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About RCU

RCU is a wholly employee owned specialist research and consultancy company and we’ve been established for over 20 years.  

We offer support to individual providers and national funding bodies in the UK education, training and skills sector, helping them make informed decisions.

Our mission is to develop practical and relevant market research and consultancy solutions to clients through innovation, professionalism and market expertise.

Our values are:

  • We believe in the value of learning to create social and economic justice and believe that robust and professional market research will help our clients improve the quality of their services;
  • We are committed to upholding and extending professional standards of integrity and ethics;
  • We protect the interests of research clients and respondents by ensuring consent, transparency and protection of confidentiality;
  • We develop thorough understanding of any market we target;
  • We promote equality and diversity through our employment and professional practices;
  • We believe in the power of new technology to facilitate innovation and deliver value to our clients;
  • We believe in monitoring environmental impact of our business and in reducing this whenever practical;
  • We pursue high and consistent quality in all our services to internal and external customers;
  • We are open, honest and professional in all our dealings with clients and each other;
  • We use professional project and business management techniques to keep our promises to our clients;
  • We believe in fairness at work and in the fundamental principles of teamworking and personal development; and
  • We build the capacity of all owners to contribute to business planning and development

Videos

Who are RCU?

Introduction to RCU Ltd

Frequently Asked Questions

How long has RCU been in business?

We first started out in the mid-eighties and became a private company in the early 1990's.

I see you're based in Preston - is your market mainly North West?

Our base is in the North West, but our client base is all around the UK.

What does "RCU" stand for?

Originally, it stood for Responsive College Unit. In the mid 1980's there was an initiative to make colleges more responsive to their local communities. That is where we started. Since then we've continued to do work in the education sector but have widened our client base and our range of services considerably since those early days.

What is the ISO 20252 standard?

It is the benchmark international standard for market research organisations and you should make sure that whoever carries out research on your behalf has been assessed against this standard. RCU was one of the first UK organisations to achieve the standard and it ensures the right things happen at each stage of a research project.

What is the ISO 27001 standard about?

It's a rigorous standard about how we, as individuals and as an organisation, handle data (of all sorts, not just data on computers) to ensure it is safe from theft, loss or corruption.

What sets RCU apart from other research and consultancy organisations in the sector?

Most organisations talk about quality assurance as a differentiator. By definition, if most people argue they are different because of their quality, the statement is out of line with the facts. Sure, we achieved the international standard for market research organisations (ISO 20252) as one of the first in the UK to do so and also have the stringent Data security standard (ISO 27001). The key thing about ourselves is that all employees are shareholders. There aren't many organisations where you find yourself speaking to someone who actually owns the business. That gives us a special perspective and we believe this a genuine  difference which clients notice.

What sorts of organisation do you work with?

We work for a wide range of organisations in the public sector, mainly. Historically, our focus has been on the post-16 education sector where we have carried out assignments for both individual providers such as colleges or local authorities but we have also done research on behalf of Awarding Bodies and national government departments.