300 acres (120 ha) at Bailrigg, 4 km (2.5 miles) to the south of the city. The campus buildings are arranged around a central walkway known as the Spine, which is connected to a central plaza, named Alexandra Square in honour of its first chancellor, Princess Alexandra.
Lancaster is a residential collegiate university; the colleges are weakly autonomous. The eight undergraduate colleges are named after places in the historic county of Lancashire, and each has its own campus residence blocks, common rooms, administrative staff and bars.
Lancaster has ranked in the top fifteen in all three UK national league tables for the past 10 years, and received a Gold rating in the Government's 2017 and 2023 Teaching Excellence Framework. The annual income of the institution for 2023/24 was £401.7 million of which £48.5 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £290.7 million.
Lancaster is a member of the N8 Group of research universities, which also includes the universities of Durham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and York. Since 2015, Alan Milburn has been the university's chancellor.
== History ==
Between 1958 and 1961 seven new plate glass universities were announced, including Lancaster. The choice of Lancaster as the site of the fourth new university was announced on 23 November 1961.
The university was established by royal charter in 1964. The charter stipulated that Princess Alexandra of Kent be the first chancellor. She was inaugurated in 1964. The ceremony also saw the granting of various honorary degrees to dignitaries including the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson.
Princess Alexandra retired as chancellor in 2004 and was at that time the longest serving chancellor of any British university. On her departure, she gave approval for the Chancellor's Medal to be awarded for academic merit to the highest-performing undergraduates and postgraduates. Each year presentations are made to up to five graduates of taught masters' courses and up to six to the highest-performing …
