A UNIVERSITY boss has defended the institution after it slipped to 88th in the country, according to a new league table.

The University of Central Lancashire, which was ranked 71st in the UK in 2012, dropped 17 places in this year’s The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide.

Despite spending the second highest amount on facilities per student in the north west at £1,730, the university has the second worst graduate prospects in the region with 54.6 per cent of students finding professional jobs or further graduate-level study, according to the guide.

However, UCLan did receive the sixth best student satisfaction rate, at 81.2 per cent, which is higher than the University of Manchester and the University of Bolton.

Deputy vice-chancellor, Professor Dave Phoenix, said: “While our overall position in this league table is disappointing, there are elements that reflect positively on our focus to provide an excellent student experience.

“We continue to make significant investments into state-of-the-art buildings, research facilities and vocational course areas such as architecture, medicine and engineering.

“Our library, which is open 24/7, has been completely redesigned and refurbished with key input from students.

“However we recognise that the current economic conditions continue to make it challenging for anyone to find suitable employment.

“We do receive excellent feedback from employers on the quality of our graduates and the investments we continue to make in facilities are already helping our students to fulfil their career ambitions.

“Encouraging enterprise and entrepreneurialism among students is something else in which we have invested heavily.

“Many of our graduates start up their own businesses with the help of UCLan and in the last 12 months alone the university supported the launch of 191 of these ventures - the second highest in the UK.”