Undergrads must be cornerstone of new Ambleside strategy says Farron

South Lakeland MP, Tim Farron has responded to the University of Cumbria's strategy for the Ambleside campus by demanding that full time undergraduate students are the corner stone of any new strategy.

Pro-vice Chancellor Liz Beaty had told the Ambleside Campus Community Liaison Group the campus would be reduced to just under 100 second and third year outdoor undergraduates from September.

During a conversation with the interim Vice-Chancellor, Professor Graham Upton, Mr Farron stressed the importance of ensuring that full time undergraduate students remain central to any new strategy for the Ambleside Campus.

Commenting Mr Farron said;

"The University of Cumbria has announced their strategy for the Ambleside Campus, yet bizarrely amongst all the references to American academics, renting out buildings and selling off land there's hardly any mention about the importance of full time undergraduate students.

"Without an undergraduate population of at least 400, the campus will not attract sufficient interest to make a profit, nor will it be able to contribute to the local economy

"In these difficult times financially, 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. That's why it's essential that full time undergraduate students are the corner stone of any new strategy."