Bangkok--30 Apr--Spark Communications
- Results bode well for future Thailand expansion plans
- Teaching, infrastructure, internationalisation and engagement score top
The University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) is a rising star according to a revealing new analysis undertaken by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), the compilers of the prestigious QS World University Rankings.
UCLan, which has recently announced plans to establish a university campus in Thailand, became the first modern university in the UK to enter the QS rankings in 2010. Now the company has launched the ‘QS Stars Development Road Map’ in order to showcase the broader quality of institutions, enabling them to stand out in their particular areas of excellence.
Overall the University has been awarded four out of the maximum of five stars.
According to the QS Top Universities website, http://www.topuniversities.com/qsstars, a typical four stars university is: ‘highly international, demonstrating excellence in both research and teaching. The institution provides an excellent environment for students and faculty’.
And within the sub-areas which make up the overall grading, UCLan has been awarded the maximum of five stars for teaching, infrastructure, internationalisation and engagement. Commenting on UCLan’s star rating Ben Sowter, Head of the QS Intelligence Unit, said: “The University of Central Lancashire's solid performance across all the areas of the evaluation, combined with clear strengths in the areas of teaching, infrastructure, internationalization and engagement, have led to it achieving 'Four Stars' status.”
UCLan’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Dave Phoenix added: “QS undertook a detailed assessment of the University, so to gain an overall score of four stars out of five is a ringing endorsement of all we are trying to achieve on a world-class level.”
“In the sub-area categories we are particularly pleased to have scored five stars for teaching, infrastructure, internationalisation and engagement activities because they are key features identified by students looking for a superlative educational experience.”
“While our work in Thailand is at an early stage UCLan’s high scores for internationalisation and engagement activities give us great confidence in approaching new markets. Our track-record in working with international students - over 5,000 currently study with us — and business and community engagement which will be a vital part of our work in Thailand, have built the perfect platform to enable us to transport our winning formula across continents.”
“Our ambition is to become a top 500 university globally and we are now working on how we can improve our international standing even further. This analysis will help to project the University onto the world stage.”
Now the stars have been awarded to UCLan they will feature next to the University name within the QS league table and on the www.topuniversities.com website, which in 2010 received over 10 million visits.
Notes to editor
The full breakdown of UCLan’s QS rating is as follows:
Overall QS grading: Four Stars
Core criteria
These criteria feature the key building blocks of a university whether focused globally, domestically or locally.
Teaching — Five stars
A key role of a university is the nurture of tomorrow's finest minds, inspiring the next generation of potential research academics. Typical indicators here are domestic teaching quality assessments, collation of student feedback, national student surveys and student faculty ratios.
Employability — Four stars
Graduate employability encompasses more than academic strength, focusing on ‘work-readiness’ - the ability to work effectively in a multicultural team, to deliver presentations, to manage people and projects. Common indicators in this area are surveys of employers, graduate employment rates and level of career service support
Infrastructure — Five stars
University infrastructure talks about the facilities available to students at a university, providing students with some insight into the environment they can expect for their university experience. Aspects include sporting and medical facilities, student societies, student accommodation, IT infrastructure and library facilities.
Research — Two stars
Indicators considered here include domestic assessments of research quality, productivity (i.e. number of papers published), citations (i.e. how recognised and referred to those papers are by other academics), awards (e.g. Nobel Prizes or Fields Medals).
Advanced criteria
This selection of criteria looks at important factors that a university with a solid foundation in the core criteria might target to advance to a higher level of performance and recognition.
Internationalisation — Five stars
Students are studying outside their home countries at higher volumes than ever, and this mobility is accelerating. Universities are changing to meet this demand and leading institutions are at the forefront. For prospective international students, seeing a track-record of an institution for looking after international aspects as well as getting a sense for the international nature of the experience they can expect is increasingly important.
Innovation — Four stars
Innovation and knowledge transfer are increasingly important priorities for modern, progressive universities. This category includes aspects such as number of spin off companies, patents and industrial research.
Engagement — Five stars
In the 21st century universities can no longer draw the line at the conventional missions of teaching and research but have to also embrace the "third mission". Knowledge transfer is part of this mix,
but also regional and community engagement and widening participation. This category includes community investment and development in addition to scholarships and bursaries for students.
Specialist criteria — Two stars
In conventional public rankings, specialist institutions tend to be underrated in favour of comprehensive institutions, yet in their given field they often fully deserve the "world-class" label.
About QS
QS is the leading global career and education network, helping individuals and companies fulfil their potential through fostering international mobility, educational achievement and career development. QS was established in 1990 by Nunzio Quacquarelli whilst pursuing an MBA at Wharton. In its 22 years it has developed a name synonymous with high quality strategic and marketing support to the higher education sector, through its research, events, publications and web solutions.
The University of Central Lancashire has an enviable reputation as an institution that innovates. It has evolved a portfolio of over 500 undergraduate programmes and 180 postgraduate courses. The University has established a reputation for research in Humanities, Business, Health and Science. In the recent Research Assessment Exercise, all 17-subject areas submitted were rated as containing research of international excellence; 11 areas were assessed as world-leading, including the field of Communication, Cultural and Media Studies. With approximately 35,000 students, the University indirectly contributes approximately ?250 million p.a. to the regional economy. Home to the oldest journalism programme in the UK, the University of Central Lancashire has been named Top Modern University in the North West by the Times Good University Guide in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011. For more information please visit www.uclan.ac.uk.
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