Lancaster University

Powered by Lancaster University Management School, CETAD provides high quality education for practising managers and professionals; locally, nationally and globally. We excel in Management Learning as well as in Business and Management Research so you will benefit from innovative, distinctive learning methods as well as leading-edge thinking.

Our teaching teams include practitioners and academics, ensuring you gain practical outcomes that are relevant to you. We work across all sectors from aspiring leaders to top teams, and if there isn't a programme that suits your requirements we work in partnership to co-design programmes, providing tailored solutions to meet your specific needs.

The Accounting and Finance Department at Lancaster have a 20 year reputation for producing world-leading research, and are recognised for excellence in both research and teaching. The department is made up of a diverse group of internationally-renowned scholars who specialise in key areas including accounting and bank regulation, corporate finance, financial econometrics and many more.

The quality of teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate level is an essential element of the success. The programmes are highly ranked amongst the best in the world, and The Higher Education Funding Council for England and its predecessors have consistently ranked the Department in the highest research quality category, corresponding to research of international excellence. Every year, the Department hosts about 20 seminars with leading researchers from around the world and there is an active visitors programme.

The Chemistry Department at Lancaster is a vibrant community conducting research which transcends traditional discipline boundaries, for example, linking with biology, medicine, engineering, energy, materials, environmental sciences and physics.

Staff have interests spanning many areas of both fundamental and technological interest. Perhaps most importantly, the department share common ground in research excellence, an inclusive and collaborative spirit and a dedication to passing on knowledge to a new generation of researchers. Research impact of all forms is an integral part of the research activity. The department aims to mix the very best in chemical research with industrial partnerships to address real-world problems and generate solutions to grand challenges.

The department offer a number of funded PhD opportunities throughout the year, or you may have a particular project in mind that matches the expertise of our staff. Either way, studying for a research degree is a highly rewarding and challenging process.

The department provides a research environment that strongly supports the individual needs of each student, promoting a healthy work-life balance. It benefits from a significant investment from the University, and an extensive array of new laboratories, instrumentation and equipment to support ambitious research activity.

This includes:
- Solution state NMR spectrometers
- Mass spectrometers
- Microscopy and nanofabrication equipment
- Powder and single crystal XRD
- Time-resolved and X-ray fluorimeters
- SEM and TEM

With over 40 academic members from more than 15 countries, the Department of Economics has a strong research base that spans a wide range of theoretical and applied issues. Our research activities inform teaching, bringing the latest insights from the research frontier to all levels of education to continually update the content of our courses. Staff members within the Department have undertaken prominent research projects in a number of areas: education economics, labour economics, industrial organisation, international trade, macroeconomics, financial markets, economic development, political economy, and time-series econometrics. We are proud of our reputation and how these research activities lead to high quality teaching and personal attention to students at all stages of study.

The Department of Educational Research is a hub for rigorous and socially relevant research into education, across different levels and contexts. With collaborations, partnerships and projects in the UK, Europe, and beyond, the Department has an international outlook. This outlook is reflected in what we offer in our programmes and within our student body.

In the most recent Research Excellence Framework 2014, our department was ranked 6th most research-intensive Education Department in the UK, demonstrating our commitment and success in producing high quality research (Times Higher Education REF 2014: Subject Ranking on Intensity).

While you study with us online, you will be encouraged to contribute to all aspects of departmental life, including reading groups and departmental seminars. With the use of digital technologies we ensure that our online students, who are located in countries across the world, can participate in all departmental activities. As a result of this, we have a particularly strong community of people sharing their experiences and insight with one another. Many of our students continue to be part of our community beyond the completion of their programmes, contributing and engaging with our research centres as Alumni Members.

Our postgraduate taught programme aims to equip you with the skills required for further advanced study. If you graduate with a Merit or Distinction from our Masters programme you will automatically be eligible to receive an offer of a place on our Education and Social Justice PhD.

The Department produces world-class research and teaching in all major areas of literary study and creative writing, with particular strengths in: literature and location; Gothic literature and culture; literature and religion; creative writing; and critical creative fusions.

