University of Cumbria, Ambleside campus

[Nix32]

Anyone have any experience? Course and location look fab but reviews on What Uni aren’t good, although are quite old and there are very few of them.

My experience is sort of negative – as in I have none, I know no one who has ever gone there, never heard of anyone applying, did not know it existed.

That might make this sound a pointless comment but I have 3 DC who have gone through this age, so I know about their and that of all their friends, plus I was a teacher, plus have supported numerous YP towards uni, plus I post a lot on this board – never seen this uni mentioned. Which IMHO does not make it a tiptop place to study. What course is it for? What are likely PGs? What would draw the YP to such a location?

I did my teacher training there! Lovely small campus right in the middle of Ambleside but I do mean small!!! When I was there, it had a very limited range of courses, mainly environmental/outdoor based so was perfect, but you wouldn’t get a “ student” experience there, it was mainly middle aged mature students- we had a ceilidh as our graduation party!

What course? It's a glorified teacher training college, which up until about 15 years ago, couldn't offer its own degrees - they were actually validated by Lancaster, I think (certainly this was the situation of Edge Hill until a few years ago). It won't be intellectually challenging, and this may be important - or not. It's not got research-led teaching, as there's very limited research done there.

But if it's an applicant who would otherwise not have the A Levels needed for near neighbours such as Lancaster, Liverpool or Glasgow, then it might be a good bet. But it really depends on the subject. Overall, not for high flyers or ambitious people. Also just check on finances - U of Cumbria was looking pretty ropey a few years ago.

But of course, the locations are spectacular (even the St Martin's College, Lancaster branch). Probably much nicer than, say Edge Hill or Liverpool Hope, which are at about the same level of research-led teaching ie not very much.

I think when it was Charlotte Mason college it was very well regarded for teacher training - I'm sure I remember girls from my school going there back in the day.

So for a primary teaching degree it would be fine and obviously all the professional degrees like nursing and OT since what matters then is getting the qualification.

Might think twice about doing a degree like Psychology then - the lack of a " name" would count against then.

Wildlife Conservation is the course, and the draw is its proximity to the all the outdoor space. Fantastic opportunities for walking, climbing etc, which DS would love. Conservation in the middle of a city would be quite different!
Nottingham Trent also offering a similar course and has its own rural campus so is another option.

@Nix32 did you find out any more information about this campus? Or the course for that matter?
I was having a search for info about the campus but by chance it also seems I’m come across someone looking at the same course (I think).

My DD has been looking at a wildlife ecology and conservation course there as well over the last few days. She likes the sound of the course and would love to be in the lakes and the outdoors.

I don’t have direct knowledge of Cumbria Uni, I never went, but I have some “local” knowledge. (Yes, I am a Cumbrian but I also know next to nothing about Ambleside with it being over 90 minutes away from my part of Cumbria).

A family member of mine did teaching at Carlisle and absolutely loved it. I also know a fair few people who did social work or policing or nursing there. (But I don’t know whether they liked it because I never spoke to them again once we left school).
I also know that they run degree apprenticeships which are very well supported by local employers (many moved from UCLAN to Cumbria about 10 years ago as the place to send people to do degrees).
There's was a comment about how it was for unambitious people - that’s unfair. I do know people who have done biomed science at Cumbria and they had ambitions but either wanted to stay near home or missed their grades slightly. These people got their bachelors and then went to do masters and doctorates at some very well named universities.
That said, you won’t find any history or English or pure science degrees at Cumbria, so for that I do agree there are better universities. Everything at Cumbria is applied and practical.

I would also say, check out Bangor. My DD is liking the sound of it. Also have a look at a couple of the Land-Based colleges my DD has spotted one she likes the sound of at SRUC (Scotland’s rural uni). Both with similar names to the Cumbria one.

@FruidSaladwithTomatoesThank you! Yes, SRUC is on the shortlist too. Bangor is too far but Nottingham Trent looks good too - it has a rural campus about 15 minutes outside of the city.

I know someone who did their undergraduate at Cumbria then masters and PhD at Lancaster. They would have never gotten into Lancaster as they had no a levels and did an access course at a local adult college. At the time Cumbria allowed people who didn't have the traditional qualifications but the potential to get onto courses. He taught at Lancaster and now teaches at a private boys school.

