Degree courses at Schumacher College are being shut “with immediate effect”.

More than 30 staff are being consulted on redundancy. Dozens of students face an uncertain future.

So does this mean the end of the world renown college – or will it be able to go it alone?

Dartington Hall Trust issued a statement yesterday (see below)
which seems to put the final nail in the College’s coffin as a recognised educational establishment.

It has limped on for nearly a year after the shocked student body was told last September than their courses were being postponed. Some had already travelled from as far away as South Africa for the chance to take part in the ecological courses. (link to story here)

The decision was quickly rescinded but it was obvious the college had been put on notice.
One former graduate told the Pulse today :”I thought Schumacher would have enough kudos to survive. But I’m not surprised.”

Fellows of Schumacher include Jonathon Porritt, former director of Friends of the Earth, and physicist Fritjof Capra.

The Schumacher College Foundation board made the decision yesterday to shut all degree courses overseen by the University of Plymouth. Having accredited courses is vital.
It said the College continues to incur substantial monthly losses. As the Trust also has liabilities like the rotting and abandoned Foxhole School , Mr Fedder says committing to backing Schumacher can’t be done if it risks the future of the whole Trust and estate.

On the board are Satish Kumar, who founded the college in 1991 and Mona Nasseri who is Head of Research. They were joined in December last year by Lord David Triesman, Robert Fedder and Professor Cedric Bell. Lord Triesman brought Mr Fedder in last summer to turn the Trust’s parlous finances around.
Prof Bell and Mr Fedder are also, with Satish and Mona, trustees of the Foundation which, according to the Charity Commission, is 60 days late in submitting its annual return and annual trustee report.

According to Charity Commission figures, the college relies almost entirely on donations for its income. In 2019 it was given £2 million. The latest figure, for 2022, it had an income of £891,850. It spent £801,850. Result – as Dickens’ Mr Micawber might have said – misery. Mr M also believed that “something will turn up.”

After last September’s events, the College did say it was thinking of going it alone and the staff are due to make an imminent statement, possibly this afternoon. At present it is wholly owned by the Trust. Whether this prospect is now nearer, or farther away, the Pulse will attempt to find out.

The statement from Dartington Hall Trust

Schumacher College, which has been supported by Dartington Hall Trust (DHT) since 1991, has discontinued its degree awarding courses with immediate effect.

The Schumacher College Foundation, wholly owned by DHT, decided at a board meeting on 27 August 2024 to close all BSc, MA and PGDip courses presently accredited supported by University of Plymouth. The courses were already closed to new students. Plymouth had agreed a ‘teach out’ arrangement until the end of the 2025/26 academic year.

Schumacher College continues to incur substantial monthly losses and Dartington is unable to underwrite this deficit indefinitely from its limited reserves. The Dartington Board continues to consider viable options 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.

Some 46 students were expected to continue into the 2024/25 academic year with Schumacher. Teaching staff are supporting 58 other students to complete the last academic year, where some dissertations may be outstanding, marking to be completed or resits to be arranged.

The college’s Learning Leadership team has, for some months, been reviewing and considering the accommodation and resource footprint for the delivery of Dartington’s learning provision. However, shorter, unaccredited courses planned by Schumacher for 2024/25 have met with poor bookings.

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.”
The majority of Schumacher’s 32 staff have been placed in a 30-day consultation period for redundancy. Students have been contacted via a dedicated email channel and Dartington has committed to approach them individually as early as possible in w/c 2 September to discuss courses of action case-by-case.
Mr Fedder added:
“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.”

This position was reached in autumn last year, when the very real prospect of appointing administrators prompted the trust to explore the possibility for a turnaround. In the absence of further permitted land sales or availability of assets for disposal, 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.

Schumacher was, and remains, by some d

istance, the Trust’s largest loss maker among several operating activities in the red. The turnaround put no additional financial pressures on the college, giving it time to address its financial shortfall: despite its growing deficit and occupying a prime location on the estate, no internal rent has been charged. In any event, monthly losses have continued to grow. Fees are 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 financial situation at Schumacher reflects the well-documented experience of many higher education establishments in the UK at present. Inflation in recent years has eroded the value of fees paid by UK students, which have been frozen since 2017. In addition, levels of international applicants, particularly postgraduates, have been lower following changes in regulations relating to entry to the UK for students’ families.

An audit commissioned by the University and College Union, published in July 2024, identified 66 universities, more than a third of the UK’s total, as being in financial difficulty.