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Richmond, The American University in London (RAL)

England, United Kingdom
Visit School Website
  • Private Type
  • 1,600 Students
  • 3 Faculties
  • 1972Founded
  • YesAccept Int. Studs
  • YesDistance learning

About

Richmond, The American University in London is a unique institution offering both UK and US accredited degrees, a distinctive feature of its liberal arts education. It focuses on educating and informing future generations through critical thinking, challenge, and collaborative skills, while also fostering a global perspective and intercultural understanding. 

Acronym RAL
Motto / Slogan Unity in Diversity
Colour red, white, and blue
Founded 1972
Location City of London, England, United Kingdom
Address Building 12, Chiswick Park 566 Chiswick High Road London, W4 5AN

Mission

Richmond, The American University in London mission is to educate and inform future generations by providing them with the knowledge and support to think critically, the freedom to challenge assumptions and the skills to work with others.

Vision

Richmond, The American University in London, envisions itself as a leading liberal arts university. 

Richmond, The American University in London

Objectives

Richmond, The American University in London's objectives include providing a unique liberal arts education that combines US and UK approaches, fostering critical thinking, and preparing students for global challenges. 

Main Academic Divisions (Faculties)

  • Liberal Arts
  • Richmond Business School
  • Faculties of Communications & The Arts, Social Sciences and Psychology. 

Reasons to Study at Richmond, The American University in London

  1. Social and Community Responsibility

    Our liberal arts approach helps students develop a strong sense of personal and social responsibility, enhancing self-understanding and preparing them to deal with complexity, diversity, and change. Studying at Richmond provides the opportunity to join like-minded students who care about the world around them and are passionate about changing the world of tomorrow.

  2. A Nationally Recognized Team

    We are proud to have a nationally-recognized Student Affairs team, having been shortlisted for the Excellence in Supporting Student Success in the highly prestigious Independent Higher Education Awards 2022. The award submission by our Student Affairs team outlined the extensive range of services on offer at Richmond to support and empower students through all kinds of challenges, and how the team helps students make the most of their time at university.

  3. Department of Student Affairs

    Our main objectives are providing services that support and encourage student welfare, safety, and development, but we can also assist with general problem-solving for any questions associated with student life in general. We operate an open-door policy allowing students to drop by with questions or concerns. Private appointments are also available with our staff.

     

  4. Support for Students with Additional Needs

    We will support any students with personal challenges to achieve their potential at Richmond. Personal challenges could include a physical or sensory impairment, a medical or psychiatric condition, or a specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia. In all cases, we will explore how personalizing a student’s academic and extracurricular opportunities will help them to succeed.

Fees

Undergraduate Tuition

Indigenous Students GBP 9,250
International Students GBP 17,500

Postgraduate Tuition

Indigenous Students GBP 12,500 - GBP 15,600
International Students GBP 18,500 - GBP 29,500

Admission

Undergraduate Admission Requirement

Minimum requirements:

  • A-Level
  • BTEC National Diploma
  • US High School Diploma
  • International Baccalaureate

English Language Requirements

If your first language is not English, we will require evidence of English language proficiency. Minimum requirements are:
 

  • Academic IELTS: 6.0 overall with 5.5 in each of the four components (Please note, we are not able to accept the Home Edition)
  • TOEFL iBT: 79 overall with 17 in Listening, 18 in Reading, 17 in Writing, 20 in Speaking (Please note, we are not able to accept the Home Edition)
  • Pearson Test of English: 60 overall with 55 in each of the four components (Please note, we are not able to accept the Home Edition)
  • Cambridge: 169 overall with 162 in each of the four components
  • International Baccalaureate Diploma: English Language
    • A Higher Level grade 5 / Standard Level grade 5
    • B Higher Level grade 5 / Standard Level grade 5

 

Supporting Documents

  • Application for undergraduate admission
  • Your personal statement
  • Official school transcripts (if you are a transfer applicant with less than 30 credits, you must also submit official secondary school transcripts)
  • English language test scores (required for students whose native language is not English. Please see below regarding this requirement)
  • If you have not been at school or college within the last six months please provide a copy of your Curriculum Vitae (CV) / Resume

 

Visit our How to Apply webpage for more information regarding Entry Requirements, admissions processes and to start your application.

