University of Central Lancashire

Overview

The University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) is an international, multi-campus university leading the way in contemporary postgraduate learning.

A modern institution with nearly two centuries of educational heritage, UCLan was established in 1992 but can trace its roots all the way back to 1828. There are currently around 200 postgraduate courses on offer, designed to equip students with industry-ready skills and prepare them to excel in the next stage of their career.

The university’s main campus is located in Preston, Lancashire – a small, thriving city which was recently named the best city in North West England to live and work (Demos/PwC, 2021). It also has other campuses based in Burnley, Westlakes and Cyprus.

New students join a truly global institution. UCLan has a student and staff community of around 38,000 people from more than 100 countries, plus a worldwide alumni community of over 200,000. Thanks to its partnerships with more than 120 overseas institutions, students all over the world – from China to Malaysia – are studying degrees accredited by the University of Central Lancashire.

The university has invested millions in transforming its Preston Campus, leading to the opening of its £60 million Student Centre as well as University Square, an impressive new gateway between the university and the city. Other recent additions include a state-of-the-art £35 million Engineering Innovation Centre.

Notable alumni include the BAFTA-winning television editor Richard Frediani, the journalists and newsreaders Victoria Derbyshire and Ranvir Singh, and the Oscar-nominated director Mark Gill.

According to the Center for World University Rankings, UCLan ranks within the top 7% of universities in the world (CWUR, 2022-23). In 2022 the university was awarded the maximum Five QS Stars (excellent) for teaching, employability, inclusiveness, internationalisation, and facilities.

Postgraduate

UCLan offers a range of distance learning postgraduate courses which are generally completed online. They also offer mixed mode courses which are a blended mix of e-learning and attended sessions. These can be completed at undergraduate level, postgraduate level and even at doctoral level.

There are more than 200 taught postgraduate programmes across all departments at UCLan, as well as supervised research degrees at masters and doctoral level. These are available to study as full-time or part-time courses. According to the latest Research Excellence Framework (2014), nearly 50 per cent of the university’s research output was rated as world-leading or internationally excellent.