A new study conducted by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has found that Lancaster University attracts more high calibre students from diverse cultural and economic backgrounds than any of its Russell Group peers.
To achieve this feat Lancaster University offers generous student bursaries and tuition and accommodation fee waivers for students from low-income backgrounds.
The University also provides places for more students from ethnic backgrounds than typical higher education institutions in a bid to “widen access, participation and progression” for students from state sponsored schools.
Speaking to the University press office Vice-Chancellor Mark E. Smith detailed how “Lancaster has long been the choice of bright students coming from state schools who want to study at one of the UK’s best universities. Lancaster is the highest ranked university in the North West in UK league tables.”
With an outstanding 93 percent of graduates going into full time employment or further study within six months of completing their undergraduate studies, Smith believes that “everyone with the potential to benefit from higher education should have the opportunity to do so, whatever their background”.
Lancaster University has also been featured in the top 10 of the 2014 Times Higher Education world top 100 universities under 50 rankings and is currently ranked as the 11th best university in the UK.
Phil Baty, editor of the Times Higher Education Rankings, said: “The academy’s traditional, ancient elite should be warned – many of the exciting young universities on this forward-looking list do not see their youth as a disadvantage in the global knowledge economy.
“While they may not have had centuries to accumulate wealth and cannot draw on generations of alumni and rich traditions of scholarship to drive their reputations, they are free from the burdens of history: free to be more agile, lean, flexible and risk-taking, giving them an advantage in a rapidly changing global marketplace; free to offer innovative teaching and focus their research on niche, high-impact areas.”
