The proposed plans to merge Dartington University and University College Falmouth have finally been announced on both establishments websites.
On 1st January 2008 the two colleges will combine and over the next three years courses from Dartington will relocate to a new purpose-built specialist accommodation at Falmouth from September 2010. This will create new courses in Music, Theatre and Choreography at Falmouth along with strengthening the existing Writing and Art courses and open a range of collaborative opportunities for the Arts, Media and Design.
Students starting courses at Dartington in September 2008 will study there for two years, before moving to the new accommodation in Falmouth in 2010 to complete their degrees.
Student numbers will slowly increase by around 225 per year up to more than 4000 by 2012/2013, when the University College will be able to apply for full University status.
The merger is estmated to cost around £20m and the additional influx of students would give a huge boost to the local economy.
Penryn resident Cathy Richardson said, 'This would be really good for Falmouth and Penryn. The diversity of people would grow even more and Penryn especially would feel the benefit of 1500 more students spending their money here.'
But not all are in favour of the move. The 'Save Dartington Community Campaign', consisting of,
amongst others; local residents, lecturers and students past and present, is calling for a years moratorium and a public enquiry in order to explore other options and save the college from closure, citing the Totnes area could lose £5m a year along with a large part of it's history and culture.
In their 'Peoples' report' they state the implications for Falmouth and Penryn could go as far as 'a full-time war' between students and residents and compare moving from Dartington to Tremough like going from 'a dream to a nightmare'.
Totnes town council finance committee acting chairman Mike Hannaford said,'We are hoping that a public inquiry will open the whole thing up again for discussion. Clearly we want to change the decision so that the funding comes to sustain the college at Dartington.'
The Peoples' report can be found here http://www.savedartingtoncollege.org/webdb/application/workfiles/resources/peoples%20report.pdf
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2 comments:
this article definately ties in with your subject area in that it focuses greatly on Falmouth and Penryn but also infringes on student life.
This article is very informative for students and local residents interested in the hype surrounded the proposed merger.
This article is definately newsworthy, perhaps only on a local level but it also affects those potential students in the future that may come from all over the country.
The structure and content of this article seem very professional and well organised.
Hi Tom
This is a newsworthy story of relevance to your audience and you have researched it well.
Your first par works as a news intro and shows an understanding of the genre, but perhaps your story would have been stronger if you had focused more closely on what the merger will mean to students in Falmouth (your readers).
Make sure that you are telling your audience something that is new to them. Much of this information is in the public domain already.
Be careful about accuracy too -- UCF and Dartington college are not universities (see par 2).
Some more Falmouth student voices would have given this story weight and perhaps provided you with a new and different angle.
Be sure to keep your paragraphs to around 40 words in these exercises.
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