It could attract millions of pounds of new funding after notching up world class praise for its research.

The Preston-based university was applauded in the Higher Education Funding Council for England's Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), published today.

Lancaster University is also celebrating after three of its research areas were ranked top in the country.

UCLan is ranked above Oxford University for linguistics research.

University bosses are hoping this will bring them in extra cash, although they will have to wait until March to find out just how much.

The RAE data will be used to allocate more than £1.5bn in funding to universities each year from 2009-10.

Not all universities take part, but UCLan submitted to 17 Units of Assessment and all were rated as containing research which is regarded as internationally excellent.

Eleven of the subject areas contain research which is now regarded as world-leading.

In the last RAE in 2001, UCLan attained evidence of international excellence in three areas.

UCLan's vice chancellor Malcolm McVicar said: "We are delighted that the RAE 2008 results confirm there is research of world-leading excellence and international importance in terms of originality, significance and rigour being carried out at UCLan."

Professor Patrick McGhee, deputy vice-chancellor (academic) added: "This is good news for Preston and for UCLan – we anticipate that our excellent results will attract even more internationally outstanding academics to the city.

"This puts UCLan and the city on the UK research map."

He said: "Research is extremely important strategically for UCLan, in its own right and because it is a key driver of teaching and academic enterprise.

"The RAE is an important benchmark of our research quality and is the means by which vital funding for research is determined."

Lancaster University is already one of the country's leading research centres and in the latest assessment was ranked 10th in the country overall for research quality.

Overall, Lancaster submitted 90% of staff as "research active", which is way above the national norm.

It is considered internationally excellent and top in UK for physics, joint first in the UK for design, art, music and theatre and joint first for bio-medicine.

Pro vice-chancellor Professor Trevor McMillan said that the results were a tribute to Lancaster's talented academics and research team.

He said: "Lancaster can go forward with strong confidence that its reputation for research excellence has been sustained."

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