THE University of Central Lancashire has been named as one of the top modern universities in the North West.

It was ranked 3rd in the UK hospitality, leisure, recreation and tourism, 12th in general engineering, 19th in communications and media studies and 19th in social policy in The Times Good University Guide for 2012.

It improved its ranking from equal 69th position to 61st out of 116 universities and broken into the list of top ten modern universities in the UK.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Dave Phoenix said: “This table once again confirms University of Central Lancashire as one of the North West’s leading Universities, as it has been for the last five years.

“We joined only 52 other UK Universities when we entered the QS World Rankings last year and this league table shows our continued improvement, as we move further up the UK tables.

“This latest table is in keeping with our aim to continually improve the overall experience for UCLan students within a highly applied, research informed environment.