A bid to expand the University of Cumbria’s new Barrow campus has been submitted to Westmorland & Furness Council.
The campus, funded by the Brilliant Barrow Town Deal, the university and BAE Systems, is currently being built.
The university wants to increase the Buccleuch Dock Road, Barrow Island campus to create a clinical skills area for student nurses, supporting the delivery of its BSc (Hons) Adult Nursing programme from September 2025.
It is requesting a formal change to its original planning application that was granted consent in spring 2023.
Spaces for dedicated engineering learning labs, teaching rooms, digital library facilities, catering options, car parking and cycle store are in the original plans.
Subject to approval, it is hoped that work will commence on the 127sq m extension early next year and be completed ahead of the campus opening in September 2025.
University of Cumbria’s Institute of Health is also working with University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Trust to scope future provision that will help to build higher-level skills for the region’s healthcare workforce.
Working with a range of employers, including health trusts, to design higher education programmes that meet the area’s future skills needs is part of the university’s contribution to wider growth plans for Barrow.
The proposed extension has been granted additional funding from the Brilliant Barrow Town Deal, which secured £25 million from the Government’s Towns Fund in 2021 for projects designed to help Barrow to thrive for generations.
Caddick Construction Group is the contractor working on the new campus, which neighbours the BAE Systems Submarines Academy for Skills and Knowledge building.
The first academic programmes, with more to come, are:
- BEng (Hons) Mechanical Engineering with Integrated Foundation Year;
- BSc (Hons) Computer Science (students will split time between University of Cumbria’s Lancaster and Barrow campuses);
- BSc (Hons) Adult Nursing (providing teaching and placements in and around Barrow).
Professor Brian Webster-Henderson OBE, Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Cumbria said: “Barrow-in-Furness is poised for significant growth and as Cumbria’s university we aim to support this by developing the area’s broader skills agenda in alignment and collaboration with employers and partners serving the region. Together we are creating accessible progression routes in and through to higher education that will build skills in and for our region now and for future generations.”
