The University received the Office of Students’ maximum funding amount, to invest in facilities for vet and medical students.
The University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) is delighted to have received the maximum funding allocation of £5.8m from the Office of Students (OfS), after a successful bidding process.
UCLan is one of only a quarter of higher education providers to successfully win the full funding amount; the OfS received more than 200 bids for its Capital funding, of which 100 were successful. But just 47 bids were then granted the maximum amount funding per provider – and we were one of those chosen to receive the full £5.8m.
The OfS funding, which covers a three-year period up until the end of March 2025, marks UCLan’s third successful bid for the funding, receiving the maximum allocation on each occasion. These successes are allowing us to build real drive in the development of key areas of the University for our students: the new veterinary school, the School of Dentistry, and nursing and midwifery.
For the new School of Veterinary Medicine, only the 11th vet school in the UK, the money will allow us to purchase a wide range of teaching and learning equipment, including ultrasounds machines; anatomical models, such as a whole horse skeleton; scrub sinks; 3D printers; and VR headsets. The equipment will compliment the University’s purpose-built veterinary school, which will be a one-of-a-kind facility in Lancashire upon completion in the next few years.
"With three funding awards in a row, there’s now real momentum behind the improvements we want to make, and we’re continuing to enhance the facilities and equipment we provide to our students at UCLan."
— A UCLan spokesperson
Elsewhere, for the School of Dentistry, the OfS funding will allow us to expand our current facilities for students, doubling our dentistry teaching bays from eight to 16. The money will cover a full strip-out, extension and refurbishment of the current area, and mean we can purchase eight new patient dental chairs.
And for nursing and midwifery students, the clinical skills spaces within the University will be enhanced, to ensure simulation-based learning opportunities are as close to real-world contemporary practice as possible. The funding will be invested in extending the current Midwifery lab and partition, creating a fully functioning operating theatre and post-op recovery setting; and building a new Midwifery birthing suite.
A spokesperson for the University said:
“We’re really pleased to have once again secured this competitive funding, which enables us to keep building on the benefits that have flowed from previous successful bids.
“With three funding awards in a row, there’s now real momentum behind the improvements we want to make, and we’re continuing to enhance the facilities and equipment we provide to our students at UCLan. Our focus is very much on providing high-quality, authentic, and real-world learning, and we look forward to seeing our students benefit from this latest investment.”