camera Operator.

BA (Hons) Film and Television Production

  • Gabi Kazuikonyte: Senior VFX Coordinator with Cambridge-based visual effects studio Vine FX
  • Agata Kazmierczak: Technical Operator at BBC News, London
  • Victoria Burrows: Runner for Technicolor before becoming Production Coordinator, then Producer. Now works as a VFX Coordinator for Scanline
  • Sam Cornish: Production Executive with Genesius Pictures, developing feature films such as 'Mrs Lowry & Son" and "The More You Ignore Me"
  • Pedro Riberio: Freelance Director of Photography and Cameraman; projects include '24: Live Another Day', Ridley Scott's 'Exodus: Gods and Kings', 'Jamie's Super Food'.
  • Evelin van Rei: Freelance Director of Photography and Fine Artist shooting commercials and promos; winner of Angénieux Special Encouragement award.
  • Martin Galvin: Assistant Director on 'EastEnders' and 'Doctors'.

MA Film and Television Production

BA (Hons) Computer Games Art 

  • Michal Staniewski: worked as a game developer at Jagex before moving to Frontier Developments, where he now works on Elite: Dangerous.
  • Adam Williams, freelance Environment Artist, 2 By Seven Studio
  • Aliyah Jawad, Environment Artist, Airship
  • Thomas Blunden: Junior Artist, Inkle.
  • Owen Westfield: Senior Artist, Frontier Developments.
  • Amy Hook: Animator, Frontier Developments.
  • Jacob Stromqvist: Vehicle Artist, Codemasters.

BA (Hons) Computer Games Programming

  • Theodore Hanson, AI Manager, Independent Data Certifications (IDC)
  • Owen Monaghan, Junior QA Analyst, Jagex
  • Oliver Cox, Graduate Gameplay Programmer, Frontier Developments
  • Matthew Stracey, Back End Engineer, Reneural
  • Jake Beswick, Software Engineer, Reneural
  • Matthew Rayner, Online Tutor, Software Academy UK

BA (Hons) Computer Games Design

  • Bill Sansum, Quality Assurance Tester, Universally Speaking
  • Jake Gostling, Web UI/UX Designer, X-on Health

Music and performing arts

BA (Hons) Musical Theatre

  • Sophie Harris: Scouted on Spotlight by agency You Management UK after seeing her showreel, vocal reel and ARU portfolio; now represented by top agent and auditioning professionally for work.
  • Lara Dailey: Progressed into professional actor training at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, London.
Chris Mitchell

BSc (Hons) Audio and Music Technology

BA (Hons) Drama

David Alade
  • Leila Khan: landed acting roles in Netlix’s Heartstopper series and the BBC’s Death in Paradise Christmas Special while still on our BA (Hons) Drama & English Literature.
  • Kai Toktassyn: started career as a film actor and producer/ manager in his home country of Kazakhstan.
  • Elena Rigoni: Trainee theatre director with the Young Vic Creators Programme, having graduated from our BA (Hons) Performing Arts. Directed her first production on our Festival of Performance module, supervised by our BA Drama lecturers.
  • David Alade (pictured): wrote and performed Foxhunting at the Courtyard Theatre; played lead role of Thomas in Stormzy's short film Gang Signs and Prayer; starred in the West End transfer of The Fishermen.
  • Oliver Scott: actor, theatre director and presenter on commercial radio; also teaches acting at schools and universities around UK; worked extensively in theatre in Shakespeare, pantomime, plays and comedies; directed UK tours of The Wind in the Willows and Alice in Wonderland; Resident Director of annual pantomime at Grange Theatre in Northwich, Cheshire.

MA Dramatherapy

  • Emily McCrae: Dramatherapist with Roundabout Dramatherapy; part of Chroma's Professional Excellence Programme; previously worked with Tangled Feet theatre company.
  • Charlee Tsai: Dramatherapist and dramatherapy ambassador based in Taiwan; previously worked with NHS as a CAMHS practitioner and a charity supporting young people and schools through dramatherapy.
  • Madelaine Cameron: HPC-registered Dramatherapist within NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in Cambridge and London.

MA Music Therapy

Jamal Glynn
  • Jamal Glynn (pictured): First Music Therapist in the world to use steelpan; now works with Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Health.
  • Rosie Axon: Founder and Director of Chiltern Music Therapy, not-for-profit organisation providing music therapy to people of all ages across UK.
  • Rachael Stalker: Music Therapist at special needs school near Cambridge.

Writing

BA Writing

  • Joshua Winning: Contributing Editor for Total Film; Film Reviewer for The Guardian and Radio Times; authored books including dark fantasy series The Sentinel Trilogy.
  • Ben Langley: first novel Dead Branches published June 2019 by Bloodshot Books.
  • Carole Concha Bell: first novel longlisted for Hachette UK's Mo Siewcharran Prize 2019.

MA Creative Writing

Jem Hubbard talking into microphone on stage
  • Jem Hubbard (pictured): won The Nature Writing Prize for Working Class Writers in 2025 for collection of 14 poems, to be published in upcoming collection In Our Nature. Read more about Jem's journey in our Connect alumni magazine.
  • Tamika Green: worked for two local news publications; gained National Council for the Training of Journalists qualification; won Apprentice of the Year at Women in Local News Awards 2022.
  • Leigh Chambers: Published second novel Alice & Iris through Neem Tree Press in 2026; shortlisted for 2019 Bath Novel Award; longlisted for the 2019 Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize and Blue Pencil Agency First Novel Award.
  • Jan Casey: Published five novels through Aria Fiction with her latest, The War Artist, released in 2024.
  • Anni Domingo: author of Breaking the Maafa Chain; winner of an Escalator Award and Myriad Manuscript Prize; actor, director and Chair of Theatre Peckham.
  • Jade Slaughter: Creative Content Manager for Scouts, UK’s largest co-educational youth movement.
  • Penny Hancock: published five books through Mantle; winner of East Anglian Novel of the Year award 2019.
    • Cover of "The Words in my Hand" by Guinevere Glasfurd
  • Guinevere Glasfurd: Shortlisted for Costa First Novel award and Author's Club Best First Novel; longlisted for Prix du Roman FNAC; published second novel in 2020; served as Writer in Residence at Wicken Fen, the National Trust's oldest reserve.
  • Kate Swindlehurst: Writer in Residence at Cambridge Botanic Gardens; first novel shortlisted for Caledonia Novel Award 2019;  second novel published through Unbound.
  • Lynn Fraser: first novel, The Busy Mum’s Guide to Murder, published by Orion, September 2019.
  • PhD student Ruthy Mason: first novel Death Do Us published by Little, Brown Book Group in June 2026.