The famous University of Central Lancashire was started from a small college called "Harris Technical College" in the early 20th century. In 1932 when lots of changes were made it was renamed and the name "Harris Art College” was given to it. Still later it became a polytechnic and then it was given the status of University. In 1992 it was named "The University of Central Lancashire".

The university has a sport site called "Preston Sports Arena" costing about multimillion pounds. This sports arena is located on Tom Benson Way and extends one mile from its entrance and covers 60 acres. It was officially opened in April 2000 and has many facilities like three grass rugby pitches, an eight-lane athletics track, six five-a-side all-weather pitches, four tennis/ netball courts, seven grass football pitches and floodlit Grass Master Disso football pitch.


There are four faculties in the university. They are the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Lancashire Business School, Health and Science and Technology and Journalism. "Tourism and Leisure Management", "Art and Fashion", and design are also taught in the university and are one of the most popular courses.

There are numerous international students in the faculty and the most popular course amongst them is the Languages and International Studies.





The famous alumni of the university are Victoria Derbyshire and Vera Lynn. Victoria Derbyshire is at present occupied as a performer on the BBC 5. She obtained her English degree in 1998 and joined 5 Live and performed as co-presenter of the Breakfast Show with J. Worricker. From 2004 she has been presenting The Morning show along with some other TV programs. Another famous alumnus is Vera Lynn, who became well- known during WWII.

Her well-known song, "We'll Meet Again" with its air of hope, became very popular among both the British and American soldiers. The University is very famous for international students and there are many international students in the campus.