Middle East Collaborative UCLAN Deal

Jan, 28 2016

~It’s fair to say the middle east have had their share of negative reports over the past few years. In a political and warfare sense, it’s not seen the best of times. Thankfully though, there is an opportunity for young people living there to enrich, educate and experience new courses as part of a new scheme in collaboration with UCLAN ( The University of Central Lancashire )

A multi million pound deal has been signed which will provide courses in Oman and Qatar during the next five years. UCLAN will profit £6.5 million and it’s reported that UCLAN is also branching out into Qatar to deliver fire safety engineering management courses.

UCLAN students will also have the chance to see the Middle East buildings.

Pro Chancellor and Chair of the University Board David Taylor, who led the visits to Qatar and Oman to agree the deals, expresses how it will impact the students and how they can advance from their learning schedule,

“These initiatives will result in enormous benefits for students. For instance, they’ll have access to world-class facilities, they’ll be taught by academic staff with wide ranging industrial experience and they’ll benefit from collaborative research which will feed into the teaching curriculum.”

UCLAN will authorize full approval of the deal which sees a staggering £302 million sum total gone into the building of the Ras Laffan emergency and safety college.

Two years ago Preston’s UCLAN lost £3.2 million in the wake of the collapse of it’s Thailand campus. In 2016, however it appears to be bouncing back. This new middle east initiative could see a rise in foreign students graduating and in top jobs over a five to ten year period.

David Taylor gives a glowing overview of what’s in store for middle east students,

“The programmes will generate graduates who are highly trained and highly employable, both vocationally and academically, ready to apply their skills to national and global challenges.”

This is a major coup for UCLAN. Having already lost to Thailand, Cyprus and Sri Lanka over deals abroad, the Middle East deal needs the assurance that it can and will work. With previous losses there needs to be something in this deal which can make it sustainable and provide  continued growth for the future of young people abroad and the competence and drive UCLAN can create back home in Preston, Lancashire.