The Northern Consortium (NCUK) is an educational charity, owned by eleven universities in the north of England, which provides university preparation for international students as preparation for study outside of their home country. The Consortium was established in 1987 and has placed over 25,000 students into universities in the UK. NCUK will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2017.
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Owner universities
The Northern Consortium was founded by the following universities who still constitute the group's membership:
Note: NCUK’s original membership of 12 institutions was reduced to 11 by the merger in 2004 of UMIST and the Victoria University of Manchester
In addition to its owning universities NCUK’s qualifications are recognised by a range of other institutions in the England and the UK. NCUK also works with universities in Ireland/Northern Ireland and Australia.
NCUK has increased its group of partner universities in the United Kingdom to include:
Malaysia project
The Consortium was initially established by the international offices of 12 universities in 1987 who collaborated to design and deliver a split degree programme for Malaysian government-sponsored students. Programmes were developed which aided the Malaysian economy – engineering, computing, pharmacy and business – and delivered as ‘transfer’ programmes. Students studied a first year in Malaysia before transferring to one of NCUK’s founding universities, or to another UK institution.
Over 6,000 students progressed through the programmes and into UK institutions over the 10 years of the project, saving the Malaysian government significant costs in their sponsorship budget.
NCUK today
NCUK currently works in 13 countries around the world – China, India, Pakistan, Japan, Kenya, Nigeria, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Russia, Ireland, Colombia, Malta and the UK – to deliver its programmes in local centres, and facilitate students’ progression into its partner universities.
The group guarantees all students who pass one of its programmes a place on a suitable course at one of its owner universities, who are also closely involved in the quality assurance and scrutiny of its programmes. There are over 4,000 programmes for students to choose from and over 25,000 students have been placed in universities in the UK and around the world.
NCUK is based in Manchester in the UK.
In 2015 NCUK, Corporation Pop produced "Success", a game for Facebook and Sina Weibo, described by Corporation Pop's Managing Director as "a simple to play, yet addictive game that shows players how a NCUK programme can be an effective route into a leading UK university".
In Pakistan NCUK has appointed 400 "student ambassadors" from more than 50 educational institutions.