Ravi Gill OBE

Areas of Interest

Business, Education

Honorary Award

Honorary Doctor of Education

Biography

Vice Chancellor, it is my pleasure to read the citation for Ravi Gill for the award of Honorary Doctor of Education. 

Citation

Ravi Gill is an educator, entrepreneur, philanthropist, founder of the London College of Accountancy, and Chairman of ARU London.   

Born and raised in modest surroundings in India, Ravi came to the UK at the age of fourteen. A keen student, he recognised the value of talent combined with hard work, and he applied himself diligently to the study of accountancy. 

After qualifying as a certified accountant, Ravi discovered that his new skillset opened up  a world of new opportunities. And with a strong desire to create similar opportunity for others, Ravi joined the lecturing staff at South West London College. 

It was a vocation Ravi found deeply rewarding, particularly so as it enabled him to develop his own personal style of teaching. Ravi saw how his student-centric approach accelerated and deepened learning. And he realised that the best way to deliver maximum benefit to the widest possible audience would be to set up his own college. It was a hugely ambitious goal, yet in 1990, Ravi opened the doors to the Professional Accountancy Training College in South London.   

A shrewd businessman, Ravi prudently opted for basic facilities next to Tooting Bec tube station. But such was the popularity of the courses, the college soon outgrew its premises. Ravi moved operations to a larger facility, then later merged with Emile Woolf Colleges, with Ravi as director. 

In 2000, Ravi began a fresh chapter in his mission to provide students with an enhanced educational experience – when he founded the London College of Accountancy, or LCA.

Within 18 months, the college had gained the coveted Platinum Status, the highest teaching accolade proffered by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. 

Building upon LCA’s reputation for quality Ravi co-founded LCA Mauritius in 2008 offering professional accountancy courses delivered at two overseas campuses. In 2013 LCA Mauritus gained Platinum ACCA Status, the only higher education provider on the island to do so and one of only 5 in the African continent. 

Ravi now found himself at the helm of a large, successful and rapidly growing organisation. Yet such was his commitment to teaching, he continued to take classes, personally tutoring more than 15,000 students between 1990 and 2010. 

Always leading from the front, Ravi was passionate about maintaining the very highest standards of teaching, and as a consequence, a string of awards followed: • In 2006, LCA was awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise.

• In 2007, Ravi won the Boss of the Year category at the PQ Magazine awards.

• In 2009 the LCA won the College of the Year award.

• In 2010 there was another Queen’s Award for Enterprise.

• In 2013 the LCA was named Top Centre of the Year by the Institute of Financial Accountants.

• In November 2021 Rev Jesse Jackson presented Ravi with the International Educational Service Award from the Rainbow PUSH Coalition for his outstanding contribution to education.

• And in January this year Ravi was bestowed the honour of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by His Majesty The King in the 2023 New Year Honours List in recognition of his services to higher education in the United Kingdom.   

2007 also saw Ravi enter into a collaborative partnership with Anglia Ruskin University, with ARU validating a range of LCA’s undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in accounting and business. 

In 2010 LCA’s Charterhouse Street site was recognised within ARU’s academic governance arrangements as a branch campus which from 2014 was re branded Anglia Ruskin University London or ARUL.

The long-term strategic partnership between our University and LCA has continued to flourish underpinned as it has been on shared values around teaching excellence and providing widening participation higher education opportunities to diverse communities. 

By summer 2022, ARUL had admitted almost 20,000 students. And Ravi’s vision of creating a wealth of new opportunities for the diverse communities of East London has become a reality. 

A hugely experienced educator and a savvy entrepreneur, Ravi has devoted his professional life to bringing to others the same opportunities he enjoyed when he first came to the UK.   

Outside of his day job, Ravi has supported a wide range of charitable organisations, such as: The Cambridge Institute for Musical Therapy Research, The Arco Academy, which provides alternative education for students excluded from mainstream schooling… And the Challenger Trust, which helps disadvantaged young people to develop and realise new aspirations. 

Ravi has single-handedly changed the landscape of professional accountancy training in London and the Southeast as well as internationally on the island of Mauritius. A remarkable educator and philanthropist, and a long-standing and dearly valued partner of our university, he is a powerful role model for business students. We are delighted to welcome Ravi Gill to our Anglia Ruskin community. 

Vice Chancellor, it is my pleasure to present Ravi Gill for the award of Doctor of Education, honoris causa.