A new university campus in Cumbria is being shaped by a focus on creating a future-ready healthcare workforce.

The University of Cumbria is looking to extend the Barrow campus currently being built with funding from the Brilliant Barrow Town Deal, the university and BAE Systems.

Now, fresh plans for the campus on Buccleuch Dock Road, Barrow Island, have been submitted to Westmorland and Furness Council.

The university aims to increase the campus's size to create a clinical skills area for student nurses.

The university is hoping to increase the size of the campus (Image: Supplied) This move is to support the BSc (Hons) Adult Nursing programme, set to start in September 2025.

The university is requesting a formal change to the original planning application, which was approved in spring 2023.

The original plans include spaces for engineering learning labs, teaching rooms, digital library facilities, catering options, car parking, and a cycle store.

If the extension is approved, work is expected to begin early next year and be completed before the campus opens in September 2025.

The change will support adult nursing students (Image: Supplied) The University of Cumbria’s Institute of Health is also collaborating with University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Trust to identify future provisions that will help build higher-level skills for the region’s healthcare workforce.

This is part of the university's contribution to broader growth plans for Barrow, which includes working with a range of employers, including health trusts, to design higher education programmes that meet the area’s future skills needs.

The proposed extension has been granted extra funding from the Brilliant Barrow Town Deal, which secured £25million from the Government's Towns Fund in 2021 for projects aimed at helping Barrow 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 proposed extension has been granted extra funding from the Brilliant Barrow Town Deal (Image: Supplied) The first academic programmes at the campus include 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); and BSc (Hons) Adult Nursing (providing teaching and placements in and around Barrow).

Professor Brian Webster-Henderson OBE, deputy vice chancellor of 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."