The University of Cumbria is a

public university A public university or public college is a university or college that is in owned by the state or receives significant public funds through a national or subnational government, as opposed to a private university. Whether a national universit ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

, with its headquarters in

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern England, Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, Eden, River C ...

and other major campuses in Lancaster,

Ambleside Ambleside is a town and former civil parish, now in the parish of Lakes, Cumbria, Lakes, in Cumbria, in North West England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Westmorland, it marks the head (and sits on the east side of the northern ...

, and

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. It has roots extending back to the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts, established in 1822, and the teacher training college established by

Charlotte Mason Charlotte Maria Shaw Mason (1 January 1842 – 16 January 1923) was a British educator and reformer in England at the turn of the twentieth century. She proposed to base the education of children upon a wide and liberal curriculum. She was ins ...

in the 1890s. It opened its doors in 2007 as a university.

History

The University of Cumbria was formed from the merger of St Martin's College, Lancaster, the

Cumbria Institute of the Arts The Cumbria Institute of the Arts was a further and higher education institution in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. History Founded as the ''Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts'' in 1822, it proceeded as the ''Carlisle College of Art'', fro ...

(formerly Cumbria College of Art & Design), and the

n campuses of the

University of Central Lancashire , mottoeng = "From the Earth to the Sun" , established = as Institution for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledgere-established 1992 (University status granted) , type = Public , chancellor ...

on 1 August 2007, which ran degree programmes accredited by

Lancaster University Lancaster University (legally The University of Lancaster) is a public university, public research university in Lancaster, Lancashire, Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established in 1964 by royal charter, as one of several pla ...

and the

. To facilitate the change, St Martin's College applied for independent degree-awarding powers in March 2005, and was successful in July 2006, after nine months of scrutiny by the

Quality Assurance Agency The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) is the independent body that checks on standards and quality in UK higher education. It conducts quality assessment reviews, develops reference points and guidance for providers, and condu ...

. Official university status, albeit without a royal charter, was granted by the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

in January 2007. Authority to award research degrees was subsequently granted by the Privy Council in 2019.

Campuses

The university is based upon the findings of a report by

Sir Martin Harris Sir Martin Best Harris, (born 28 June 1944) is a British academic and former University Vice-Chancellor. Life and career He was born at Ruabon, Wales, the son of William Best Harris, afterwards City Librarian of Plymouth, and educated at Dev ...

. This plan envisaged a university based upon a "distributed learning network", so that teaching will take place both at the university's main campuses, and at colleges of

further education Further education (often abbreviated FE) in the United Kingdom and Ireland is education in addition to that received at secondary school, that is distinct from the higher education (HE) offered in universities and other academic institutions. I ...

around the

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

. This solved a problem for remote areas that did not previously have direct access to

higher education Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completi ...

. The headquarters of the university are in

. Its other major campuses are at

, Lancaster (formerly St Martin's College) and it has classrooms and open workspace in the "Energus" facility in Blackwood Road, Lillyhall,

Workington Workington is a coastal town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. The town was historically in Cumberland. At the 2011 census it had a population of 25,207. Loca ...

. The university previously also had sites in Penrith (formerly University of Central Lancashire in Cumbria and before that

Newton Rigg Agricultural College Newton Rigg College was an agricultural college near Penrith, Cumbria, Penrith, Cumbria, England, founded in 1896 as the Cumberland and Westmorland Farm School. From 2011 it was part of Askham Bryan College, which in 2020 announced that it woul ...

) and

. Newton Rigg has since been transferred to

Askham Bryan College Askham Bryan College is a specialist land-based college based in Askham Bryan, York, England. It also has centres in Newcastle, Middlesbrough, Saltaire and Wakefield. It was built in 1936, but not opened until after World War II as the Yorksh ...

and the Tower Hamlets provision has moved to East India Dock Road. Furness College in

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness. In 2023 the ...

has developed close links with the university and they share some facilities.

Carlisle campus, Fusehill Street

The site started its life as The Carlisle Union Workhouse in 1863. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, it became the

Carlisle City General Hospital The Carlisle City General Hospital was a health facility in Fusehill Street, Carlisle, Cumbria, England. It is a Grade II listed building. History The facility has its origins in the Carlisle Union Workhouse which was designed by Henry Lockwood ...

and served as such until it closed in 1999.

Carlisle campus, Brampton Road

The Brampton Road campus was formerly the Cumbria Institute of the Arts, founded in October 1822 as the "Society for the Encouragement of the Arts", later Carlisle Art College and College of Art and Design. The Brampton Road campus is now home to the university's Institute of the Arts, with over 1000 full-time arts students.

Lancaster campus, Bowerham Road

The site was formerly

Bowerham Barracks Bowerham Barracks was a military installation in Lancaster. History The barracks were built in the Fortress Gothic Revival Style between 1876 and 1880 on the former Bowerham Estate as the depot for the two battalions of the 4th (King's Own) Re ...

, the depot of the

King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster) The King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army. It served under various titles and fought in many wars and conflicts, including both the First and the Second World Wars, from 1680 to 1959. In 1959, the r ...

. In 1962 it became a teaching college. From the start, the college planned to teach degrees as well as Certificates of Education and pioneered the four year BA Hons with qualified teacher status. By 1966 the college was teaching PGCE students. The college then developed courses in nursing and later radiography, occupational health, social work and continuing professional development courses for health professionals. Strong relationships were forged with NHS trust training departments. The college developed further courses in humanities, arts and sport, and a mini building boom ensued in the late 1990s with the development of the Sports Centre, Humanities building, Hugh Pollard Lecture Theatre, as well as student accommodation.

