THE University of Cumbria is set to welcome 1,278 graduands to Carlisle Cathedral, with thousands of guests expected to join the celebrations next week.

Also joining will be pupils from three Cumbria Education Trust schools, and choirs from Workington Academy, Whitehaven Academy, and Yewdale Primary School will provide musical accompaniment.

Here’s a timetable of the three-day event featuring nine ceremonies, kicking off on Tuesday, July 16:

Tuesday

  • 10am ceremony: Several Film and TV students from the university’s Institute of Education, Arts and Society who are involved in the Backing the Blues exhibition celebrating the history of Carlisle United FC are graduating in this ceremony.
  • 3pm ceremony: Emeritus Professor John Lee (pictured), a past President of the British Ecological Society and the International Society of Ecology, will receive an Honorary Doctorate, the university’s highest honorary award.

Wednesday

  • 12pm and 3pm ceremonies: Learners at these events include -
    • International students from Robert Kennedy College in Zurich, Switzerland who have studied courses such as MBA in Artificial Intelligence, Business Administration and International Business Law.
    • Lakes College in West Cumbria where they have successfully completed degree-level programmes in key industries such as Nuclear Engineering.
    • Students from courses delivered in partnership with Nelson & Colne College in Lancashire will graduate with degrees in BEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Manufacturing Engineering as well as BA in Education.

Thursday

  • Many successful graduates from the university's health programmes will go on to serve across the NHS, including paramedics who have studied in the workplace in trusts across England and Nurses.
  • Colleagues from the recently established Pears Cumbria School of Medicine will be in this academic procession for the first time.

Vice Chancellor Professor Julie Mennell DL said: “Our university is proud of what we have achieved in the last academic year including breaking the ground of our new Barrow campus development, the establishment of the Pears Cumbria School of Medicine and the recent Graduate Outcomes survey that ranks us as the top university in the Northwest and 10th university nationally for graduates in work and further study 15 months after graduating.  

“We’re excited to see how our latest graduates will use their new higher-level skills to strengthen the workforce in their chosen fields”.

All ceremonies will be live-streamed on YouTube.