Staff and students from the University of Cumbria have been taking part in a national rowing challenge for #sportrelief2020. Two teams took to Lake Windermere for Row Britannia, which is raising funds for Sport Relief. A team of staff led by Vice Chancellor, Professor Julie Mennell took on a team of students. She led them to victory, smashing a record for the 10 mile row from Windermere’s southern tip at Fell Foot to Brathay in two hours 11 minutes, beating a previous best set by an RAF team.

Forty-eight new recruits have started as University of Cumbria students as part of an innovative Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship programme. The student police officers and subsequent cohorts are receiving face-to-face masterclasses, practical skills training and supported online learning. University of Cumbria’s first student police officers are based with Surrey Police and they are part of a wider scheme that will educate more than 1,000 new recruits over the next three years.

An education expert says the current ‘white, male dominated and middle class’ view of education must be challenged to help successfully tackle social injustice. Sally Elton-Chalcraft, professor of social justice in education at the University of Cumbria, believes challenging existing laws, systems and perceptions will help bring equity – fairness – in education to everyone regardless of their gender, background, ethnicity, intelligence, religion and beliefs.

Thanks to new NHS funding, the University of Cumbria is forging an innovative way of training sonographers, the health professionals who perform ultrasound scans, that not only ensures they are better prepared for clinical placement but simultaneously increases the NHS’ capacity to train them.

International Women’s Day (IWD) is being marked with a push for female foresters and the call to smash ‘it’s for men’ misconceptions. National School of Forestry (NSF), based at University of Cumbria’s Ambleside campus, where just 20 percent of its students are women, wants a better gender balance and has helped with a film being released to mark the special day on 8 March.

As national attention focuses on the payback of outdoor experiences for children, a leading academic takes centre stage to explain how risk management and adventure need to be embraced. Professor of outdoor and environmental education at University of Cumbria’s Institute of Science, Natural Resources and Outdoor Studies, Heather Prince will share a passion that all young people should have access to potentially life changing activities.

Two University of Cumbria health initiatives are in the running for prestigious education awards. A dementia symposium and the university’s Festival of Mental Health are finalists in the Educate North 2020 Awards. The initiatives aim to strengthen students’ knowledge and expertise as well as improve standards and effectiveness of patient care. They are organised by academics and staff within the nursing team of the university’s Institute of Health.

An academic instrumental in raising awareness of male domestic abuse is conducting new research that focuses on older males who, according to initial findings, may experience abuse unique to their age.

A World record breaker who together with her husband became only the second ever married couple to conquer Everest is setting out to show how positive mindset works in the face of extreme adversity. As part of University Mental Health Day on March 5, Lakes-based adventurers Pauline and Phil Sanderson will be sharing a journey starting at the Dead Sea, cycling 5,000 miles across eight countries before reaching Tibet to climb Everest.