Ambleside

On 1 December 2009, it was announced that the Ambleside campus would be "mothballed" at the end of July 2010, and would no longer take new undergraduate students. A protest was held on 1 December 2009 by the student body. This was in spite of support pledged from

Tim Farron Timothy James Farron (born 27 May 1970) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2015 to 2017. He has also served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Westmorland and Lonsdale since 2005, before which he worked ...

MP for the campus and its students. The timing of the closure had led many to believe that the decision had been made some time ago. In July 2011, the university announced a plan to reopen the campus and increase student numbers at the Ambleside campus and this began in 2014. Ambleside continues to host courses in outdoor studies, forestry, conservation business, leadership and sustainability.

Penrith

Degree programmes including Forestry, Conservation, Outdoor Studies, Outdoor Leadership and Applied Sciences were taught from the Penrith campus based at Newton Rigg. The National School of Forestry was set up here in the 1960s and has a long history of educating forest managers, which continues to the present day. Programmes moved to their new home in Ambleside in 2013 (Outdoors programmes) and 2014 (Forestry, Conservation, and Applied Sciences). Further education provision and assets of the Newton Rigg campus were transferred to

in March 2011, but the university continued to run higher education courses there for three years.

Workington

The university has space at the "Energus" facility in Blackwood Road, Lillyhall,

. The facility opened in June 2009 and was the university's first presence in West Cumbria.

Organisation and structure

Vice Chancellor Julie Mennell Previous vice-chancellors have included; * Chris Carr (Jan 2007-Apr 2009), * Peter McCaffery (July 2009-May 2010) and *

Graham Upton Graham Upton DL (born 30 April 1944) was Chair of the Board of Experience Oxfordshire from 2013 to 2017 having previously been Chair of the Board of Oxford Playhouse for 8 years. Born in Birmingham, he moved to, and was educated in, Australia, w ...

(May 2010-Jul 2011) * Peter Strike (Aug 2011-Jul 2016) The current vice-chancellor is

Julie Mennell Julie Mennell ( Sowerby; born 4 February 1970) is an English academic and former police officer who has been the vice chancellor of the University of Cumbria since 2016. Biography Mennell was born in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England, on ...

, formerly deputy vice-chancellor (development) of

University of Sunderland , mottoeng = Sweetly absorbing knowledge , established = 1901 - Sunderland Technical College1969 - Sunderland Polytechnic1992 - University of Sunderland (gained university status) , staff = , chancellor = Emeli ...

. At one stage the university had debts totalling £13,000,000 and in March 2010, it received a cash advance from

HEFCE The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom, which was responsible for the distribution of funding for higher education to universities and further education colleges in Engla ...

to enable it to pay staff. It has since pulled itself out of debt and is profitable. In 2022 the Manchester Employment Tribunal found the university to have unfairly dismissed and discriminated against a pregnant employee during the COVID-19 pandemic. The HR department was described by the tribunal as disorganised and described the failure to conduct a consultation during the redundancy situation as a wholesale failure.

Academic profile

The university has five specialist departmental areas that offer a range of flexible, multidisciplinary courses: * Institute of Business, Industry and Leadership * Institute of Health * Institute of the Arts * Institute of Education * Institute of Science, Natural Resources and Outdoor Studies The University of Cumbria provides education in Medical Imaging, Sports Development, Arts, Law, Education, Leadership and Economic Development, Conservation, Forestry, and the Uplands, and Mental Health and Wellbeing, among other subject areas.

Student life

The majority of University of Cumbria campuses have sports teams which represent them in the

British Universities and Colleges Sport British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) is the governing body for higher education sport in the United Kingdom. BUCS was formed in June 2008 following a merger of British Universities Sports Association (BUSA) and University College Sport ...

leagues. Teams include: Cricket, Netball, Football, Hockey, Rugby League, Rugby Union, Badminton and Pool. All teams play their home games on Wednesdays afternoons at various University's sport venues.

Notable alumni

Carlisle College of Art

Sheila Fell Sheila Fell (20 July 1931 – 15 December 1979) was an English artist. She was born at Aspatria, Cumberland in 1931. Although she lived in London for the greater part of her life, she devoted her career to painting the Cumberland landscape. Biog ...

enrolled at the Carlisle School of Art from 1947 to 1949 *

Margaret Harrison Margaret Harrison (born 1940 in Wakefield, Yorkshire, England) is an English feminist and artist whose work uses a variety of media and subject matter. Life and work Born in Yorkshire, when her father returned from the war, her family moved f ...

studied at the Carlisle College of Art from 1957 to 1961 *

Charlie Hunnam Charles Matthew Hunnam (; born 10 April 1980) is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as Pete Dunham in ''Green Street Hooligans'' (2005) and as Jax Teller in the FX series ''Sons of Anarchy'' (2008–2014). For the latter, he was ...

attended the Cumbria College of Art and Design to study performing arts *

Keith Tyson Keith Tyson (born Keith Thomas Bower,Keith Tyson

began a foundation course at Carlisle College of Art in 1989

Cumbria Institute of the Arts

Rikki Chamberlain Rikki David James Chamberlain (; born July 1973 in Aldershot, Hampshire, England) is a British actor best known for playing Samson in CITV's Captain Mack. Early life Chamberlain was born in the Louise Margaret Hospital on 30 July 1973. After ...

BA (Hons) in Performing Arts at Cumbria Institute of the Arts *

Helen Skelton Helen Elizabeth Skelton (born 19 July 1983) is an English television presenter and actress. She co-presented the BBC children's programme '' Blue Peter'' from 2008 until 2013, and since 2014 has been a presenter on ''Countryfile''. She also co- ...

graduated from Cumbria Institute of the Arts with a BA in Journalism

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:University Of Cumbria 2007 establishments in England Educational institutions established in 2007