I spent a bit of time contemplating whether it was even worth writing this blog. . . given that I’ve written so many now on the same topic, and yet nothing seems to change? Yet here I am again – shouting into my tiny echo chamber as yet another small college announces that it’s closing.
Their closing statement really resonated with me though:
This was a college that had no difficulty attracting students, a college that was delivering demonstrably impressive results each year, a college which truly forged a career path for its graduates, a college which focused on quality over quantity (which undoubtedly feeds into the previous point), but without an appropriate government funding stream it was unable to stay financially viable.
Now compare that with the conglomerate colleges who are filling their courses with sub-standard students, failing to support their staff as they attempt to batch train students, failing to create careers, but managing to stay afloat (financially), helped by the tears of disillusioned students who were duped into thinking that their courses would lead to a successful career in the arts.
You can pretty much count on one hand these days the number of small colleges left, but many of them, like the conglomerate colleges, are having to lower their standard of entry to make the books balance.
In April, I noted how university courses, many of which had been instigated as a revenue resource for larger colleges, are also struggling to get full cohorts, leading to lots of them simply ditching the arts altogether. Thanks to nobody addressing these issues, we are now seeing thousands of students with limited ability getting ripped off as they study on sub-standard courses. As the closure of TTC shows (and dare I say it, The MTA too), we’re not losing the crap colleges that weren’t delivering for their students, we’re losing successful, student-centric routes into the industry.
Meanwhile, other courses get diluted further, fewer contact hours, more students, and a subtle change in a policy announcing that colleges are now giving life experience as opposed to offering vocational training with a direct route into a career.
The FDS has said nothing, other than a quick announcement a few weeks ago to say that they had kindly added two more colleges to their old boys’ network. Where is the grassroots organisation to stand up for students? Where is the industry outcry? Why isn’t the wider industry doing more to work out how to successfully fund a student-centric model? Where’s the think-tank to get to grips with this issue?
Like when The MTA closed, TTC has been lauded with plaudits around the great work that they were doing? Rather than writing a glowing eulogy, maybe, just maybe, some people need to get together and realise that the current funding model is not fit for purpose, and start planning a way out of the mess that the “degrees for all” ideology created.
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