By Mark Baber
October 26 – The University College of Football Business (UCFB) has announced that it is setting up a new campus at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, adding to its existing facilities at Wembley Stadium and Turf Moor.
The new campus marks a period of rapid growth for the UCFB which first opened in 2011 in Burnley, opened in Wembley in 2015 and earlier this week agreed a partnership arrangement with the Real Madrid Graduate School.
Brendan Flood, Chairman and Co-Founder of UCFB, commented on the opening, saying: “The UCFB Etihad Campus is a very exciting development for us and gives our students the opportunity to study right at the heart of the most progressive sporting facility in the world.
“We are also aware that locating our campus in the heart of this community will support the football club and Manchester City Council with their long-term legacy and social mobility goals as well as providing economic benefits for local people and local businesses. I am convinced that our already internationally recognised faculty will benefit from the global profile the Etihad Campus has already developed.”
Professor Philip Wilson, Provost and Chief Executive and Co-Founder of UCFB, said: “This is truly a landmark moment for the development of UCFB and also for higher education in this country. This momentous addition for UCFB reiterates our standing as the world leader in higher education for the football and sport industries.
“Our expansion to the Etihad Campus will provide UCFB with highly advanced, world-leading facilities that epitomise the football club’s professionalism and winning mentality in the business of football.”
According to the UCFB, 90% its first two groups of graduates are currently in full-term employment with 2/3 of these having found work within the sports industry. Part of the reason for this success, according to Professor Wilson, is that the students have an “unrivalled access to placements and work experience opportunities with leading sports organisations throughout each of UCFB’s degree programmes.”
The opening of the new campus was also welcomed by Sir Richard Leese, CBE, Leader of Manchester City Council, who said, “The launch of the UCFB Etihad Campus will further strengthen Manchester’s proud history of higher education institutions in the city. UCFB’s arrival in Manchester will inspire more of our young people to continue into higher education and give them even greater choice of courses and locations to study.
“In particular, the arrival of a higher education establishment to the Etihad Campus is a clear signal of the continued positive effect on regeneration that our partnership with the football club is having on the area.”
The first group of students is expected in September 2016, with the college investing £5m in the city and expecting up to 3,000 students and the creation of 350 new jobs over the next five years.
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