£9m teaching block opened

The £9m Sentamu Building at the University of Cumbria’s Lancaster campus has been named after the university’s chancellor the Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu.

Although, unable to attend the ceremony, he will be visiting in the academic year to bless the facility.

He sent a message of support which said: “The University of Cumbria has seen thousands of students achieve more than they thought possible and it has been part of transforming communities across the country.

“It has been a privilege to sit as Chancellor during this period of growth and I am deeply honoured to have my name attached to a building in a place of learning and human flourishing.”

The project received £2.5m of Growth Deal Skills funding from the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership whose chairman Edwin Booth cut a ceremonial ribbon which followed an inaugural speech by Professor Ian Cumming OBE, chief executive of Health Education England.

Edwin Booth said: “We aim to create a pipeline of skilled talent which will help transform Lancashire’s health and social care sector, meeting the challenges of an ageing population and rising life expectancy and to support the creation of more than 700 new health and social care jobs in the region by 2024.”

University vice-chancellor Prof Julie Mennell 
added: “The learning that will go on in the building will 
affect lives, both the 
hundreds of students who will pass through and the many more people who will benefit from their expertise in the 
future.”