I did my undergraduate at Cumbria and masters at Lancaster. Most of my BA cohort are teachers and have been qualified 10+ years. Personally I loved it and preferred it to Lancaster, but I recognise it's not for everyone.

@Nix32 By complete fluke I’ve ended up driving through Ambleside 4 times over the past week due to work. So I decided on my way back on one of the days I would stop and have a look around. I then decided I would share my thoughts on the place with you.

This is my personal opinion of the place and NOT the opinion of a student who would live and study there.

First thing I would say - your DC needs to be able to drive and have access to a car. It is very remote and a car would be beneficial. That said, there were busses going through the town both north to Keswick and south to Kendal so it’s not 100% essential.

The town was very busy, but it is tourist season, and I suspect it will be quieter during the off season. There will be still be some tourists about though. There were plenty of shops, no primark or river island sort of thing, but plenty of “market town” type shops. I spotted a co-op and a Tesco express. It looks a “weekly food shop” is potentially a trip to one of the bigger towns or get it delivered. Yes, supermarkets do deliver out there, I have seen a Tesco delivery driver driving half way up a fell. Overall, there seemed to be more there shop wise, except supermarkets, and more to do than some of the bigger towns on the coast. The place was clean and tidy, the people were pleasant and nice and quite helpful when I got a bit lost. This is no student party town, just a few pubs, but if that’s ok, then it’ll suite.

I had a wander up to the university campus - it is small! But it’s in spectacular surroundings for any environment or wildlife courses, I can 100% understand why it is where it is. It seems to me to be a place where those who love the outdoors, hate busy cities and want to go for the studying and not the partying would love to be.

Would I want to live there? Personally no, not full time for the rest of my life, but I hate busy tourist places. If it was less touristy I would happily live there all the time. I would quite happily live there during term time for a course, especially an environment and wildlife one.

Overall, very nice place, ideally located, but wouldn’t suite everyone. You need to be a certain type of person.

@FruidSaladwithTomatoesThank you so much! I really appreciate your observations.

We know the Lakes well from a tourist perspective, so I recognise everything you’re describing. It’s wondering how that translates to an out of season, every day life that’s the tricky bit.

DS isn’t particularly a party goer, although he is very sociable. His evenings currently consist of meetings with friends in various homes, just hanging out and chatting, so a few pubs would probably be enough. I think small would suit him, but I’m wondering what the makeup of the student body would be - would it be mature students who live off site, or would there be people of a similar age? They don’t appear to provide much accommodation, so that’s something to think about.

DS is just about to start Y13 and isn’t quite in the headspace to think about uni life, so we’ve drawn up a shortlist for him to think about, in the first instance. His eyes lit up at the description of the Ambleside campus, despite how different it is to other uni’s, so I think it’s definitely worth a visit.

He’s planning to take a year out, so we’re just trying to work out whether he should apply with a deferral this year, or wait until he has his grades and apply next year for a 2027 start.

Has your visit changed how you are advising your daughter?

I agree, figuring out what it will be like in the off season is the hard bit. We have some sort of idea that it will be nice and quiet, something every Cumbrian loves can’t wait for, but that’s what our part is like, I have a suspicion Ambleside does get quieter but there is always something happening. My advice to her hasn’t changed, she needs to go and visit for an open day and also a non open day in the dead of winter (December/January time).

DD is a very outdoorsy sort of person. She’s quite happy in the middle of nowhere and is involved with scouts and red squirrel conservation (one of the big drivers for Ambleside and also SRUC and Bangor). She’s not a big party person and is also quite happy socialising with a few friends, usually half way up a fell, but occasionally they go to town or each others houses.

She is now 18, and will be 19 when she starts, having come the long way round after a disastrous set of GCSE results and has done English and maths resits alongside C&G L2 land and wildlife and is now about to go into her 2nd year of C&G L3 land and wildlife. Therefore, her options are more limited than anyone who has done A Levels. Unless anything changes, the plan is to apply for 2026 entry.