Postgraduate Admission Requirments

  • UK first Degree minimum second class honours (2.2)
  • US Degree with a minimum CGPA of between 2.5 and 3.0
  • or international equivalent

 

English Language Requirements

If your first language is not English, we will require evidence of English language proficiency. Minimum requirements are:
 

  • Academic IELTS: 6.0 overall with 5.5 in each of the four components (Please note, we are not able to accept the Home Edition)
  • TOEFL iBT: 79 overall with 17 in Listening, 18 in Reading, 17 in Writing, 20 in Speaking (Please note, we are not able to accept the Home Edition)
  • Pearson Test of English: 60 overall with 55 in each of the four components (Please note, we are not able to accept the Home Edition)
  • Cambridge: 169 overall with 162 in each of the four components
  • International Baccalaureate Diploma: English Language
    • A Higher Level grade 5 / Standard Level grade 5
    • B Higher Level grade 5 / Standard Level grade 5

How To Apply For Admission

You can apply one of three ways, 

  • either apply directly through us, 
  • apply through UCAS and for our US students, 
  • via the Common Application ($50.00).

In order to submit your application you will need the following information

  • Details of your education history, including the dates of all exams/assessments
  • The email address of your referee who we can request a reference from, or alternatively an electronic copy of your academic reference
  • A personal statement – this can either be emailed as a Word Document or PDF, or completed online
  • An electronic copy of your in process or completed high school (secondary school) transcript and graduation certificate

Visit our How to Apply webpage for more information regarding Entry Requirements, admissions processes and to start your application.

Admission Contacts

Email: [email protected],[email protected]
Phone : +44 (0) 20 8332 8200

Apply For Admission

Campus Tour

Facilities

  • Classrooms
  • Library
  • Accommodation
  • ICT
  • Cafeteria

ICT: There is a range of IT and Audio-Visual services and facilities available to students at Richmond. Networked computers can be found in dedicated computer labs and open access areas. These are equipped with Windows, Microsoft Office, plus a variety of software designed to support academic learning. Furthermore, Richmond operates a free, university-wide WIFI service. For our range of film, photography and graphics-based courses there is a dedicated Apple Mac lab with industry standard software, there are also dedicated edit suites and a sound recording facility.

 

Library: Our library is at the heart of university life where the ‘studying’ part of uni takes place – so that’s why we’re open late during teaching weeks and particularly at exam times. The library gives you a creative study environment with a range of library resources and services, all designed to meet your needs.

 

Accommodation: Our accommodation partner at Stay Club North Acton has comfortable, student-friendly accommodation available to our undergraduate students, study abroad students and postgraduate degree students. Rooms hosted by Stay Club offer single occupancy studios and a wide range of social spaces for studying, relaxing, meeting friends, working out and being social. Typically, first-year students will stay in university accommodation as they settle into student life.


 

School Contact

Address

Building 12, Chiswick Park 566 Chiswick High Road London, W4 5AN

Email Address

[email protected]

Phone Number

+44 (0) 20 8332 8200

Website Address

https://www.richmond.ac.uk/

Accreditations

Middle States Commission on Higher Education

Vice Chancellor

Professor Phil Deans

Before taking up the role of President and Vice Chancellor Phil Deans served as the Provost of Richmond from 2011 to 2019 where he led the successful application for Taught Degree Awarding Powers, and registration with the Office for Students.  He oversaw the creation of Richmond’s dual degree award and worked with faculty on revising Richmond’s unique international liberal arts curriculu... read more
m of four-year undergraduate programmes.  He has a BA in Politics and East Asian Studies and a PhD in International Relations from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and spent time as an undergraduate in China (1987-89) and as a graduate research fellow in Japan (1991-93).  He was fortunate to have the opportunity learn Chinese and Japanese at university and is keen to make similar international opportunities open to students at Richmond. Before joining Richmond, he was the Chief Academic Officer at the Tokyo Campus of Temple University, Director of the Contemporary China Institute and Associate Dean at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and Lecturer in East Asian Politics at the University of Kent.

Academic Staff

  • Vanessa Carreras

    Deputy Vice Chancellor of Finance and Operations Vanessa joined Richmond as Deputy Vice Chancellor in March 2025. In her previous role, she worked as Financial Controller, and later Director of Finance, at Northeastern University – London (formerl... read more
    y New College of the Humanities [NCH]).

