Students from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) graduated yesterday. They were walking around the centre of Cambridge and looked very snazzy in their colourful gowns, which are dark blue with a lighter blue strip around the hood, and within that a wide bright egg-yolk yellow band.. And all topped off with a dark blue mortar board.
Then on my way to Gail’s for a coffee, this man was leaning casually against a pillar. He was with two women, one of them the graduate. I think he was holding flowers, and I assessed that he and his partner were attending the young woman’s graduation and had ‘borrowed’ her mortar board for a few minutes.
Anglia Ruskin University (ARU)
Cambridge School of Art was founded in 1858, In 1992 it became a university and in 2005 it was renamed Anglia Ruskin University (ARU).
Within Oxford University there’s a Ruskin College and a Ruskin School of Art. That accounts for why ARU is the Anglia Ruskin University, to distinguish it and to place it in Anglia.
Anglia is an ill-defined area in the east of England.
Cambridge is on the edge of Anglia, whereas Norfolk and Suffolk and definitely in East Anglia and they are just east of Cambridgeshire. If you are confused by this, just know that the English temperament is to name everything in unexpected ways.
John Ruskin
The ‘Ruskin’ in the new name of ARU was chosen because the famous poet, writer, philosopher, artist critic, et John Ruskin gave the opening address in 1858.
It was a good choice. Ruskin’s influence reached across the world. Tolstoy described him as “one of the most remarkable men not only of England and of our generation, but of all countries and times” and quoted extensively from him.. Proust admired him and helped translate his works into French. And Gandhi wrote of the “magic spell” cast on him by Ruskin’s work Unto This Last and translated it into Gujarati.
Unto This Last is a precursor to the idea of a social economy that opposes untrammelled capitalism and promoted a caring economy.
It’s not much of a stretch to believe that the very obvious grindingly bad effects of the early Industrial Revolution that was right before his eyes, spurred him to write..
Anglia Ruskin University Graduation Gown
I stopped a graduate on the street today (17 July) and asked to take a photo of his gown. He kindly obliged and here it is
A PhD Graduate’s Gown
This woman’s gown was clearly different from the ‘standard’ gown, so I asked her.
“Masters, PhD?”, I asked.
A lovely woman, happy to talk. She is a PhD graduate.
Her PhD is in a study analysing the ways in which startups and small-to-medium companies interact with Government, industry, education and public bodies that predicts how well they are likely to do in achieving success.
The Intent is to be useful to startups etc to tell them the best route to achieving success.
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