Lancaster University

Overview

Lancaster University is located in the north west of England near the major cities of Manchester and Liverpool. It was established in the 1960s as a collegiate university with an early reputation for innovation. At the time, the campus model of university was a fairly new concept in the UK. Students at Lancaster University were, and still are expected to take three subjects during their first year. This highly flexible scheme enables new undergraduate students to study three subjects in equal depth during their first year and then specialise in either one of those areas during their second.

Lancaster University has an excellent reputation for research and is one of the N8 group of Northern research universities. Recent developments have included a GBP 25 million environmental research centre and Infolab 21, a new computing and communications facility. In addition, there is a highly rated Management School at Lancaster University as well as the renowned Lancaster Institute for Contemporary Arts. History, Archaeology, Physics, and Sociology are some of the other subject areas in which Lancaster University performs particularly well in today.

Ranking

Lancaster University was ranked 19th in the Time Good University Guide 2009. Lancaster University is rated as 8th in the UK for research with leading professors teaching at all levels in Management, Science and Technology and Arts & Social Sciences.
Lancaster University is recognised as one of the world's top 100 universities in Social Sciences and it is one of only two '6-star' rated Management Schools in the UK.
Lancaster University also has world-class research centres in Environmental Science, Information Technology, Maths and Statistics, Physics and Psychology. The vast majority of departments have the prestigious '5' research rating.
Finally, Lancaster University is rated 6th in the UK for student satisfaction.

Services for International Students

Lancaster University offers help and assistance to international students through its specialist International Student Advisory Service who provide information about obtaining visas, travelling to Lancaster, planning your costs and pre-arrival information.
Lancaster University has over 1,500 international students from over 100 different countries in a friendly and cosmopolitan community. Lancaster University campuses are also extremely safe places to live and study.

Accommodation

Lancaster University guarantees to allocate accommodation on campus to all students (undergraduate and postgraduate) who are classed as overseas for fee purposes throughout their studies, providing applications are received by the relevant deadlines. Accommodation rates in Lancaster are relatively affordable compared to London and South-East England. There is a wide range of accommodation options at Lancaster University, including standard single rooms and townhouses with shared facilities, en-suite rooms and studio apartments. Postgraduate students from outside the European Union, registered on a full time course of at least 9 months starting in September/ October are guaranteed on arrival a single room in University accommodation for their first year of study.

Campus

Lancaster University consists of eight undergraduate colleges and one postgraduate college.All members of staff are college members and many are actively involved in collegiate life. Each college has its own individual character and are busy centres of social, recreational and educational activity.
Most colleges at Lancaster University have about eight or nine hundred members and all on-campus accommodation is located within the colleges which makes it easy to get to know people and gives a sense of belonging to a supportive community.

Health centre

There is a full range of on-campus health facilities at Lancaster University with doctors, nurses and dentists. All students have full access to the health centre and all health care fees are fully covered by the National Health Service for full-time students.

Location

Lancaster University is set in 250 acres of parkland and lies approximately 3.5 miles south of the City of Lancaster in the north west of England. The campus is easily accessible and Lancaster is connected to Manchester International Airport by a one-hour rail link. There are also direct rail links between Lancaster and London, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Oxford and major cities in Scotland.
URL: www.lancs.ac.uk