Lancaster University

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lancaster University

Coat of arms of Lancaster University

Motto

Latin: Patet omnibus veritas

Motto in English

"Truth lies open to all"

Established

1964

Type

Public

Endowment

216.9 million (2013/14)[1]

Chancellor

Alan Milburn

Vice-Chancellor

Mark Smith[2]

Visitor

Her Majesty The Queen

Academic staff

1490[3]

Administrative

3,025

staff

Students

12,525[4]

Undergraduates

9,020[4]

Postgraduates

3,505[4]

Location

Bailrigg, City of Lancaster,England

540037N 24708W Coordinates:

540037N 24

708W

Campus

Bailrigg
Accra, Ghana (overseas campus)

Colours

Affiliations

"Quaker Grey" and red

N8
Group, ACU, AACSB,AMBA, NWUA, EQUIS,Universitie
s UK

Website

www.lancaster.ac.uk

Lancaster University, officially The University of Lancaster,[5] is a public and collegiate research
university in Lancaster, United Kingdom. The university was established by Royal Charter in 1964,[6] one of
several new universities created in the 1960s. Three of the newly established institutions were founded as collegiate
universities, namely Lancaster, the University of York and the University of Kent.
The university was initially based in St Leonard's Gate in the city centre, until moving to a purpose-built 300 acres
(120 ha) campusat Bailrigg in 1968.[6] The campus buildings are arranged around a central walkway known as "The
Spine", which is connected to a central plaza, named "Alexandra Square" in honour of its first chancellor, Princess
Alexandra.
Along with the universities of Durham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and York, Lancaster is a
member of theN8 Group of research universities. In 2014, Lancaster University celebrated its 50th anniversary with a
series of events throughout the year, involving alumni, staff, students and local community members.[7]
Contents
[hide]

1History

2Campus
o

2.1Bailrigg

2.2South-west campus

2.3Services

2.4Chancellors Wharf

2.5Cultural venues

3Organisation and administration

o

3.1Colleges

3.2List of Chancellors

3.3List of Vice-Chancellors

3.4Visitor

4Academic profile
o

4.1Reputation and rankings

4.2Joint programmes

4.3Programmes abroad

4.4Research

5Student life
o

5.1Students' Union

5.2Sport

5.3Religious groups

6Notable people
6.1Alumni

6.1.1Business

6.1.2Media

6.1.3Arts

6.1.4Politics and law

6.1.5Sport

6.1.6Education

7References

8Bibliography

9External links

History[edit]
After the Second World War higher education became an important concern of government as it tried to cope with the
demands of an expanding population and the advent of a new technological age. Between 1958 and 1961 seven
new plate glass universities were announced including Lancaster.
The university was established by Royal Charter in 1964. The charter stipulated that HRH Princess Alexandra of
Kent be the first Chancellor. She was inaugurated in 1964. The ceremony also saw the granting of various honorary
degrees to dignitaries including Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Princess Alexandra retired as Chancellor in 2004 and
was the longest serving chancellor of any British university. On her departure, she gave approval for a Chancellor's
Medal to be awarded for academic merit to the highest-performing undergraduates and postgraduates. Each year
presentations are made to up to five graduates of taught masters' courses, and up to six to the highest-performing
undergraduates.
The university accepted its first students in October 1964 and there were initially 13 professors, 32 additional
members of teaching and research staff, 8 library staff and 14 administrators on academic grades. The motto, "patet
omnibus veritas", (Truth lies open to all), was adopted. The first science students were admitted in 1965.
The university was temporarily based in the city. A lecture theatre and the university's first Junior Common Room
were based in Centenary Church, a former congregational church beside the old factory premises of Waring & Gillow,
which were used to accommodate the new students. Many new students were housed in Morecambe. The Grand
Theatre was leased as a main lecture room and 112 and 114 in the St Leonard's Gate area became teaching and
recreational rooms. The library occupied the old workshops of Shrigley and Hunt on Castle Hill.

Campus[edit]
Bailrigg[edit]

Alexandra Square with BowlandTower (2009)

The purpose-built campus occupies Bailrigg, a 360-acre (0.563 sq mi; 1.457 km2) site[8] donated by Lancaster City
Council in 1963.[9] The campus buildings are located on a hilltop, the lower slopes of which are landscaped parkland
which includes "Lake Carter" duck pond and the university playing fields. Lake Carter is named after Charles Carter,
the first Vice Chancellor of the university, and it was built in the early 1900s.[6] The site is three miles (5 km) south of
the city centre. The campus buildings are arranged around a central walkway known as "The Spine".[10] The walkway
runs from north (County College) to south-west (Graduate College) and is covered for most of its length. The main
architect was Gabriel Epstein of Shepeard and Epstein.,[9] on a barren hilltop on a windswept day in 1963 the two
architectural partners surveyed the future site of the university, Peter Shepeard recalled that day:
"We went up there on a windy day, and it was freezing cold. Every time we opened a plan it blew away. And
we said Christ! What are we going to do with these students, where are they going to sit in the sun and all
that? Well, we decided, it's got to be cloisters. All of the buildings have got to touch at the ground. We then
devised this system and it had an absolutely firm principle: it had a great spine down the middle where
everybody walked. That led everywhere. The cars were on the outside, on both sides. When you came into
the spaces things were square, they were rectangular courtyards and they were all slightly different. There
were two or three essentials: one was that the covered way had to be continuous, the buildings had to be
three or four storeys high and connecting to the next one. I thought it worked very well."[11]
In contrast to some of the other campus universities, Bailrigg was designed to integrate social, residential and
teaching areas. Another major feature of the design was that there would not be a large central Students' Union
building, but that the individual colleges would be the centre of social and recreational facilities.[12] Vehicular and
pedestrian traffic is separated: this is achieved by restricting motor vehicles to a peripheral road with a linking
underpass running east-west beneath Alexandra Square. The underpass accommodates the Bailrigg bus station
and was refurbished in autumn 2010. Car parking is arranged in cul-de-sacs running off the peripheral road.

Charles Carter building

Construction of the Bailrigg campus began in November 1965, with the first building completed a year later. The
first on-campus student residences opened in 1968.[9] Alexandra Square is the University's main plaza.
Named after the first chancellor, HRH Princess Alexandra, it is situated at the centre of the original campus and
contains the library in the south-west corner, designed in 1964 by Tom Mellor and Partners, the first phase
opening in September 1966, the second in July 1968 and the third in January 1971.[13] The library was extended
in 1997 and in 1998 the Ruskin Library designed by Sir Richard MacCormacwas opened. On the west side of
the square is University House as well as various banks and shops. To the south-east of the square is the tallest
building on campus: the fourteen-storey Bowland Tower, which contains accommodation and disguises the boiler
room chimney.
One of the most distinctive of the Bailrigg buildings is the free-standing University Chaplaincy Centre. Opened
on 2 May 1969, the architects were the Preston-based firm Cassidy & Ashton. The building has a trefoil plan with
a central spire where the three circles meet. The university's former logo is based on the spire. A plan existed to
have a twin campus with another eight colleges to the east of the M6 motorway at Hazelrigg[citation needed]. this would
have been linked to Bailrigg by a flyover. The plan was abandoned in the 1970s during a period of financial
difficulties.

South-west campus[edit]
The university began expansion onto the lower slopes of Bailrigg with the development of new buildings
for Graduate College in 1998, which is now part of "South-West Campus". Development continued with the
construction of "InfoLab 21" and "Alexandra Park" which now houses Lonsdale College, Cartmel College and the
en-suite rooms of Pendle College.
The decision to expand onto what is now known as South-West campus was met with protests that it would drive
up accommodation prices, both on and off campus.[citation needed]Other complaints were that the site was greenfield,
with residents of nearby Galgate being worried about "the impact of the new buildings",[citation needed] flooding of the
local area due to increased run-off from the site and increased traffic flow on the A6 and other local roads. The
development of InfoLab 21 also met objections with the proposed building being described as a "Dalek factory".
[14]

Another concern related to the limited amount of new social space.[citation needed] The older accommodation

sometimes consisted of approximately 15 students sharing communal bathrooms and kitchens. The communal
kitchens were often a source of social interaction, while the new en-suite areas have fewer students per kitchen,
and private bathrooms.

Services[edit]
The Bailrigg campus hosts a range of shops and services. Services on campus include Bailrigg post
office, Barclays Bank, Santander Bank, UNI TRAVEL (a travel agent which sells rail and bus tickets), a health

centre, a pharmacy and a dental practice. Shops on campus include a SPAR supermarket, LUSU Shop, LUSU
Central (a small supermarket), aSubway, a charity shop (the proceeds of which go to Cancer Care and St. Johns
Hospice), a WHSmith, a Greggs, a book shop and an ice cream parlour.[citation needed]

LUSU Living

Chancellors Wharf[edit]

Chancellors Wharf

Chancellors Wharf is the name of Lancaster University's off-campus accommodation for students. It consists of
three buildings by the Lancaster canal on Aldcliffe Road. The location is near "The Water Witch" pub, B&Q,
central bus routes, Lancaster Royal Infirmary and the city centre. It is open to members of all of the University's
colleges. Residents remain members of their various colleges, with Chancellors Wharf itself being only a hall of
residence.[15]

Cultural venues[edit]

Outside the Jack Hylton music rooms

At the north end of campus, the Universitys Great Hall Complex comprises three venues open to both students
and the public; the Peter Scott Gallery, the Nuffield Theatre and the Lancaster International Concert Series. In
2009, these three organisations were combined as one department by the University initially termed The
Public Arts but later renamed Live at LICA with Matt Fenton at the head since their unification.[16]

The Ruskin Library

The Peter Scott Gallery is open to the public free of charge. The Gallery is located on the Bailrigg campus and
houses the University's international art collection, which includes Japanese and Chinese art, antiquities, works
by twentieth century British artists including works by artists from the St Ives School, Sir Terry Frost, Wilhelmina
Barns-Graham, Barbara Hepworth and William Scott. Among other British artists whose work is represented are
Norman Adams, Patrick Caulfield, Elizabeth Frink, Kenneth Martin and Winifred Nicholson. Within the last fifteen
years works by Andy Goldsworthy, Peter Howson and Albert Irvin have been acquired. The university collection
also includes prints by significant European artists such as Drer, Mir, Ernst and Vasarely.
Lancaster International Concert Series is the main provider of classical music in north Lancashire and Cumbria.
Concerts are held within the Great Hall. Between October and March each year the series offers a varied diet of
music which includes: orchestral concerts, chamber music, events for young people, jazz, family concerts and
world music. On the initiative of Professor Tony McEnery, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, music
as a subject for study at Lancaster was abandoned in 2013.
The Nuffield Theatre, a black-box theatre, is one of the largest and most adaptable professional studio theatres
in Europe. It presents public performances in the fields of theatre, contemporary dance and live art from some of
the best-known and respected companies from the UK and abroad. The focus of the work is new and
experimental practice, a focus it shares with many of the teaching and research interest of Lancaster Institute for
the Contemporary Arts (LICA). The Nuffield presents up to 30 visiting professional shows a year, plus public
performances by students from Theatre Studies, and the Universitys student theatre and dance societies and a
range of local community organisations.
The Ruskin Library houses archive material related to the poet, author and artist John Ruskin. It is open to the
public, although only a small part of the collection is on public display at once. The building was constructed in
1997 by architect Richard MacCormac. The Whitehouse Collection housed in the Ruskin Library is the largest
holding of books, manuscripts, photographs, drawings and watercolours by and related to John Ruskin in the
world.

Organisation and administration[edit]

The Council of Lancaster University is the governing body, consisting of mainly lay members along with
representatives of staff and students. It is responsible for the proper management and financial solvency of the
university, with major policy decisions and corporate strategy being subject to its approval. The Senate of

Lancaster University is the principal academic authority. It oversees academic management and sets strategy
and priorities, including the curriculum and maintenance of standards.

Colleges[edit]

Fylde Accommodation

Lonsdale College quadrangle(looking towards the back of Lonsdale House)

The university has nine colleges. Formerly, these were quasi-autonomous bodies providing for accommodation,
welfare, social-life and student discipline, but are currently centrally controlled. All members of the university are
members of a college, although in recent years academic staff have had decreasing involvement.[17] Most
colleges have about eight or nine hundred members and all on-campus accommodation is linked to a college,
with blocks or individual flats being linked to one college or another each year according to demand.[17] The
colleges were governed by a syndicate, including a principal (originally a senior academic but nowadays more
usually a middle-ranking administrator or IT professional), a Dean and assistant deans (responsible for student
discipline), together with a Senior Advisor, heading a team of College Advisors. These were previously known as
Senior Tutor and College Tutors, but the titles were changed in 2011 to Advisor to avoid possible confusion with
"Academic Advisors" in students' academic departments. Collectively, the colleges are run by their individual
SCR (Senior Common Room) and JCR (Junior Common Room), the latter being made up of student members
of the college.
The university has eight undergraduate colleges,[17] seven of which are named after regions of the traditional
county of Lancashire, and County College is named after Lancashire County Council, which financed its
construction. There is a ninth college for graduates.
Name

Bowland College

Foundation

1964

Named after

Forest of Bowland

Name

Foundation

Named after

Cartmel College

1968

Cartmel peninsula

The County College

1967

Lancashire County Council

Furness College

1966

Furness region

Fylde College

1968

The Fylde peninsula

Graduate College

1992

Status as a postgraduate college

Grizedale College

1975

Grizedale Forest

Lonsdale College

1964

Lonsdale Hundred (River Lune and its valley)

Pendle College

1974

Pendle region

The college buildings accommodate a number of academic departments, but are primarily social and
accommodation facilities, each with its own bar, which forms part of the university's Commercial Services and is
open when profitable.

List of Chancellors[edit]

HRH Princess Alexandra, The Hon Lady Ogilvy LG GCVO DMus (19642004)

Sir Christian Bonington CBE (20052014)

Alan Milburn (2015present)[18]

List of Vice-Chancellors[edit]

Professor Sir Charles Carter (19641980)

Professor Philip Reynolds CBE (19801985)

Professor Harry Hanham (19851995)

Professor William Ritchie OBE (19952002)

Professor Paul Wellings CBE (20022011)

Professor Mark Smith (incumbent)

Visitor[edit]
The Visitor of the University of Lancaster is Her Majesty The Queen. The visitor is the final arbiter of any dispute
within the university, except in those areas where legislation has removed this to the law courts or
other ombudsmen. Student complaints and appeals were heard by the visitor until the Higher Education Act
2004 came into force.[19] All student complaints are now heard by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for
Higher Education.

Academic profile[edit]
The four faculties are:

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences with the School of Law and the departments of Applied Social
Science, Educational research, English and Creative Writing, European Languages and Cultures, History,
Linguistics and English Language, Politics, Philosophy & Religion and Sociology. It also includes the
Institutes for Cultural Research, for Health Research, Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (LICA),
for Art, Design, Film, Theatre Studies, and the Ruskin centre.

Postgraduate Statistics Centre

Faculty of Health and Medicine, which has partnerships with other departments such as neuroscience
(Psychology), medical ethics (Law), NHS leadership (Management School), disability studies (Applied
Social Science) and environment and health (Lancaster Environment Centre). The Faculty comprises four
divisions: Biomedical and Life Sciences, CETAD, Health Research and Lancaster Medical School.[20]

Faculty of Science and Technology, including Biological Sciences; Chemistry; Engineering; Lancaster
Environment Centre (including Environmental Sciences; Geography; and Biology); Mathematics and
Statistics; Natural Sciences; Physics; Psychology, and School of Computing and Communications

Faculty of Management (Lancaster University Management School) comprises Accounting and Finance;
Economics; Management Learning and Leadership; Management Science; Marketing and Organisation,
Work and Technology; the Institute for Entrepreneurship & Enterprise Development and the centres for eScience; for Excellence in Leadership (CEL); for the Study of Technology & Organisation (CSTO);
International Centre for Research in Accounting (ICRA); Lancaster Centre for Forecasting (LCF); Lancaster

Centre for Strategic Management; Lancaster China Management Centre (LCMC); Lancaster Leadership
Centre (LLC), Health Leadership Centre (HLC) and Centre for Performance-Led HR (CPHR).

Reputation and rankings[edit]

Rankings

ARWU[21]

3033

(2015, national)

ARWU[22]

301400

(2015, world)

QS[23]

21

(2015/16, national)

QS[24]

121

(2015/16, world)

THE[25]

20

(2015/16, national)

THE[25]

130

(2015/16, world)

Complete[26]

(2016, national)

The Guardian[27]

10

(2016, national)

Times/Sunday Times[28]

11

(2015, national)

At the time of writing (2014) Lancaster University has for some years been placed within the top 15 by UK
newspaper league tables and in the top 200 worldwide by the main global rankings (see information box for
current rankings). The average entry standard at Lancaster is around 439 UCAS points, with almost all courses

requiring at least AAA or AAB at A-level as of 2013. This rise in entry standards has courted controversy
amongst on campus unions, particularly UCU, who have cited it as the cause of a drop in applications for entry
into the 201314 academic year.[29]

Joint programmes[edit]
Lancaster University has entered into a dual degree program with the COMSATS Institute of Information
Technology (CIIT), Lahore. It simultaneously offers two degrees, from CIIT and Lancaster University. Students
will be alumni of both Universities.This is the first programme between a UK and a Pakistani university.[30] [31]

Programmes abroad[edit]
In October 2013, Lancaster University announced the opening of a branch campus in Accra, Ghana, to serve the
population of Ghana and all of Africa, providing a British university-level education locally to those students.
[32]

The campus will be operated in partnership with Trans National Education Ghana Limited, and will offer

undergraduate and graduate programmes in management, business, international relations, computer science,
law and psychology along with an MBA programme.[32]

Research[edit]
In 2012, Lancaster University announced a partnership with the UK's biggest arms company, (BAE Systems),
and four other North-Western universities (Liverpool, Salford, UCLAN and Manchester) in order to work on the
Gamma Programme which aims to develop "autonomous systems". According to the University of Liverpool
when referring to the programme, "autonomous systems are technology based solutions that replace humans in
tasks that are mundane, dangerous and dirty, or detailed and precise, across sectors, including aerospace,
nuclear, automotive and petrochemicals".[33]

Student life[edit]

Lancaster University Student Union shop building, from the south with Bowland Tower behind.

Students' Union[edit]
See also: Lancaster University Students' Union
Lancaster University Students' Union ("LUSU") is the representative body of students at the university.
Unusually, there is no main union building instead the union is organised through the eight college JCRs, each
of which has its own social venues and meeting spaces. The union is, however, allocated an administration
building by the university. SCAN (acronym for Student Comments And News) is the Students' Union newspaper
and was established in 1967, making it the oldest student media on campus. LUSU owns a nightclub in
Lancaster called The Sugarhouse, operates two shops on the campus, namely LUSU Shop and LUSU Central
and also an off campus housing agency LUSU Living.

Sugar House Nightclub

LUSU also helps to support LUSU Involve, a volunteering unit allowing Lancaster University students to become
involved with communities locally and internationally.
There are over 200 different societies operating within Lancaster University. Common areas include sports,
hobbies, politics, academic, culture and religion. There are several fairs during the Freshers period in which
various clubs and societies promote themselves. Bailrigg FM is the student radio station and Take 2 Cinema is
on-campus cinema, based in Bowland College Lecture Theatre.

