University of Central Lancashire
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| Image:Newuclan.PNG
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| Established | October 7, 1828 |
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| Chancellor | Richard Evans |
| Vice-Chancellor | Malcolm McVicar |
| Chairman | Malcolm Faulkner |
| Students | 35,000 |
| Location | Preston, Lancashire,, England, United Kingdom |
| Colours | Coral, black |
| Website | www.uclan.ac.uk |
| Image:Adelphi building.JPG | |
The University of Central Lancashire (or UCLan) is a university based in Preston, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom, with additional campuses in Carlisle and Penrith.
The Preston campus has around 35,000 students, making it one of the largest universities in the United Kingdom. Before 1992, it had been Preston Polytechnic since September 1 1973, and then Lancashire Polytechnic in 1984. Before then it was Harris College and previously The Harris Institute.
Before that, it was originally named The Institution For The Diffusion Of Knowledge. Colleges of education were added in the 1970s from Poulton-le-Fylde and Chorley.
On August 1 2004, it took control of the former Northumbria University campus in Carlisle, which had around 400 students. Today, UCLan also validates degree courses for partner institutions such as the arts school, Cumbria Institute of the Arts.
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[edit] Early history
The Institution for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge was founded in 1828 by Joseph Livesey's Temperance Society. The society was born from a pledge made by seven Preston workingmen (whose names can be seen on a plaque in the university library) to never again consume alcohol.
The Institute was housed in a classical-revivalist building on Cannon Street, before eventually expanding under the endowment of a local lawyer, Edmund Robert Harris, who died in 1877.
The expansion brought with it several new buildings as part of the expansion and houses in the nearby Regent Street were purchased and demolished as a consequence. The institute became a centre of excellence for the Arts and Sciences.
As part of Queen Victoria's Jubilee celebrations in 1899, the trustees paid for the Harris Technical College (now known as the Harris Building) to be built on Corporation Street. Its goal was to provide local youths with a technical education in all areas. The building was modern at the time and was powered entirely by electricity.
The instute existed in this state until 1932 when it changed again to become the Harris Art College. It underwent further expansion and in 1952 became the Harris College. In 1970 this became Preston Polytechnic.
In 1992, Preston Polytechnic was awarded University status and has undergone continuous improvement and development since.
[edit] Preston Campus
The Preston Campus, being the core of the university, has most of the facilities and buildings. The Preston Campus currently consists of:
- Adelphi Building
- Avenham Building
- Brook Building (£10 million building opened in 2005 which houses both the Faculty of Health and the Lancashire Business School)
- Chandler Building
- Centre for Contemporary Arts
- Computing & Technology Building
- Darwin Building (£10 million building opened in 2005 which houses the movement analysis laboratory, tissue culture suite, physiology suites, and the Centre for Sports and Exercise Science department)
- Edward Building
- Electronic & Digital Art Unit
- Foster Building
- Forensic Science Crime Scenes Houses
- Fylde Building
- Greenbank Building
- Hanover Building
- Harrington Building
- Harrington Security Lodge
- Harris Building
- Indoor Sports Centre
- Kendal Building
- Kirkham Building
- Leighton Building
- Library & Learning Resource Service
- Livesey House
- New Building for LBS and Health (under construction)
- Marsh Building
- Maudland Building
- Moss Building
- Multi-Faith Centre
- Pre-School Centre
- Radnor Building
- St Peters Arts Centre
- Students' Union
- New Student Union Building
- Vernon Buildings & Greenfell Baines Gallery
- Victoria Building
- Wharf Building
Announced buildings:
- £15.3 million media and performing arts building, scheduled for completion in 2007.
