Published at 11:50, Monday, 04 October 2010

A NORTH West university with a campus at Whitehaven is celebrating after making it onto an elite list of the world’s top higher education institutions for the first time.

The University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) makes its debut in the QS World University Rankings 2010, which lists the top 646 universities.

The university, based in Preston and has a campus at the Westlakes Science Park near Whitehaven, is ranked in the 551-600 band of the overall table.

UCLan is one of 23 debutants on this year’s list and is the only UK university to be newly admitted.

Only 53 UK universities are in the table, four from the north west of England.

The rankings take into account a wide range of factors such as academic reputation through peer review, the number of academic citations and papers published per staff member, reputation with employers and the international profile of staff and students.

UCLan’s Cumbrian director Mick Farley said: “We are extremely proud to have broken into this select group of top universities.

“It provides further evidence of our international standing and is underpinned by the growth of world-leading research at UCLan and the opportunities we provide for our students and staff to work alongside world-leading companies.

“This new table will help to project the university onto the world stage and this is just the beginning as we aim to break into the top 500 universities by 2017.”

He added: “It is also good news for Cumbria reflecting, as it does, the quality of the university’s contribution to higher education in the county to which it remains committed.”

UCLan has consistently improved its performance in UK newspaper league tables where it has retained its position as the top modern university in the north west for the last five years.

In addition, the latest Times Higher Education National Student Experience Survey, published in January, ranked UCLan as the UK’s top modern university and in the top 20 overall.

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk