Students have expressed dismay at the news that Schumacher College is to close.

Dartington Hall Trust (DHT), which owns the College, announced late on Wednesday (August 28) that due to mounting losses the board had decided to close all courses supported by the University of Plymouth “with immediate effect”.

The closure will affect some 46 students who were only days away from starting the academic year, as well as 33 staff, who have been given a 30-day consultation period for redundancy.

However, students who contacted this paper said they were not informed of the decision and only heard about the closure after reading about it on our website.

Willoh Wood, who is studying for a BSc in regenerative food and farming, said: “It was an incredibly heartbreaking and surreal experience to learn that the most important part of your life has fallen apart by reading a local newspaper.

“The audacity of Dartington Hall Trust to speak to journalists before informing their students that their degree is cancelled is astounding. We are coming together as a college to organise and would appreciate the support of the local community.”

The mother of a student who wished to remain anonymous said her daughter heard of the closure from this paper only the night before.

“At 10pm last night she was sent the article. Her first reaction was that it was not true because no-one had been contacted. It’s absolutely appalling,” she said, adding that her daughter, who is a second-year student, had been looking forward to the start of the new course.

“To hear it in this way is awful. We’re absolutely gutted as a family,” she said.

In its announcement, DHT said students had been contacted “via a dedicated email channel”, adding that Dartington would “approach them individually as early as possible in w/c 2 September to discuss courses of action case-by-case”.

Updates to follow.