[edit] Departments
The Preston Campus currently has four faculties and 33 departments, which are:
- Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
- Art and Fashion
- Combined Honours
- Centre for Employability
- Design
- Education and Social Science (including Deaf Studies)
- Humanities
- Languages and International Studies
- Lancashire Law School
- Health
- Department of Allied Health Professions
- Complementary Medicine Unit,
- Ethnicity & Health
- Health Informatics Research Unit
- Midwifery Studies
- Nursing
- Professional Ethics
- School of Dentistry
- Social Work
- Lancashire School of Health and Postgraduate Medicine
- Lancashire Business School
- Commercial Development Unit
- Information and Finance
- Journalism
- Strategy and Innovation
- Tourism and Leisure Management
- Science and Technology
- Biological Sciences
- Sports Science
- Biomedical Research Unit
- Built Environment
- Computing
- Forensic and Investigative Sciences
- Cyberspace Research Unit
- Physics, Astronomy and Maths
- Centre for Astrophysics
- Centre for Materials Science
- Psychology
- School of Natural Resources
- Animal Conservation Science
- Archaeology
- Conservation and Countryside Management
- Environmental Hazards
- Environmental Management
- Forestry
- Geography
- Renewable Natural Resources
- Waste Management
- School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
- Technology
- Vocational Skills
- Biological Sciences
[edit] Sports
The university has first rate sporting facilities available to all students, staff, and alumni both on campus and around the Preston. The Foster Sports Centre was recently extended and refurbished and is in the centre of the university campus and accomodates for a wide range of indoor sporting activities such as badminton, tennis, basketball, volleyball, football, hockey, netball, and fencing. The Sports Centre also has a well equiped gym.
Also open to students, staff, alumni, and the community is the Preston Sports Centre, which was opened in 2000 by HRH The Princess Royal. The £12 million arena provides facilities for Athletics (8 lane track), Rugby League, Rugby Union, Football (5 grass pitches) Hockey (2 floodlit all weather pitches) Netball and Tennis (4 floodlit courts) and Cycling (1.5 km circuit), as well as an eight lane athletics area which is fully equipped for school, club and county competitions.
[edit] Students' Union
The Students' Union underwent a £21 million revamp between 2002 and 2005. Construction was halted halfway through when it was discovered that the shiny metal plating that covers the building was reflecting into drivers' eyes. The metal coating was then rubbed down to make it less reflective.
The main club venue at the Students' Union is called "53°". It has two floors with a bar on each and often hosts top bands. The additional adjoining bar is called "Source", which is open seven days a week during the day and night.
The current SU President is Rebecca Fairclough: this is due to change in July 2007 when the entire executive committee is replaced, based on campus-wide elections (this happens annually).
[edit] Origins
On September 11, 1828, Prestonian Joseph Livesey set up a meeting "in favour of the Establishment of an Institution in Preston". The meeting was held at 19:30 in "Mr. Smith's Large Room, No. 11, Cannon-street, (over Mr. Templeton's School,)". This encounter led to a further meeting at the town's corn exchange (now the Assembly bar) on Lune Street on October 7 in the same year.
[edit] Logo change
At the start of the 2005/06 academic year, the university changed its logo from the traditional "University of Central Lancashire" logo to a new one with the simple word "uclan".
However, the old logo is still visible on many buildings around campus, and the rebranding has not really fully taken place at the time of writing (February 2006).
[edit] Senior staff
The university’s most senior members of staff are:
- Chancellor – Sir Richard Evans CBE DL
- Vice-Chancellor – Malcolm McVicar
- Deputy Vice-Chancellor – Alan Roff
- Pro Vice-Chancellor – Patrick McGhee
- Pro Vice-Chancellor – Angela Murphy
- Executive Director of Finance – Peter Hyett
- Executive Director of Operations – Len Lewis
- University Board Chair – Malcolm Faulkner
[edit] Student newspaper
Pluto is a student newspaper at the University of Central Lancashire's Students' Union.
It is published every fortnight through the academic year, and began life in 1985 as the Ribble Echo. The name originally stood for Preston Libertarian Undergraduate Tabloid Offering. In recent years its format has varied from a newspaper to a glossy magazine as result of a declining budget and well-meaning incompetence on behalf of its changing editorial team. In the 2005/6 academic year, Communications Officer Mark Hudson (now with The Sun newspaper) relaunched the organ as a fortnightly tabloid newspaper with a more upmarket pull-out supplement modeled extensively on that of The Guardian's G2. Despite mostly new staff, the format was maintained under current Communications Officer, Nick Hodder.
