Cumbria is home to the University of Cumbria (UoC). Its main office is in Carlisle. Lancaster, Ambleside, Barrow-in-Furness, and London all have sizable campuses. After the merging of St. Martin's College, the Cumbria Institute of the Arts, and the University of Central Lancashire's Cumbrian campuses, it was founded in 2007. Its origins can be traced back to the 1822 founding of the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts and the 1890 founding of the Charlotte Mason Teacher Training College. The university was founded on the concept of a "distributed learning network," which would have allowed for teaching to occur at both the university's main campuses and at far-flung colleges of further education in Cumbria, a rural county that includes the Lake District, but this was too expensive to maintain. On August 1, 2007, St. Martin's College in Lancaster, the Cumbria Institute of the Arts (CIA), previously the Cumbria College of Art & Design (CCAD), and the Cumbrian campuses of the University of Central Lancashire merged to establish the University of Cumbria. Both Lancaster University and the University of Central Lancashire previously recognized the degree programs offered by these institutions. St Martin's College petitioned for independent degree-awarding powers in March 2005 to help with the transition, and after nine months of review by the Quality Assurance Agency, it was approved in July 2006. The Privy Council conferred official university status in January 2007.