The following Distinguished Visiting Professors underpin the department's critical identity: world-famous literary critic, Terry Eagleton; 2017 winner of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, Paul Muldoon; and celebrated biographer and graphic novelist, Benoit Peeters.

There is a vibrant postgraduate community in the department. They host numerous reading groups, specialist conferences, research seminars and workshops with distinguished academics and visiting writers. The department holds their own literary festival, Lancaster Words, and have close links with the Lancaster Litfest and the Dukes Theatre.

The department is home to six journals, which span the literary field from medieval to contemporary literature. Our journals publish both critical and creative writing and feature work from all over the world by established and emergent scholars and writers. These journals present current students with the opportunity to have their own work published, and to engage with newly emerging work from early careers researchers.

As a department, we deliver outstanding work in the fields of entrepreneurship, strategic management, leadership and family business. Our strengths are drawn from close alignment of research, education and business support in these key academic fields and from the continuous 'real world' feedback received through interaction with the business community. This ensures that our activities are always up to date, focused and precisely matched to the needs of students, businesses and the wider community. A large number of Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EiRs), who regularly mentor and support our students, provide real life cases to inform learning

We also engage regularly with a wide range of businesses from small and medium enterprises to the largest multinationals. Our programmes are therefore based on cutting-edge research and deep engagement with management practices.

The Department of History is committed to excellence in teaching, research, and graduate career development.

We offer three MA programmes in History, International and Military History, and Digital Humanities, which allow you to gain knowledge and skills you need to develop professional expertise, pursue a research career, or explore your interest in history and related disciplines.

Through a range of core and optional modules and one-to-one supervision, you will be trained by experts in the field to handle primary sources, engage with key debates and build new arguments. You can also develop your research further through our programme of seminars, conferences and guest lectures. You will have the option to broaden your horizons by studying abroad for a term at one of our European partner universities. You can also complete a work placement in a school, or with one of our national and regional partners at a historical site, archive or museum. This will provide you with valuable hands-on experience in the heritage sector.

Our expertise ranges from Ancient Rome to the present day, across Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East, as well as the British Isles and the Lancaster region. Throughout the Department our experts work with archival sources, archaeological remains, artefacts and digital methods to develop new research in fields across history, heritage and the digital humanities.

Our department offers a distinctive approach to languages in the context of their related global cultures.

With students and staff from multiple language backgrounds, there are opportunities for you to engage with a truly global community in our department. Through work-in-progress seminars, skills seminars, and a variety of research and social events, we aim to create an enriching and enjoyable study experience.

Our academic staff have a broad range of specialist interests including the languages and cultures of France and the Francophone world, Germany and Austria, Spain and the Hispanic world as well as their relationship with English-speaking cultures globally.

As one of the largest Linguistics and English Language departments in the UK, we offer a wide range of postgraduate programmes. We pride ourselves on high quality teaching and our students have access to our research through our teaching. New ideas and developments in research feed directly into what you will learn on your programme.

For over 40 years we have been known internationally for innovative qualitative and quantitative research on language that advances both theory and practical applications. We have a state-of-the-art phonetics laboratory and cutting-edge eye-tracking and EEG equipment for psycholinguistic research. We are one of the world’s top centres for corpus linguistics and its applications and we are internationally known for our work in fields such as critical discourse analysis, language testing, literacy research and cognitive linguistics. More recently, we have developed our expertise in sociophonetics, forensic linguistics, business communication and intercultural communication.

We are committed to high quality teaching - we like our students to have access to our research through our courses. New ideas and developments feed directly into what our students learn. Some of our staff have received awards for teaching and we constantly strive to improve.

Management Science is the discipline of applying analytical and scientific methods to make better decisions in management. It is based on the latest thinking in analytics, data science, information systems, logistics and project management. It is a real-world discipline that has a focus on improving the complex systems and processes that underpin our daily lives. The Department of Management Science has one of the largest number of Operational Research and Systems teaching staff in the country, with an outstanding research and publishing record. With a worldwide reputation as an international centre of excellence, this department has a distinguished history of helping organisations solve real problems. Originally founded as the Department of Operational Research in 1964, the first of its type in Europe, the department has grown and evolved, so that it now also covers Operations Management, Information Systems and Business Analytics. The Department takes the lead in the Centre for Marketing Analytics and Forecasting, the Centre for Productivity and Efficiency and the Centre for Transport and Logistics. It is also a key partner in the Data Science Institute and STOR-i Centre for Doctoral Training.

