Lord Ashcroft was Chancellor of Anglia Ruskin University from 2001 to 2020.
Lord Ashcroft has donated a total of £10 million towards an international business school that has buildings on two Anglia Ruskin University campuses.
He made the donations for the Lord Ashcroft International Business School (LAIBS) because he wanted to encourage young people to have the chance to succeed in the world of business. New centres were built at the Chelmsford and Cambridge campuses. The LAIBS building on the Chelmsford campus was officially opened by HRH The Earl of Wessex in 2003.
LAIBS is one of the largest business schools in the east of England with nearly 100 full-time teaching staff and approximately 6,000 students from over 100 countries. It is well-recognised as a centre for business education and training by students, employers and professional bodies.
Anglia Ruskin University was awarded university status in 1992. Today the university has more than 31,000 students and (as not all our students are based on campus
– some study internationally and others by distance learning) campuses in Cambridge, Chelmsford and Peterborough.
LAIBS has its own major research institute (Institute for International Management Practice).
Lord Ashcroft International Business School’s philosophy
What makes LAIBS stand out is that it is determined to root its courses in the real world of business: many of them blend sound academic theory with solid management practice.
To ensure that the school remains at the cutting edge of management practice, and therefore entirely relevant to the contemporary world of commerce, it forges close links with the business community and enters into partnerships with a wide variety of businesses and public-service organisations.
Lord Ashcroft International Business School’s mission
· Develop a unique perspective and vision of the future
· Academic innovation drives business success
· Develop people who achieve their career potential through making a difference in their organisation
· Driving success through personal development
· Take university education in imaginative new directions
· Develop people who are confident and inspired in their management practice
Dr Trevor Bolton, Dean and Pro-Vice Chancellor of LAIBS, said: “We seek to develop our students to be critical, thoughtful and challenging of both current and emerging business practice. We prepare our students for a world of work that is diverse, changing and increasingly international.”
Students learn business theory and develop skills practically, through exciting simulations, real case studies and business competitions – Anglia Ruskin students have won the IBM University Business Challenge twice since 2008. Some students also choose to study abroad at a partner university or take a work placement, enhancing their chances of a job offer at the end of the course.
Course content and assessment are carefully designed to develop the skills employers want. The proof that this policy is working comes from the fact that four out of five Anglia Ruskin students get professional/managerial level jobs on graduating, significantly better than the UK average.
Lord Ashcroft created a $1.5 million scholarship programme for up to nine students a year from Belize to study for a three-year business degree at LAIBS.
Anglia Ruskin’s collaboration with Barclays, delivering the innovative work-based Management and Leadership degree, won a prestigious Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) National People Management Award.
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