University of Cumbria

By ALASTAIR MCCALL, DAILY MAIL UNIVERSITY GUIDE EDITOR Published: 13:06, 12 August 2026 | Updated: 13:06, 12 August 2026 Your browser does not support iframes. Your browser does not support iframes. Cumbria is among the biggest providers of degree apprenticeships in the UK, with 2,300 currently enrolled - a number that is expected to rise further by September 2027. Programmes are many and varied, spanning professional forester to paramedic, digital user experience professional to youth worker. Apprenticeships form an important part of the university's mission in a region that is underserved for higher education. Its wider employment track record is among the best with more than 85% of graduates landing high-skilled jobs, according to the latest Graduate Outcomes survey. Cumbria is well aware of its strategic importance, proclaiming itself to be 'for and from Cumbria and our localities, rooted in and serving our communities, with people, place and partnership at our heart'. Applications for September 2025 admission hit a ten-year low, although student recruitment was up 10%. The opening of the Citadels campus in Carlisle in September 2028 will be a further boost for an institution with a true regional footprint. The £80m development is being largely bankrolled by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and is a cornerstone of the redevelopment of central Carlisle. There are further sites in Barrow-in-Furness (opened in September 2025 with a range of courses including options designed to serve the town's defence industry), Ambleside, Lancaster and London, the latter offering a suite of business, education and health programmes. A graduate-entry medical school - The Pears Cumbria School of Medicine - admitted its first students in September 2025. Developed in partnership with the world-class medical school of Imperial College London, and with substantial financial backing from the Pears Foundation, it is based in Carlisle. New degrees recruiting for September 2027 include accounting and finance, outdoor education and leadership, security intelligence and cyber, all offered with or without a foundation year. Your browser does not support iframes. At just over £500,000, spending on bursary and hardship support at Cumbria is lower than at many other institutions. A points-based system is used to allocate the fixed number of bursaries each year. The basic qualifying criterion for the bursary - worth £1,000 per year to full-time students and £500 to part-time ones - is to come from a home with an annual income of less than £25,000. Points are earned for the level of household income, being a care leaver, having a disability, and living in an area with a low rate of progression to higher education. Bursaries go to those with the highest number of points; a proportion of awards are reserved for students aged over 21 on entry. The Student Opportunity Fund has been created for those from low-income households to help them afford academic and extracurricular opportunities to gain them experience and enhance their employability. They can apply for up to £500 each academic year with 20 awards available annually. BAE Systems, Submarines in Barrow sponsor the Future Talent Award, worth up to £8,000 as a cash bursary, with the prospect of a 12-week paid work placement and a guaranteed interview. The scholarship is open to students on mechanical engineering (with or without a foundation year) and computer science degrees. Support is also given to students experiencing severe financial hardship, with £145,000 paid out this year. The more than 600 places in self-catered accommodation are among the cheapest in the UK, priced from £3,800 for a 40-week contract to £6,426 for a 42-week deal in the best rooms. Your browser does not support iframes. Your browser does not support iframes. Admissions, teaching and student support Climbing for Wellbeing is the first course of its kind to be delivered in the context of a university support service. Based at Carlisle's Eden Rock climbing centre, it takes a prime local pastime and turns it into a therapeutic aid for students suffering from mental health issues, using the bouldering wall to demonstrate how the body and mind respond to fear, failure, comparison to others, stress, lack of self-esteem and frustration with abilities or slow progress. Using climbing to support mental health sits within Cumbria's 'Live Well, Learn Well' approach to student support. Head Start academic skills courses covering academic writing, referencing and research are available before students arrive on campus to help smooth the transition to higher education, while mental health and wellbeing support on campus spans talking therapies, therapeutic groups and courses, self-help guidance and workshops. Students have the TogetherAll website, offering 24/7 peer-to-peer support. All staff must complete compulsory safeguarding training for their induction. About one quarter of students qualify for a contextual offer each year. These are mostly made at the bottom end of the standard UCAS point range for a given course to applicants from homes in areas with the lowest higher education participation rates, care leavers or young carers, those estranged from their parents and those who have had free school meals in secondary school. Participation in university-run summer schools, masterclasses or Cumbria's Future Teachers scheme also qualifies applicants for a contextual offer. The university is the lead institution for Hello Future, which delivers higher education and careers progression workshops and attainment raising interventions for young people in Cumbria to help them into a degree or degree apprenticeship. More than 20,000 Cumbrian young people have benefitted from the scheme since 2017.