Sport[edit]
Every summer term the students take part in the Roses Tournament against the University of York. The venue of
the event alternates annually between Lancaster and York. The competition takes its name from the 15th-century
civil war, the War of the Roses, and is organised by the universities' respective student unions, LUSU and
YUSU.
Other sporting activities are focused on inter-college competition. All colleges at Lancaster have teams who
compete in football, netball and pub sports on a weekly basis. The colleges also compete for the Carter Shield (a
large variety of sports, involving all nine colleges) and the George Wyatt Cup (involving all colleges competing in
pool, darts and dominoes). In 2004, the Founder's Trophy was played for the first time between the university's
two founding colleges, Bowland and Lonsdale. The university also has a representative club, Furness Rovers, in
division 2 of the North Lancashire and District Football League.
Lancaster University Athletics Club (LUAC) was formed in May 2011. The start of the 2011/12 academic year
saw the first athletes join the club and by the end of the year receive awards for LUSU 'Society of the Year 2012'
and were winners of the Lancaster Athletics Cup 2012. In the 2012/13 academic year the club was given the
opportunity to compete in BUCS and Roses along with other sporting societies at Lancaster University.[34]

Religious groups[edit]

The Chaplaincy Centre, with its iconic spire and three lobes

The Lancaster University Chaplaincy Centre is located at the north end of campus incorporating various religious
groups such as Christian (Anglicans, Catholics, Orthodox,[35] Quakers), Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu,[36] as well as
various religious societies such as the Bah', the Chinese Christian Fellowship, the Postgrad and Mature
Students Group and the Pagan society which hold regular events and meetings.[36] The Islamic Prayer Rooms
are located across from the Chaplaincy Centre, in Ash House.

Notable people[edit]
Alumni[edit]
Business[edit]

Jon Moulton, Chemistry, 1973, Furness Founder, Better Capital

Antony Burgmans, Marketing, 1971, Bowland Former Chairman of Unilever (until 2007)

Mark Price, Classics & Archaeology, 1982, Bowland Managing Director of Waitrose

Bruce Sewell, Psychology, 1979, Bowland Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Apple[citation needed]

Nahed Taher, Economics, 2001, Graduate College CEO, Gulf One Investment

Luis Gallardo Spanish business executive, founder of THAP

Dave Snowden, Philosophy, 1975, County College Knowledge Management researcher and consultant

Media[edit]

James May, Music, 1985, Pendle Television presenter

Robert Fisk, English Literature, 1968, Lonsdale Middle East correspondent, The Independent

Richard Allinson, Economics, 1980, Fylde Radio presenter

Arts[edit]

Rainer Hersch, Economics, 1985, Cartmel Comedian, musician

Andy Serkis, Independent Studies, 1985, County Actor

Sarah Waters, English Literature, 1988, Graduate College Author

Ursula Holden-Gill, Theatre Studies, 1999, Graduate College Actress

Janni Howker, Independent Studies, 1980, MA Creative Writing, 1984, Cartmel Writer of teenage fiction

Peter Whalley, Philosophy, 1967, Lonsdale Writer

Roger Ashton-Griffiths, Music, 1978, Furness Actor

Ralph Ineson, Theatre Studies, 1991, Furness Actor

Andrew Ford, Music, 1978, Cartmel Composer

Lucy Briers, Independent Studies, 1988, Cartmel Actress

Andrew Miller, Creative Writing, 1997 Novelist

Ranvir Singh, English and Philosophy, 1998, Pendle Television presenter

Satnam Rana, French Studies, 1999, Grizedale Television presenter

Joseph Delaney, English, 1975, Lonsdale, - Writer

Politics and law[edit]

Alan Campbell, Politics, 1978, Furness MP for Tynemouth

Simon Danczuk, Sociology, 1992, Cartmel MP for Rochdale

Hilton Dawson, Social Admin, 1982, Pendle Former MP for Lancaster

Suzanne Evans, Religious Studies, 1987, Cartmel Deputy Chairman of the UK Independence Party

Theresa Griffin, English and Theatre Studies, 1984 and MA Theatre Studies, 1985, Cartmel Member of the
European Parliament for the North West of England

Rami Hamdallah, Linguistics, 1988, Graduate College Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority

Joan Humble, History, 1972, Lonsdale Former MP for Blackpool North & Fleetwood

Alan Milburn, History, 1979, Pendle Former MP for Darlington

Colin Pickthall, Creative Writing, 1967, Lonsdale Former MP for Lancashire West

Helen Southworth MP, English, 1978, Lonsdale Former MP for Warrington South

Sport[edit]