Double award success for UCLan

The University of Central Lancashire is celebrating winning in two categories at the Educate North Awards 2024.

At what is the tenth time the award ceremony has been held, the university scooped first place trophies in the Campaign of the Year and sustainable Green Initiative categories.

The University of Central Lancashire’s winning campaign ‘When it feels wrong, it’s wrong’ highlighted unhealthy relationships and was created to help UK and international students identify when a behaviour or relationship is unhealthy.

Director of Communications at the University of Central Lancashire Ginette Unsworth said: “We wanted to empower victims to seek help and highlight the university’s student support services. This invaluable support includes counselling, drop-in sessions, and wellbeing resources that aim to help our students develop resilience and deal with difficult personal and study-based situations.

“The primary audience was victims of harmful behaviours. However, secondary audiences included bystanders as well as the perpetrators themselves who may recognise the harmful nature of their own behaviour and look to change.”

The University of Central Lancashire’s Grenfell-Baines Institute of Architecture took home the trophy for the sustainable green initiative project ‘Wash Your Words’.

Managed and delivered by academics Lee Ivett and Ecaterina Stefanescu, with arts organisation LeftCoast working with Blackpool Council and Blackpool Coast, the project has created a flexible space for the residents of the Mereside social housing estate in Blackpool by combining a library and laundry room.

Lecturer in Architecture Ecaterina Stefanescu said: “What we’ve created is a playful but functional overlap between library, art workshops and laundry for the local community. Since completion of the project the new amenity receives over 120 users each week.”

Deputy Associate Dean and Academic Lead for Architecture and Construction Lee Ivett added: “The project has also empowered the community by encouraging active participation in the sustainable construction of a place for them. It has also encouraged neighbourhood resilience in a marginalised area in one of our local communities.

“Working with local people was also a more sustainable way of building local architecture, as it reduced the demand on external contractors and suppliers whilst creating new opportunities for the local community to gain new skills, new knowledge and access to cutting edge technology at the University of Central Lancashire.”

The University of Central Lancashire was shortlisted for six Educate North Awards, which celebrate, recognise, and share best practice and excellence in the education sector from across the North.

The event, which took place in Manchester on Thursday 18 April, continues to attract more than 400 education professionals from Further and Higher Education institutions from across northern England.