    In her nearly 8 years at NU, she set up and led all the finance and data governance functions. She built a team from scratch and played a key role in the due diligence work that led to the Northeastern acquisition. Prior to that, she was the Financial Controller for Havering College Further and Higher Education for 5 years.

  • Professor Sabine Spangenberg

    Deputy Provost for Faculty Sabine is a Professor of Economics and previously served as Head of the Richmond Business School and as Head of Accreditation. After completing her studies in Economics and Business at the University ... read more
    of Duisburg-Essen (Germany), Sabine moved to the UK to take up a Fellowship position at Lancaster University, where she also completed her PhD in Institutionalised Economic Transformation.

    Sabine is particularly interested in welfare economics and continues to engage in research when time allows. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Development and Happiness. Sabine has served as reviewer and assessor for the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) and as a member of subject benchmark statement review groups (Economics).

  • Dom Alessio

    Vice President of International Programmes Dom was born in Wales to Irish-Welsh and Italian parents, raised in Canada and studied in New Zealand after having been awarded a Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship. He has taught at McMaster Universit... read more
    y (Canada), St Thomas’s University (Canada), Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand) and Trinity St David’ University (Wales). He has been a Visiting Professor in the School of Arts at the University of Northampton, a Visiting Professor at Franklin University (Switzerland), a Research Associate for the Centre for Fascist/Anti-Fascist and Post-Fascist Studies, Teesside University (UK), and is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for the Analysis for the Radical Right (CARR). He has been invited to give numerous lectures throughout the world and is also a fellow of Royal Historical Society, a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, and a former Vice Chair of the New Zealand Studies Association.
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Notable Alumni

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History

Richmond was founded by social entrepreneur and politician Sir Cyril Taylor, chairman of the American Institute For Foreign Study (AIFS), as Richmond College, The American College in London.

The University began teaching on the site of the former Richmond Theological College, part of the University of London, founded in 1843 as a Methodist theological college

First Board of Academic Governors included some highly prestigious academic including Professor Brian Cox of Manchester University, Professor Leonard Schapiro of the LSE, Sir Edward Maitland Wright of the University of Aberdeen, Lord Asa Briggs, the leading historian.

Richard The American University in London (RAUL) is... read more

a unique and independent institution, global in outlook and in practice, diverse and cosmopolitan in its cultures. A leading independent institution, the University is accredited in the United States by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and registered with the Office for Students in the UK, with Taught Degree Awarding Powers.

The University’s history is one of progression and development. Awarding both UK and US degrees to all students, RAUL brings together the best of British and American higher education and is the first university to have met the highest benchmarks of two of the world’s leading educational systems and therefore occupies a unique standing in global education.

RAUL was established in 1972 as a study abroad centre for American university students, and quickly developed into a full US University, granting degrees under US authority. In 1978, RAUL was officially incorporated as a not-for-profit educational institution in Washington D.C., moving in 1994 to the State of Delaware as a recognised 501(c) (3) public educational charity under US law, a status it maintains to this day.

From 1978 onwards, RAUL began to award US Associate of Arts (2-year) and Bachelors (4-year) degrees and went on to incorporate masters-level offerings into its curriculum.

In 1996, RAUL entered into a successful partnership agreement with The Open University to secure complementary validation for its US degrees in the UK, which led to further improvements of academic quality.

In May 2018, a significant milestone was achieved when RAUL was granted UK Taught Degree Awarding Powers (TDAP) by the Privy Council, with the first degrees issued on September 1 2018. This authorisation empowered the University to independently award UK degrees in addition to its US degree offerings. Additionally, in the same year, following changes in the UK legislative framework, the University registered with the new government regulator, the Office for Students (OfS) in the ‘approved’ category.

In March 2020, the University developed a strategic partnership with China Education Group (HK), the leading provider of private higher education in the People’s Republic of China.

A major strategic project for the University was the relocation of the London site to a new single site campus in Chiswick Park in 2022. The move to the new campus provided an opportunity to enhance the student experience with modern flexible classroom space and learning resources with up-to-date facilities and technology, and access to new internship and graduate employment opportunities.

In August 2023, Richmond International Academic and Soccer Academy (RIASA) also moved to new academic and sports facilities in Weetwood Hall Estate, Leeds, to continue to deliver the BA (Hons) in International Sports Management with Men’s Football and BA (Hons) in International Sports Management Women’s Football.