Farron calls on residents to apply to be governors of the University of Cumbria to keep it in the county

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 9th Jul 2010

South Lakes MP Tim Farron has called on local residents to apply to be governors of the University of Cumbria to keep the institution in the county.

His comments come after news was revealed that the University of Cumbria's Peter Ballard Chair of the board of Governors is stepping down and the University is planning to advertise for new 6 external governors.

Tim is asking residents to apply to be governors and to force the university to help him to fight to keep Ambleside open. Tim has been at the forefront of the campaign that forced the university to suspend plans to 'mothball' the campus and to agree to keep Outdoor Studies students at the campus.

The cash strapped university has been beset by crisis since the recession and came close to not paying its staff's wages recently. The University of Cumbria, which is nearly £30m in debt, had to receive a cash advance from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) just to pay the salaries.

Tim said: "I want to keep the University of Cumbria in Cumbria. With the majority of courses and management located at Lancaster, it's important that local people apply to be University Board governors and force the university to accept our plan to grow the Ambleside campus in particular and in general to concentrate resources at the three Cumbrian campuses."