https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/immediate-closure-of-devon-college-9516818

Immediate closure of Devon college

A decision has been made due to 'substantial' financial losses

ByAnita Merritt

29 AUG 2024

A Devon college has closed with 'immediate effect' resulting in job losses and disruption to students. Dartington Hall Trust (DHT) has confirmed it is no longer financially viable to keep Schumacher College in Dartington open due to 'substantial' mounting losses, despite previously assuring there were no plans for its closure.

The decision was made at a board meeting of the Schumacher College Foundation this Tuesday, August 27. All BSc, MA and PGDip courses, presently supported by University of Plymouth, will close.

The courses were already closed to new students. The trust said 46 students were expected to continue into the 2024/25 academic year and that 58 other students are being supported to complete the last academic year.

The majority of the college's 32 staff are facing redundancy. The trust says shorter, unaccredited courses planned for 2024/25 'have met with poor bookings' and said its 'limited reserves' have resulted in the closure decision.

It added Dartington Board is currently considering 'viable option's for the college to sustain itself, including a proposal from the college’s learning leadership team to secure independence from Dartington, as well as continuation of financially viable, unaccredited courses.

Robert Fedder, acting CEO of Dartington, said: "It is with great regret that this decision has had to be 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 continued: “While part of Dartington’s historical role as a charitable trust has been to provide financial support to its long-established learning activities, in this case, Schumacher, even when they are unable to break even, the commitment does not extend to risking the future of the whole trust and estate.”

In September 2023, incoming students at Schumacher College were told their Masters courses, which were due to begin in four days, had suddenly been postponed. The trust said the decision was made to postpone some of the courses as part of its financial review.

Some courses continued with others postponed 'indefinitely'. In December 2023, Mr Fedder penned an open letter to dispel what he stated as 'misinformation about the state of affairs' at Dartington Hall and assured that its appointed turnaround team was striving to secure the future of the estate.

Within the letter he said: "Schumacher College, as an important element of the estate’s activities, naturally forms part of the present financial and strategic review. There are no plans for closure and it will continue to be an important part of Dartington."

However, the trust has now confirmed the 'very real prospect' of appointing administrators was reached last autumn and following its financial review, the 'only remaining option' was to reduce operating losses and develop a model for the estate to sustain itself 'after decades of shrinking to survive'.

The trust added the college remains, 'by some distance', its largest loss maker among several operating activities in the red. The trust also said that 'despite giving it time to address its financial shortfall' and a growing deficit, as well as 'occupying a prime location' on the estate, no internal rent had been charged, pointing out that fees were not covering salaries and other day-to-day costs.

Mr Fedder continued: "There is a long-held misconception among some stakeholders that DHT’s historic attractions and commercial activities, which have clearly faced their own financial challenges, solely exist to fund perennial losses in its educational interests. This is absolutely not the case.

"Trust staff have worked extremely hard in the last 12 months to secure a sustainable future for the estate. Cash outflows of the magnitude presented by Schumacher are an area of very high risk for the trust which ultimately still has to maintain, at great cost, several listed buildings and gardens of important historical interest.”

The college has been supported by the trust since 1991. It described itself as being a progressive college for ecological studies offering masters programmes, a new undergraduate programme in Regenerative Food and Farming, short courses and a six-month agroecology residency.