Anger over sudden closure of college

A college in Devon has closed its degree awarding courses with immediate effect, leading to job losses and disruption for students.

Dartington Hall Trust, which runs Schumacher College in Totnes, said it could no longer fund the school due to it incurring "substantial monthly losses".

It said 46 students will have to finish their education elsewhere, while most of its 33 staff have been placed in a 30-day consultation period for redundancy.

Robert Fedder, acting chief executive of Dartington, said its commitment to financially supporting learning activities "does not extend to risking the future of the whole trust and estate".

Dartington Trust runs two faculties, Schumacher College and Dartington Arts School, which it operates as part of the Dartington Hall estate.

It said the decision was made at a board meeting of the Schumacher College Foundation on 27 August.

BSc, MA and PGDip courses at Schumacher were already closed to new students and were postponed in 2023 days before they were about to start.

Mr Fedder said Schumacher has continued to incur "substantial monthly losses and Dartington is unable to underwrite this deficit indefinitely from its limited reserves".

The trust said Schumacher was its largest loss maker among several operating activities in the red.

The 46 students expected to continue into the 2024/25 academic year will have to find alternative places to finish their education.

Mr Fedder said the decision was made in a "very short space of time".

"The priority is to support every student affected in achieving the best possible outcome for alternative course arrangements or an agreed withdrawal," he said.

The trust said inflation has devalued fees paid by UK students and tighter regulations on entering the UK have seen a drop in international applicants.

Student Willoh Wood said they learned of the closure through a local newspaper and had "no idea" it was coming.

"My future has been cancelled," they said.

"This degree is the most important part of my life, I've worked very, very hard to get here and suddenly that is just in jeopardy."

Regenerative food and farming student James Shirtcliff recently finished his first year at the college and said the closure has left him feeling "depressed and angry".

"It's totally unreasonable to tell us at the end of August that the course is now closing," he said.

Liberal Democrat MP for South Devon Caroline Voaden said the communication around the closure has "been absolutely terrible".

She said: "It's awful for the students who are going to have to be thrown out of their courses half way through.

"And, absolutely terrible for the staff to be treated like this.

"However you do business, this is not the way to do it."

Deputy director of regulation at the Office for Students (OfS) said it was "talking urgently to Dartington Hall Trust" to ensure students' interests are "protected in this challenging situation".

Follow BBC Devon on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].