I think if your DS wants to take a year out then he should go for it - it’s a great opportunity to have a break from things and really decide what and where he wants to be. I would just question what he is planning on doing with that year if he is going to apply with grades in hand. Some wildlife conservation experience would look good on the UCAS form if he can get some during that year. It’s also an opportunity to spend time in places like Ambleside and other potential university places to see what he does think about it and can make a more informed decision.

Does he have any ideas about whether he will applying for the 3 year course of the 4 years with placement?

I did have a quick look at uni stats/discover uni stats, that gives a rough idea of the size of the cohort - it was something like 35 for the Wildlife and Conservation course and 75% came with A Levels/Highers, therefore, assumption can be made they came from school but no substitute for actually going there and finding out. If all courses are similar in size, I can’t imagine there being too much pressure on the small amount of accommodation they do have. I also read somewhere they have an accommodation guarantee for 1st years (but please do go and double check that).

I wrote DD a pretty long list of questions to have a think about, in general, not just because of my Ambleside visit. Happy to share that if it would be useful to you. Plus I go digging on the internet once she’s added a course to her list. Once she’s done the info gathering I will be sitting down properly with her and going through her choices to make sure she is making decisions for the right reasons.

Note: DD discovered, after calling the uni, that name of the course has changed. It was Animal Conservation Science and is now ecology and wildlife conservation. The reason behind it was because they are going for CIEEM accreditation so made a couple of changes.
Discover uni link for the course under its old name for 23/24 graduates.
https://discoveruni.gov.uk/course-details/10007842/UBFCUOCACOSC0/FullTime/

If I find out any more I will share with you. Also happy to answer any questions about general every day life in cumbria.

@FruidSaladwithTomatoesThank you so much! Yes please, your list of questions would be very useful.

The uni stats info is really helpful - gives a context to compare against other places.

I think the four years with placement would be beneficial - he’s not able to think that far yet, it’s all very abstract.

Re. a year out - he’d like to work and travel, hopefully doing a conservation project in Africa, because that’s where his passion is. I’d like him to do a bit of earning and saving, just to help uni be a bit easier!

I really appreciate your thoughts - thank you.

Re placement year - not to worry, DD also hasn’t made up her mind re the placement year either. Although it does sound like some ones with accreditation need the placement year to be done for it to be accredited? Certainly the case for Harper Adams which has accredited degree if placement and non-accredited without. Not sure how that will work for the Cumbria one, I suppose it’s just time will tell and they will advertise appropriately when their accreditation comes through - a question for the open day. I suppose it depends on whether your DS is interested in an accredited degree or not.

A conservation project in Africa sounds exciting! Good luck to him if he finds one that really will be some good starts for UCAS, and also just something really exciting to do for him personally. Not sure there will be much money saved though, unless it is paid rather than voluntary? DD was on about a university which has an African placement, unfortunately I can’t remember which one (I will ask her).

It’s a pretty long list, but all I’ve done is thrown a list of questions at her to have a think about. She’s never going to know all the answers for every single university, it was just to give her a starting point of what she should think about. (apologies, it is a straight copy and paste):

• Will you realistically meet the grades for the course? Ring them and confirm they will accept your C&G and what grades they expect.
• Where in the country do you want to be? How far from home? How far to travel?
• Rural or city?
• What sort of “student experience” do you want? Partying every weekend? Somewhere quiet where studying is prioritised? A nice mix?
• Do you want a more practical or academic course?
• Without looking into modules, what do you want to study? Write everything down. What would do want to be doing on the course e.g. red squirrel biology or plant science or trip to the North Pole or whatever. (Sounds silly but actual wants and needs can go out the window and be forgotten about when digging into modules - there’s also nothing wrong if this changes either, but keep referring back to it and editing, remembering to also keep the original list).
• Dig into the course content and modules. What do you prefer? Any with modules you really wouldn’t like? Or any with modules that make you desperate to go there? Does the course match with the list you made? (Nothing wrong if there is something that comes up that isn’t on the list above but sounds really good, equally if you want to remove something, that’s ok too)
• Travel costs for fieldwork? Where does the fieldwork take place? All at university or plenty of “real” places?
• What is accommodation like? (And cost?)
• What suport is available from the university? If you need help with organisation or anything to do with housing or money or anything else, how can they help you?
• Employment prospects of graduates? What kind of jobs do they go onto? Who do they end up working for? (You can do what you want with your degree, but it gives you a general idea).
• Do they have good links to employers or organisations if you need to do placements?
• Is accreditation important? If so is the course accredited?
• Check out the discover uni website for the stats and see if there is anything jumping out as horrendous I.e. if feedback has a 10% satisfaction rating then cross it off kind of thing but don’t put too much weight on the stats because they are cohort specific and each individual is different.
• Prepare for a visit. Write a list of important and burning questions about the course, university, area, accommodation, clubs and societies, anything important to you.
• Visit every single one on the short list (if possible).

