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University of Central Lancashire

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NATIONAL
RANK

57.5%

FIRSTS
2:1s

79.8%

COMPLETION
RATE

Key Stats

n/a

TEACHING
QUALITY

66th=

STUDENT
EXPERIENCE

76th=

RESEARCH
QUALITY

88th=

GRADUATE
PROSPECTS

Contact details

ADDRESS

Preston, PR1 2HE View on map >

Telephone

01772 892 400

cenquiries@uclan.ac.uk

Website

www.uclan.ac.uk

Open days

September 28; October 19; November 15

University Profile

Central Lancashire has always been one of the most enterprising post-1992 universities. It already offers dentistry, pharmacy and astrophysics. Now medicine is being added to the list with the enrolment of the first 35 students on a “private” five-year MB BS programme in 2015, which has been developed in line with General Medical Council guidelines with the expectation of full recognition in due course.

The programme will be run in partnership with East Lancashire NHS Hospitals Trust, which will provide the majority of clinical placements. Normal UK tuition fees of £9,000 a year do not apply for the course which – like a similar course being launched in 2015 at the all-private University of Buckingham – is aimed primarily at overseas students seeking a UK medical education.

The students will be self-funding and pay £35,000 a year, in line with the overseas fees at other medical schools. The university also has a branch campus in Cyprus and was the UK’s first post-1992 institution to appear in the QS World University Rankings.

The university fosters in its students the same entrepreneurial spirit that characterises university management.

UCLan has established a range of business incubation facilities for its students and graduates. UCLan ranks in the top two universities nationally for the number of graduate start-ups and first for the number still trading after three years (about 70%). The university works with a wide variety of industrial partners and many undergraduate programmes are directly linked to them.

UCLan is one of the largest universities in the country, with about 30,000 students, including part-timers. And it’s getting bigger. The university, which dominates the centre of Preston and also has a base in nearby Burnley, took an additional 800 undergraduates in 2013.

It has invested over £100m in new buildings and facilities, including the £13m Sir Tom Finney Sports Centre and a £12.5m building housing the university’s forensic science, chemistry and fire courses.

Student City

Lee Mac, students’ union president

The main campus also boasts Europe’s largest 3-D lecture theatre and a 24-hour-access library, as well as forensic crime scene houses, a motorsports workshop and child observation lab. The dental school was one of the few to open in over a century, while the architecture degree was the first new course in the subject for a decade. The £5.3m Allen Building includes some of Europe’s most advanced facilities for students studying at the School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Recent course additions include the BSc in airport security management – the first of its kind in the UK – and an MSc in counter terrorism.

The university’s roots stretch back to 1828 and it has a strong reputation in some surprising fields. Astrophysics benefits from two observatories in Britain and a share in the Southern African Large Telescope, its academics working closely with NASA.
The university is a partner in a nanotechnology research team in China and the nurse-led stroke research unit is the only one of its kind in the UK.

Linguistics and journalism were classed as world-leading in the last Research Assessment Exercise and in total, 17 areas contained work considered world-leading or internationally excellent.

The Undergraduate Research Internship Scheme enables students from all disciplines to work on research projects for up to ten weeks. UCLan students formed the UK’s first Undergraduate Research Society, which funds conference visits and organises events. An overall rating of the teaching, research and facilities by QS gave the university four out of five stars.

Travel bursaries are available for study or work experience abroad, and there is free tuition is a variety of languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Russian. The Confucius Institute, on the Preston campus, supports the development of Chinese culture throughout the North West and more than 500 students have been helped to visit China.

Electives are used to broaden the curriculum; up to 11% of students’ time is spent on subjects outside their normal range. More than four out of ten students come from working-class homes, and a high proportion are local people in their 20s or 30s. Almost a fifth of the UCLan’s students are taught in outlying colleges and UCLan has won official praise for the quality of its external programmes. Foundation year courses are now available as access routes to all degrees.

The Burnley campus gives local students the opportunity to take degree or Foundation degree courses without leaving home. In collaboration with Cisco Systems, the campus is the location for an advanced manufacturing facility incorporating robotics, computer vision, non-destructive testing and component assembly.

The outstanding sports facilities were used as official training venues for the 2012 Olympics and the 2013 Rugby League World Cup. The students’ union won the Best Campus Venue 2011 award from Live UK Music, and in 2012 was ranked in the top 25% for its support, activities and academic representation. Compared with Manchester or Liverpool, the security risks and cost of living are both low. Rents are among the lowest in the UK and Preston is popular with students with its abundance of pubs and clubs.

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