Schumacher College Closure

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00:00You are one of many people who've contacted us this morning to our surprise.

00:06They all said the same thing. They hadn't heard anything from Dartington or Schumacher College

00:13and the first they'd heard about the closure was from us, from the article we'd written.

00:19So you're telling me that you had no idea this was going to happen?

00:23No, no. And in fact, so I'm a student rep and we were part of the

00:33programme meeting that happens every term, which is a meeting between student reps,

00:36teaching staff, Schumacher staff and Dartington Hall Trust staff, just to check in about how

00:42everything's going. And obviously the past year has been very turbulent. I don't know if you know

00:46about this very similar situation that happened last year.

00:50Let's tell us a bit more about that, just a reminder.

00:53Yeah, so it was actually much more short notice last time. So I've just completed my first year

01:01and I was getting ready to move onto Schumacher campus, September of last year. And then three

01:07days before I was supposed to arrive, I just got an email from Dartington Hall Trust saying,

01:14we don't know if your course will go ahead, don't come here and we'll be in touch with more

01:21information. Just like no reasoning why, no idea of timescale of like when we'd find out more that

01:28was supposed to happen. Like I got this email, I think it was on the Friday and I was supposed to

01:32start our welcome week on the Monday. Extremely stressful time. So yeah, that's kind of been

01:41hanging over us the past year.

01:43Because you did actually go back to college.

01:47Yes, yeah, yeah. The course went ahead. We started a week late, but it just felt like

01:54every step of the way we were never given a guarantee that we would complete our degree.

01:59However, at the programme meeting in June this year, we were informed that Dartington Hall Trust

02:07had confirmed our budget for the next year of teaching and that all staff had been hired and

02:13it was all given the green light, go ahead. This is definitely happening. So we were sort of

02:18comfortable knowing that this was the case. And then yes, reading your article yesterday

02:24was the first thing any of us had heard to the contrary.

02:28Now, what are you studying or what were you studying at Schumacher College?

02:33You said it was your first year.

02:34Yeah, so I'm on the BSc programme, which is a BSc in regenerative food and farming.

02:42So you hear this news for the first time. How do you feel about it?

02:47Just completely in disbelief. We didn't know if it was true. We didn't know if it was misinformation

02:52because it was just so out of the blue. And, you know, as the article said that we had been

02:59contacted, so we just thought there'd been some kind of mistake, that there's a Schumacher group

03:08chat, which is all the students and rumours just started circulating, you know, and there are a few

03:14people who are on campus at the moment and had managed to check in with some members of staff to

03:20hear that, yes, there was very, very bad news, but they couldn't talk about it because

03:25Dartington Hall Trust had informed staff members that they weren't allowed to tell us,

03:31because Dartington Hall Trust were going to tell us. Schumacher staff members weren't allowed to

03:38talk to us about it. It had to come from Dartington and then they didn't tell us,

03:41they told you. So then we learnt from you.

03:44Now, Dartington Trust, in their statement, reiterated the point that Schumacher is,

03:52was and remains by some distance, I quote, the Trust's largest loss maker among several

03:59operating activities in the red. So is this something that was made clear to you as well,

04:06and made clear to students that the college was having deep financial problems?

04:11We knew, like, this is why this happened last year. We're aware that

04:17Dartington Hall Trust very nearly went into administration around that time,

04:21that they managed to get out of it somehow. I think they sold some assets.

04:28There's been a lot of talk about Schumacher going independent so that we don't get dragged

04:32down with it, but it seems we're sort of all dragging each other down. Schumacher, I mean,

04:37I'm not surprised that it's making so many losses because we, we haven't taken on any new

04:45students. So at the moment, like, we usually have a January intake and a September intake.

04:52We didn't have a January intake this year. So suddenly, student numbers just dropped off.

04:57And there's only so many students, I think at the moment, like 40 of us that are starting in

05:01September, paying, you know, what's capped at student fees. That's really not very much money

05:06for how much money the building's taken up, keep paying all the staff, everything, everything.

05:11So we have been aware. I know that Schumacher was putting a lot of energy into their short

05:17course program to try and make up more money, essentially. And they have a whole short course

05:24team who've been working very hard on that. But according to Dartington's statement,

05:30the courses have had very low uptake. So, you know, I think that's a good thing.

05:41That clearly hasn't worked. So, yeah, I'm not, I'm really not surprised to hear that Schumacher is

05:47at such a great loss. But it also feels like we haven't been given the opportunity to operate

05:54properly. Like if we'd been able to have more of a student intake,

05:58surely that would have helped. But I'm not sure. I'm not an economist.

06:03Where does that leave you now? Because I understand in the statement,

06:07the trust said it's going to approach each student individually from Monday next week,

06:13although that clearly hasn't helped you now, because as you said, students don't didn't know

06:19anything about this until our article appeared in the paper last night. So what are you going to do

06:25now? I am about to drive to Schumacher. I'm currently in Bristol. I'm actually homeless

06:31currently. I'm kind of sofa surfing. I do have accommodation sorted from the end of September,

06:37but that was very much tied to our degree. It's a house share of some of us on our course.

06:44We're not sure what we're going to do. We've already paid the deposit for that house,

06:47signed contracts, etc. Several other students are in similar positions of having spent money

06:52for their accommodation for the next year. So I don't know. I don't know. When this happened

06:59last year, I looked far and wide for similar courses. Our course is extremely unique. There's

07:04nothing else like it in this country, maybe the world. I've looked at similar degrees kind of

07:11covering some similar stuff, but it's it's just not not really possible to just transfer. At the

07:19moment, we're wondering if because our accrediting body is Plymouth Uni, we're wondering if maybe we

07:28can all as a group with our teaching staff use their facilities to complete our degree at Plymouth

07:35campus. But we don't. We're just speculating there because we know that that's what happened

07:40when Dartington Arts University shut down in 2012. I think it was. I had some friends who were there.

07:49All their courses got swallowed up by the University of Falmouth. So everyone had to

07:54move from Dartington to Falmouth and complete their degrees there. But we have no idea if that's

08:00an option for us at the moment. Our teaching staff are legally not allowed to talk to us

08:05about any of this. So we just we don't know. I'm guessing the wording of everything that

08:14Dartington has said so far, it makes it sound like they just want to shove us out the door

08:20and have us all find different degrees and just like leave and do something else with our lives.

08:25But for a lot of us, that just really isn't an option. I'm not sure it's an option for me

08:30personally. I have a disability that would make mainstream university study very difficult. One

08:37of the things that attracted me to Schumacher is that it is at once a institutional university,

08:42but it's also a community. Also, we're studying farming. A lot of that has a practical element.

08:49We have a growing space there that we have put our blood, sweat and tears into with like long-term

08:56plans because we've been told that we could create these long-term plans. And now it seems that we're

09:01losing that land. And the rent for that particular piece of land was paid for out of the budget for

09:08our programme specifically. So we just we don't know. We don't know. Well Willow, I wish you all the

09:15best and please keep in touch with us and let us know how this plays out for you and for your

09:23student, colleague, friends and I hope to speak again to you soon.

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