THE University of Cumbria will honour four remarkable people during this week's graduation ceremonies at the Carlisle Cathedral. 

Thousands of students and guests are expected to attend the eight separate ceremonies this week, with the university also welcoming four notable recipients of honorary awards over the course of the celebrations.

Professor Anne Harriss and Professor Graham Wren will both receive honorary doctorates on Wednesday, with Professor Helen James earning the same title in Thursday's celebration. 

Claire Hensman, the former Lord Lieutenant of Cumbria, was first honoured in Tuesday's ceremony in recognition of her lifelong and outstanding contribution to charity, community and service to the Monarchy in the county. 

Mrs Hensman told the News & Star: "I'm very honoured [to receive an honorary fellowship].  I have been bound up with this institution and so to still be part of it is lovely.

"I love this building. It’s very special to me. Everything has come together I have to say."

Mrs Hensman worked on the university board until 2019 and is delighted with the progress that the institution has made in recent years, and remains excited by the plans to move into a new campus by 2026.

She said: "It’s transformed. It was promised money that never came in.

"It lost its way slightly and lost a lot of students because the government decided that all nurses and paramedics should pay full fees, instead of paying bursaries which had happened before.

"With the advent of higher apprenticeships, which is what the university has espoused and pushed, it becomes more affordable.

"Because the university has been so responsive to the needs of the county, it has really made a lot of contacts and is now delivering the courses the county needs."

200 paramedic degree apprentices from across the country will also graduate on Wednesday, and Mrs Hensman felt the university's work in training up healthcare professionals of the future is vital for the country as a whole. 

She said: "People desperately need nurses and paramedics and they are delivering that. It’s great to see 14,000 students here - it is amazing. It’s going from strength to strength.

"And provided the investment happens and nobody pulls the rug from underneath it, it will be terribly important for the nation.

"But it’s terribly important for Carlisle that the new campus happens. It’s just taken on leaps and bounds. I have to say it’s the vice chancellor and her team, she has just built up steadily over the last few years and transformed the prospects of the university.

"It’s got a very exciting future."

Finally, when asked to give one piece of advice to graduates, Mrs Hensman replied: "Just go out and be true to yourselves."