Farron welcomes Minister's University concession and urges major rethink on Ambleside

Tim Farron has welcomed agreement from the Minister for Higher Education David Lammy MP to consider allowing the University of Cumbria to increase its income by £4million a year by recruiting an additional one thousand students.

After pressure from Tim Farron, students, residents of Ambleside and staff unions, the minister made the concession at a meeting this afternoon with the University's Vice Chancellor Professor Peter McCaffrey.

But this concession will mean absolutely nothing if the University can't recruit the additional students.

Tim said "We've worked hard to win this concession from the minister, but the University won't see a single penny of this money if it can't recruit the students. The University has one campus with the capacity to take an additional 1,500 students and which has the unique international reputation and pulling power to attract those extra students - that campus is Ambleside. The University must now tear up its plans to mothball Ambleside and instead agree to expand student numbers there. Otherwise it risks throwing away £4million that it desperately needs."

Tim has formally challenged the Vice Chancellor, the Univeristy Governing Body and its Academic Board to return all teacher education students to Ambleside and to ensure that most of the 1,000 additional student places are allocated to the famous Charlotte Mason College.