We are the longest established Marketing department in the UK - the first chair was instituted in Lancaster in 1964 and was partly funded by the Institute of Marketing. We have a proud history of delivering Marketing courses, which have included a strong project component based on "real-world" company problems. Over the years, our expertise has grown into three key areas of research; consumer behaviour, business marketing and market studies. Our research makes important contributions to the business world and enhances our teaching.

Almost five decades of expertise and experience ensure Lancaster University’s Mathematics and Statistics Department provides an inspirational, unique learning experience and a great place to undertake research.

Built on firm foundations, the department has grown rapidly to become one of the UK's major centres in mathematics and statistics and has earned a well-deserved reputation for top-quality teaching excellence and world-class research.

Every year the department opens its doors to around 250 new students, making it one of the most popular in the country. Our teaching and research are rooted in the long history of our subject but also shaped by the latest developments to provide a dynamic and challenging learning and research environment.

We offer an extensive range of exciting and exacting programmes for both undergraduates and postgraduates, all of which are designed to push the boundaries and generate excellent results.

As one of the first departments of organisation studies to be established in the UK, we are known for the advancement and application of organisational and social theory. A succession of well-known academics have worked in the Department and many of our students, who have subsequently become influential figures in their own right, continue Lancaster traditions. As a multi-disciplinary department, we draw primarily on the disciplines of social psychology, sociology and philosophy. We research and teach within and across three main themes of organisation, work and technology. Empirical research has always been an important focus, conducted on the basis of strong theoretic foundations.

Our research is concentrated into the major research groupings of astrophysics, particle and accelerator physics, condensed matter physics and theoretical physics. Substantial backing from a range of funding bodies supports the research. We have numerous collaborations with overseas laboratories, as well as major European networks.

As a postgraduate student in our recently refurbished Physics Department you will have access to state-of-the-art facilities. Also you will be provided with opportunities for internships, training in transferable and research skills, and the technical training applicable to your research area.

The Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion (PPR) is an interdisciplinary department that combines research and teaching in politics, international relations, philosophy and religious studies. We attract and welcome students and scholars from around the world.

We offer taught programmes in each of our disciplines, whilst also offering a range of combined programmes that include elements of all our disciplines. Wherever possible we will work with you to support your developing interests and will provide guidance to identify the most appropriate combinations of modules to further your personal development. In addition we also provide one-to-one supervision for independent study projects and offer special subject courses that draw from our research activities.

We have a strong, distinctive and exciting research culture. Our interdisciplinary research brings together scholars who work within and across the subject areas of religious studies, philosophy, and politics and international relations. Our areas of research are often linked to organisations outside of higher education, with colleagues in all areas conducting research that contributes to the reshaping and enhancement of policy and practice in active and tangible ways.

PPR staff and postgraduate students speak and take part in academic meetings and conferences in the UK, Europe and around the world.

We pride ourselves on our lively, inclusive and intellectually active community. PPR staff and students take part in research and reading groups, discussion panels and workshops, and a multidisciplinary departmental seminar series that brings scholars from all over the world to Lancaster.

The Psychology Department at Lancaster is proud to be a welcoming community of teachers that conduct research that is internationally recognised for its excellence. Globally important funders, including international and national agencies such as the Leverhulme Trust, UK research councils, and the National Institutes of Health, support the work of our academic staff. We are home to one of the largest developmental research centres in the world. Our researchers in the fields of language and cognition, perception and action, and social processes work in partnership with charities, governmental institutions and the research councils to address critical questions, and to develop commercial applications or practical solutions for challenges in psychology.

What you learn as a student in Psychology, will be based on the latest research as our teaching staff include many internationally recognised experts. You will develop research methods skills and have access to an excellent suite of technical facilities and cutting-edge software. Students on the MSc Psychology of Advertising will benefit from partnerships with dynamic companies working in the advertising and marketing sectors. Students focused on developmental psychology and developmental disorders will be taught by an internationally respected group of experts in development. We are proud to offer helpful advice and individual attention throughout your studies.

