A university has provoked a row with its neighbour by proposing to delete the word “Central” from its name.
The University of Central Lancashire has submitted an application to change its name to the “University of Lancashire”, and a consultation on the switch has now been launched by the English regulator, the Office for Students (OfS).
But Lancaster University has already said that it will object to the moniker, claiming that it would be “very confusing” for students – not least since its own official title is “The University of Lancaster”.
“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,” Andy Schofield, Lancaster’s vice-chancellor, told Times Higher Education.
