Sports Calendar

Following dentistry, the UK’s first new architecture degree for ten years was launched in 2009.

Linguistics and journalism produced the best results in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, but nursing, history and social work also did well.

The university has since invested £10 million in ten research centres in areas as diverse as philosophy and nuclear science.

The Confucius Institute promotes and supports the development of Chinese language and culture throughout the North West region.

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• University of Central Lancashire

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• University of Central Lancashire official site

Franchising

UCLan is opening a £10-million campus in Burnley in 2009, in partnership with Burnley College, which already offers a number of the university’s degree and Foundation degree courses.

A new Centre for Outdoor Education has been developed at Llangollen, in north Wales, enabling the university to launch a degree in the subject. UCLan is one of only two universities to be awarded the Carbon Trust Standard and now runs modules in sustainability.

Scores in the National Student Survey have been steady, with sports science and tourism, transport and travel doing particularly well in 2008. More than a third of Central Lancashire’s students come from working-class homes. A high proportion are local people in their twenties or thirties, many of whom come through the well-established lifelong learning networks run in colleges throughout the North West.

No fewer than 14 per cent of the university’s students are taught in colleges but, unlike some institutions involved in “franchising”, Central Lancashire has won official praise for the quality of its external programmes. Applications were up by an impressive 15 per cent at the start of 2009, following a year in which UCLan increased its share of north-west England’s total applications.

The social scene in Preston may not compare with Manchester or Liverpool, but neither do the security risks, and the cost of living is low. Both cities are within easy reach, and the student union’s “Feel” club nights have won national recognition. Although still not the most fashionable university, UCLan commands great loyalty among its students.

Rents for the nearly 1,500 places in university accommodation are among the lowest in Britain and the 60-acre Preston Sports Arena is among the best in higher education. Three miles from the main campus, the centre is available to clubs throughout the region but there are reserved periods for students, who can also book at peak times. It has been chosen as a pre-Olympic training base.

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