AFTER the party poppers and champagne glasses are cleared away at the opening of the University of Central Lancashire's new Carlisle campus next Wednesday, the educational landscape in Cumbria will be changed.

The north of the county's historic links with Northumbria are fading and the axis of learning is now North-South, stretching from Preston to Carlisle, through Lancaster, Ambleside and Penrith.

Sir Brian Fender's report on higher education in Cumbria, published in 2003, recommended a University of Cumbria', built with "deep collaboration" between the existing institutions.

With the opening of UCLan's third campus, that possibility now seems even closer.

Dr Graham Baldwin, UCLan's director for Cumbria, said: "We will be at the centre of that collaboration."

He said it was difficult to give a timescale for when a branded university could be launched but he revealed that plans had already been drawn up.

In the short term, over the next four to five years, UCLan will boost student numbers from around 400 to approaching 1,000, by offering new courses, targeting overseas students, mainly from China, and working on the "unique" strengths of the two locations.

Dr Baldwin said the two Cumbrian campuses gave the opportunity to focus on outdoor courses at Newton Rigg, near Penrith, such as sport, agriculture and leisure, and civic courses, such as law and journalism, in Carlisle.

Asked if this would be enough to reverse the brain drain in the long term, he said: "It depends on us. If you come up with a product that's unique, you've got a chance of allowing people to stay in the county to study and to work."

He added: "We have to be confident we can do it, otherwise we wouldn't have come here to build up Carlisle."

Different people see slightly different shapes when they look into their crystal ball at the future University of Cumbria.

Peter Nixon, assistant principal of Cumbria Institute of the Arts, described how it might be organised.

"What we are hoping for is a hub and spoke model that although Carlisle may be the hub, the plan is to devolve those courses to the outlying regions of Cumbria."

He said that would enable students at Furness or Kendal College to take courses offered by Carlisle in Barrow or Kendal.

A precedent for this organisation already exists. The University of Cornwall is comprised of independent colleges that share expertise and facilities to call themselves a federal university'.

Cumbria County Council's portfolio holder for education Joan Stocker said: "It suits a rural area because travel and time are real issues."

University Education Cumbria project manager Tracy Marshall, whose group's brief is to improve Cumbria's HE provision, said her vision was "a network of collaborating campuses which builds on the strengths of all the partners and is responsive to the particular skills needs of different communities".

In marketing terms, this kind of single brand' is vital in selling to overseas markets and helps students feel more pride in their institution.

However, shadow education secretary and Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Collins said the problem with the hub and spoke model was "which one becomes the hub".

"I don't think we should put all our eggs in one basket, such as Carlisle. It may be that we want to have more than one hub and certainly have some activity centred on South Lakeland."