Lancaster's Sociology department is a research-intensive department that foregrounds critical and active engagement with contemporary real-world problems.

We seek to develop and sustain research that is original, significant and rigorous, while also fostering interdisciplinary, supportive research communities from which this work can grow. This includes our diverse group of research centres, which bring together staff and students from across the University and the world through their research and events.

We also offer a research student training programme at MA and PhD level, which is supported by seminars, workshops, writing retreats, reading groups and social events. Our students are funded from a variety of sources including the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and government scholarships worldwide.

The Department plays a key role in research collaborations at Lancaster with particular concentrations in science and technology studies, gender and women's studies, mobilities, media and cultural studies, political sociology, children and young people, and disability. We place a high priority on good relationships between students and their lecturers/supervisors, and we welcome any applications that match our teaching and research portfolio.

Our research focuses on the study of the biological aspects of human health and disease, using state-of -the-art experimental approaches. This includes the use of biochemical and cellular approaches and complementary studies in model organisms. Sources of funding for our research include UK research councils (eg BBSRC, MRC, ESRC), charities (eg Wellcome Trust, North West Cancer Research, Alzheimer's Society) and industry (eg GSK, Renshaw, Novartis).

You will also benefit from our links with NHS Trusts and our excellent teaching and research facilities including our £4.4m life science laboratories.

Our expertise contributes to improved health, wellbeing and safety for individuals. We enhance the skills of a wide range of people, both lay and professional, in providing services. This enhances human capital for individuals, organisations and services in the public and private sectors.

We provide an authoritative voice in research and education. We are valued globally, nationally and regionally for the quality and policy/practice relevance of our research, education and training and for our contribution to knowledge exchange. This improves service provision and care through better-prepared professionals, practitioners, policymakers and health researchers.

Members of the Division of Health Research come from a wide range of academic disciplines and professional backgrounds. We have a well-established reputation for conducting excellent academic research that is both interdisciplinary and translational.

Research groups in the Division work closely with our colleagues in the rest of the Faculty of Health and Medicine on the Faculty’s core interdisciplinary research themes: Ageing, Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Cancer, Infectious Diseases, Mental Health and Public Health.

Our research is focused in three of these main themes, within which a number of research centres and groups are located:

Ageing and end of life care
Mental health and wellbeing
Public health and health equity
The Division has good relationships with NHS and social care partners and the voluntary sector. We also host the regional and local centres for the NIHR Research Design Service for the North West.

The Engineering Department is a vibrant, world-leading research institution, where research-led teaching is offered in a great collaborative environment.

We are consistently highly ranked in the UK league tables. In the 2019 QS World University Rankings we are 6th in the UK and joint 92nd in the world for citations per paper in the Engineering and Technology category.


Our flagship building provides a stimulating and exciting environment with newly designed teaching laboratories, advanced research laboratories, and a continuously growing provision of state-of-the-art equipment.

An ambitious multi-million pound expansion plan is in progress including a new building with more than 2,500m2 of new cutting-edge laboratories to offer the most engaging and advanced learning experience to our students in electrical and electronics, mechanical and chemical engineering and to foster new research achievements.

We have recruited more than 20 academics from top, worldwide institutions in the past three years to further raise our international profile and offer a broad range of expertise for new exciting projects to our students.

We have a broad network of industrial collaborations to provide our students with placements and industry focused projects. We offer Masters and research-based courses, doctoral training and short courses for continuing professional development.

Lancaster's Graduate School for the Environment harnesses the power of three of the world's foremost research organisations to give students the best possible chance of enjoying productive, impactful and influential careers.

Our students are valued members of a stimulating international community of researchers that have a diverse range of backgrounds, interests and specialisms.

Students at the Graduate School benefit from the expert knowledge and experience of world-leading staff from Lancaster Environment Centre, Rothamsted Research and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. Together this amounts to a support framework of unparalleled breadth and depth. That way we can create the next generation of experts, ready to play their part in addressing the many environmental challenges that face the world at the regional, national and international level.

