Tag Archives: UCLAN

LETTERS

Dear subtext,

On the ‘There’s only one University in Lancashire’ thread.

I do applaud UCLAN’s short sightedness on changing their name and as a Lancs Poly graduate I well remember the arguments raging amongst staff about naming. I recall the favourite at the time amongst chattering classes was University of Central Lancashire at Preston which was dropped when they realised it would be UCLaP. Perhaps that should be one of their options?

As a former employee: I should also point out there is a third University in Lancashire, the University of Cumbria, which whilst headquartered in Cumbria retains its largest campus in our County. It also retains a campus in East London for Policing and PGCE training, which amused me most when you heard the red buses halt just a few yards up the road and announce they had arrived at ‘University of Cumbria’ causing some confusion in the initial days. I know HS2 will be fast, but not that fast.

Peter Hurst

ISS

***

Dear subtext,

Your item about the current proposals for the re-naming of the University of Central Lancashire is a replay of a debate from 1991, when Preston Polytechnic was about to become a university and proposed to the Privy Council that it should be called the University of Lancashire. Harry Hanham, robustly supported by the Senate and the Council, lost no time in pointing out the exceptional level of confusion, not to the advantage of the University of Lancaster, that would follow and the proposal was rejected. It is concerning that the issue should be raised again so soon, and with an identical proposal.

Marion McClintock

***

Dear subtext,

Small addition to the subtext point about lower case signage; the letters on the wall of the ‘postgraduate statistics centre’ have been all lower case since it was built (10 or 15 or so years ago I think).

Tom Palmer

Mathematics & Statistics

***

Dear subtext,

This should perhaps be linked for all law students and faculty as a follow up to your best headline ever:

Jay-Z’s 99 Problems, verse 2: a close reading with Fourth Amendment guidance for cops and perps

http://pdf.textfiles.com/academics/lj56-2_mason_article.pdf

Steve Wright

FHM

THERE’S ONLY ONE UNIVERSITY IN LANCASHIRE

News reaches subtext that the University of Central Lancashire is formally consulting key stakeholders on a proposal to amend its name – specifically, to drop the word ‘Central’ so it would become the University of Lancashire.

Well, we can’t see anyone objecting to that, can we? Oh, hang on…

UCLan has a long history, dating back to 1828. It was known variously as the Institution for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, the Harris Institute, Preston Polytechnic and, between 1984 and 1992, Lancashire Polytechnic. The letter to stakeholders notes that, ‘the institution was known as the Lancashire Polytechnic for many years and we still attract the great majority of our students from the county and surrounding areas.’ The university would like to implement the change during 2018, as part of its 190th birthday celebrations.

Meanwhile, in the Lancaster Red corner, Her Majesty granted our charter in July 1964, agreeing that, ‘We should constitute and found a University within Our City and County Palatine and Duchy of Lancaster for the advancement and diffusion of learning and knowledge.’ Quite so! Hence the two Lancashire Roses on our coat of arms. (Before alert readers point out that UClan also has two roses, ours were first and with Royal sanction).

UCLan’s consultation letter doesn’t address the possibility that students and collaborators might confuse it with us, but ‘the University of Lancashire’ is nothing if not a bold statement of intent. When it was Lancashire Polytechnic, the word ‘Polytechnic’ made things pretty clear, but is the Privy Council really going to agree to a situation where the University of Lancaster is operating 30 minutes away from another university that shares over 80% of the letters in its name? One wonders what Ms Ranvir Singh, Lancaster alumna and honorary Doctor, and current UCLan Chancellor, makes of all this.

The deadline for consultation responses is 5th February. We await the inevitable diplomatic manoeuvrings with interest.