Lancaster University in strong opposition to UCLan’s proposed ‘confusing’ name change

University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) has launched plans to change its name to the University of Lancashire.

It is facing strong opposition from Lancaster University due to the striking similarity of the names which could be “very confusing”.

A consultation has been put forward to The Office for Students (OfS), who independently regulate higher education in England, to action the name change.

The OfS are now calling for opinions from people who have the potential to be affected by the name change, such as future students of UCLan and Lancaster University, emergency services, professionals who work closely with the universities, higher education membership groups, local employers and other bodies with similar names, as has been set out in the consultation letter.

The Vice-Chancellor of UCLan, Professor Graham Baldwin, highlighted the importance of the name change by saying that the description “central Lancashire” is outdated and not an accurate description of the geographical location, expressing that the name needs to “reflect the wider country”.

A spokesperson for Lancaster University said, “As a research-intensive globally-significant University, ranked in the top 150 in the world and in the top 15 in the UK, we play a very different role from UCLAN within the UK and internationally.” The University express strong opposition to this name change which they feel would be “very confusing” for students. 

Featured image via @officestudents on X.

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