Etihad Campus move for UCFB

UCFB, the higher education provider launched in Lancashire by property developer Brendan Flood, is to open its third campus at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester.

UCFB – which stands for University College of Football Business – already has sites at Burnley FC’s Turf Moor ground and at Wembley Stadium in London is investing £5m at the Etihad over the next three years.

The Manchester campus will see lectures and seminars delivered within the Etihad Stadium itself,  while up to 3,000 students will also be able to use the facilities at Manchester City’s new £200m training and player development facility the City Football Academy.

More than 350 staff will be employed at the new facility

UCFB was founded in 2011 and it opened its second campus at Wembley Stadium in 2014.  This week, UCFB agreed the UK’s first ever higher education partnership with the Real Madrid Graduate School, which will see UCFB postgraduate students spend time in Madrid as part of their degree programme.

Brendan Flood, chairman & Co-Founder of UCFB, said: “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.”

Prof Philip Wilson, provost, chief executive and co-founder of UCFB hailed the Manchester campus as a “landmark moment for the development of UCFB and also for higher education in this country.”

“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.”

Following the graduation of its first two classes of students, 90% of UCFB alumni are in full-time employment, with two in three of those graduates working within the sports industry.

Sir Richard Leese leader of Manchester City Council, welcomed the arrival of UCFB to Manchester. He 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.

“I welcome the arrival of the first class of UCFB students to the city in September 2016 and am certain that they will add a positive dynamic to Manchester’s thriving student population and world-class sporting scene.”

The announcement of the Etihad based UCFB comes just days after another groundbreaking partnership with Spanish giants Real Madrid.

The deal will see UCFB students to attend post-graduate degree courses from September to February in Manchester before spending February to June in Madrid, then returning to England to complete the academic year.

Deputy chief executive of Manchester Council Sara Todd said: “In terms of the City Council it is really important to have UCFB here.

“It is very much reinforcing our reputation as a global sporting city, which is important to us. And your vision and ambition very much aligns in terms of the global picture with our ambitions for the city.

“It will bring a talent pool that we couldn’t have dreamed of before. It will help us with inward investment and it will also generate graduates who are going to go on and set up their own businesses.

“The fact UCFB is partnering with this club is ideal because what we have seen it achieve here in East Manchester has been beyond our wildest dreams and demonstrates what the will, the ambition, the innovation  and a bit of Mancunian spirit, can help to deliver.”