Two flagship ag colleges set for university status
The Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester and Shropshire’s Harper Adams University College look set to achieve full university status in the biggest shake-up of higher education in 20 years.
RAC college principal Chris Gaskell confirmed that the college had applied for university status after the government relaxed rules on student numbers needed for official university status.
Prof Gaskell said a university title for Cirencester would benefit students who study some of our most important industries – agriculture, food and land management.
Universities minister David Willetts announced that 10 specialist colleges, including Harper Adams University College, were being invited to apply for university status.
“These well-known and highly-regarded university colleges represent more than 1,200 years of history between them. It is right to remove the barriers preventing high-quality higher education providers like these calling themselves universities simply because of their size,” said Mr Willetts.
The Royal Agricultural College was the first agricultural college in the English-speaking world. It has been based in Cirencester for more than 165 years and has developed a strong reputation for the quality of its undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, research and connections with the agricultural industries.
In June, Farmers Weekly revealed that the RAC had caused outrage among former students after it applied to change its name to Royal Agricultural University.
An online petition set up in protest against the name change has attracted 1,190 signatures. However, despite this the RAC is determined to change its name.
Meanwhile, Harper Adams’ principal David Llewellyn said the award of a full university title would be “historic” and underline “the quality of education we provide for our students”.
Outrage at royal college name change