We are home to environmental consultancies and the Environment Agency, and as one of our students, this means that you will enjoy access and exposure to potential employers from day one.

You can enrol on one of our popular Masters degrees, where the breadth of optional modules makes studying with us a tailored experience. Or you can help design a Masters by Research programme specifically to suit your interests.

We are committed to contemporary practice and critical thinking in the arts and have a thriving interdisciplinary research culture that is strengthened by our outstanding creative industry connections.

The most recent Research Excellence Framework assessment (REF 2014) placed Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts joint 7th in the UK for our research environment with 82% of our research classed as world (4*) or internationally (3*) leading.

Our ambition is to support traditional modes of scholarship whilst also fostering informed, creative and intelligent practitioners. Our facilities include performance and acoustic labs, public event and installation spaces, workshops and fine art and design studios. We also work with the art, craft and archive collections of the Ruskin Museum of the Near Future and the Peter Scott Gallery, providing additional opportunities for advanced enquiry.

Lancaster Medical School wants future healthcare to be aligned with the backgrounds and needs of the communities it serves. This means not only striving for excellence in research and academic standards, but also examining the factors that contribute to positive health for everyone.

As a young medical school in a high-ranking, forward-looking university, Lancaster has the autonomy to focus on the unfolding health needs of the population at the local, national and global level. As an active force in the medical network of North West England, we are passionate about inspiring future generations to address health inequalities.

We are justly proud of the community we have created within the Medical School. As a team we nurture talent to bring out the full potential of our students.

The school sits within Lancaster University's Faculty of Health and Medicine, and our courses make the most of the wide range of expertise within the Faculty in order to deliver excellent and stimulating teaching in a variety of disciplines. In the most recent Research Excellence Framework Exercise (2014), 89% of the Faculty's research was rated as world-leading or internationally excellent, with its research environment ranked joint first in the UK.

Our school is one of the leading law schools in the United Kingdom, with over 80% of our research rated as internationally excellent or world leading, we are also ranked 11th in REF 2014 for research intensity (Times Higher Education REF 2014: Subject Ranking on Intensity).

Our research addresses doctrinal, theoretical and interdisciplinary research themes, and is focused in four research centres: Centre for International Law and Human Rights; Centre for Law and Society; Centre for Crime, Law and Justice; and Centre for Child and Family Justice Research.

We have a thriving postgraduate portfolio, which is characterised by its multidisciplinary approach to the study of law and of criminology. Our students explore law and criminology in the light of current developments, in a learning environment where postgraduates and academics can work in an informal atmosphere conducive to open debate. Our staff bring their research to the classroom environment, ensuring that our curriculum is regularly refreshed and current.

Led by the academic expertise of our departments, our postgraduate programmes provide the next step in your studies. Gain a powerful mix of contemporary theory and insightful lessons from the real world to help you deepen your knowledge and develop your understanding. Whether you choose a taught Masters programme, or a research degree, you will discover a welcoming and supportive atmosphere, excellent resources, high quality teaching and dedicated career guidance to help you achieve your ambitions.

We offer Masters Programmes in Computer Science, Data Science and Cyber Security (NCSC-certified). Our ethos is to combine our research excellence with practical, experimental approaches to equip you with the knowledge and skills to achieve your career aspirations.

You will benefit from high quality teaching delivered by globally recognised academics, state-of-the-art facilities including dedicated 24-hour teaching laboratories, individual supervision, and mentoring by academic staff. Our aim is to help you discover the fascinating and wide-ranging skills and knowledge needed to unlock your potential.

Each Masters course provides you with the opportunity to work with one of the many businesses that we have established partnerships with, to help enhance your career prospects upon graduation.

Our research shares a strong engineering ethos that emphasises an understanding of real-world challenges and focuses on the developments and experimental evaluation of systems. We are actively engaged in interdisciplinary research in areas ranging from signal processing and wireless networking to innovative user interaction, software engineering, cyber security, natural language processing and data science.

In addition we believe in conducting research in partnership with end users and industry. We have projects in many areas including health transport; energy management; online security, crime fighting, counter terrorism; environmental informatics, emergency response and computing for energy conservation.