Pluto sometimes uses the tagline "Furthest From The Sun?", in reference to the famous British national tabloid. This was due to The Sun being banned previously from being sold in the Union Shop.
It has columns written by ex-footballers Mark Lawrenson and Sir Tom Finney. Comedian Jim Bowen is also a regular in the newspaper, answering questions about students' problems.
In 1998 Pluto was named Guardian Student Newspaper of the Year.
[edit] Student radio station
Frequency 1350 is a student radio station at the University of Central Lancashire's Students' Union in Lancashire, England, in the United Kingdom.
The university (which is one of the largest in the country) funds the Students' Union and the Students' Union funds the radio station.
Shows on the station are student based, with music generally comprising of indie, rock, dance and pop songs.
A playlist of 30 recommended songs makes up most of the musical content on the station, but there are also some specialist shows that play other diverse kinds of music.
The website also offers a host of music reviews from gigs in the local area. The tagline for the station is "Frequency 1350 – Your Student Station". Each year the station covers events for freshers, as well as the annual Students' Union elections, which take place in February and March. Unlike most independent stations, Frequency does not have any adverts. Hourly news bulletins on the station are provided by Independent Radio News.
Frequency is a member of the Student Radio Association, and occasionally hosts its meetings (the last one to be held in Preston was in late 2005).
At the time of writing (February 2006), the station had around 100 members. Anyone wanting to contribute or help out can e-mail the station manager on cfrequency@uclan.ac.uk.
Frequency is one of only a handful of radio stations in Preston, a major North-West city. Nearby stations include BBC Radio Lancashire, Rock FM, Preston FM, and Magic 999. Frequency does not attempt to compete with these professional stations, but instead offers a unique student niche output.
The radio station is complemented by Pluto, the Students' Union newspaper.
Broadcasting ceases for the Christmas, Easter and summer periods, but is available for all of the academic year.
Programmes generally run from 8:00 in the morning through to midnight, and the station plays continuous music when there is not a specific show on-air.
All staff at the station are entirely voluntary and unpaid. There was some talk of possibly introducing a position of a full-time paid station manager, but so far this has not materialised.
The station manager is Emma Syer, a Public Relations student, supported by a committee. Emma took over as station manager at the start of the 2005/06 academic year. Before her, the station manager was Emily Bull. The first ever station manager was Leanne Christmas.
Any member of the university's Students' Union can get involved in Frequency, whether as a DJ, a producer, or just a general helper. The station would not exist without the hours of work put into it by students.
Currently, the station broadcasts on a mediumwave (AM) frequency of 1350 kHz in Preston, a city in Lancashire in the United Kingdom. The signal has a five kilometre radius. The station is also available worldwide via an online feed at Frequency1350.co.uk. The population of the broadcast area is approximately 131,000.
The station was founded by the UCLan Radio Society. It was originally launched in late 2001 as "Freak 1 C", before the name changed to "Frequency" in January 2002. Before moving to its current location, the station was above the Night Owl store on Fylde Road, opposite the Ship Inn public house.
The actual station comprises of two small broadcast studios and an office. It is part of the university's Students' Union building on Fylde Road in Preston.
[edit] International students society
International Students Society represents over 1,400 international students at the University of Central Lancashire.
Over the past decade the International Students Society has remained one of the largest societies on campus. With members from over 30 countries each year, the society offers lots of social activities and domestic trips in every two weeks.
The members of the executive committee serve terms of one academic year. The current president is Edouard Seiinod who is from France.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- University of Central Lancashire website
- UCLan IT Support Pages
- UCLan International website
- UCLan Languages website
- The Students' Union website
- University of Central Lancashire International Students Society
- Frequency 1350 the Students' Union Radio Station
- Department of Journalism website
- Journalism Society website
- Drama Society website
- Pluto newspaper
- Rock Thrash Alternative society website
- Anime and Manga society website
- Taking over Carlisle campus
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