@FruidSaladwithTomatoes Thank you so much for the questions. We’d already thought about some of them, but the others are really helpful. We’re off to the open day next weekend, so am hoping that provides some clarity either one way or another!

DH did a PG cert at the Lancaster campus of Uni of Cumbria and some family did teacher training with them. We have family in that part of Cumbria so although we don’t know Ambleside very well, we know it well enough. Yes, it is very busy in summer. We went to Windermere in February and it was fairly busy then.

Whilst I agree that having a car might be beneficial, it won’t be awful if he doesn’t have one. Ambleside is only 15 mins by bus to Windermere which has a station. There are hourly direct trains to Manchester airport, so you can change in Manchester for heading to the East Midlands and East coast/East Coast. It also stops at Oxenholme, Lancaster and Preston so you can change onto the West Coast main line to London.
Windermere and Bowness have a decent amount of shops, but a lot are high end. The flagship (massive) Lakeland store is by Windermere station and there’s a Booths there too but your nearest big supermarket is likely to be Kendal where there’s most of the big names (except Tesco).
For family visiting, bear in mind that staying locally might be expensive. Driving there too can be fun in the holiday season. The M6 north around Preston gets busy every Friday from Easter until late September and during all the holidays. We always have to plan when we’re going and when we visited in February, the M6 south closed for several hours due to a crash and we had to take the very long way home via Ingleton and Settle. We’re only an hour away so an extra hour was inconvenient but not awful but if you’ve another 3 hours to go, that’s even harder.
Obviously, the weather can be poor there, particularly in winter (tho you can get 4 seasons in one day anytime).
Hope some of that helps.

Ambleside isn’t remote - lots of buses! It is only twenty minutes by bus to Windermere train station. It doesn’t really have an off-season tourism wise, more low and high seasons. Tourism brings a mixed blessing. There are a lot more facilities as a result of it but accommodation may be difficult to find.

The thing about these tiny colleges/universities is they can have excellent reputations for very specific courses - even be top ones in a specialist field. So no point comparing them to larger universities like Liverpool; you need to look at their reputation for that specific course.

In terms of wildlife conservation - that is one of those ‘dream lifestyle’ courses, like marine biology. A lot of people love the idea of saving lions or coral reefs, or marching over the fells on a summer day with their dog to check the footpaths. This can mean a lot more people take courses than available jobs. In terms of getting work - he will need a lot of voluntary experience to back up his degree. The Lake District is potentially brilliant for this. On the otherhand, if such a job is not forthcoming then the reputation of a specialist course may be somewhat diminished when applying for jobs outwith that specialism.

Whoa! Bit rough/snobby!

Not every uni is about research and image, not every yp is suited to A levels and having their nose in a book. If you want to study maths, further maths, physics and fine art, go to a city.
But a woodland ecology degree isn't going to be a great learning experience in the middle of Glasgow or Liverpool. Ambleside brilliant location!

Uni is about the experience for the individual, and if you want to work for a national park, studying in a national park is invaluable.

It's horses for courses, lots of smaller unis offering very specific subject areas in high quality degrees in that field.

I work in a land based college and a number of students have gone to both the Ambleside and Carlisle campus. I fact, Carlisle were AMAZING with two students with disabilities - (visual impaired and Deaf) and have thrived and achieved in more than just education.

Just because it's not done fancy, snobby Russell Group doesn't make it a bad plan.