Falmouth University Information

Falmouth University (Cornish: Pennskol Aberfala) is a specialist University for the creative industries based in Falmouth and Penryn, Cornwall, England. Founded as the Falmouth School of Art in 1902, it has previously been known as Falmouth College of Art and Design and then Falmouth College of Arts before it received degree-awarding powers, and the right to use the title "University College", in March 2005. In April 2008, University College Falmouth merged with Dartington College of Arts, adding a range of Performance courses to its portfolio. On 27 November 2012, a communication was released to the staff and students and local press that University College Falmouth is to be granted full university status in a move that will further its ambition to become one of the top five arts universities in the world. On 9 December 2012, the University College was officially granted full university status by the Privy Council.

The university is located in Penryn and Falmouth. Penryn Campus, near the town of Penryn, is the larger of its two campuses, which it operates in partnership with the University of Exeter. Falmouth Campus is in Falmouth town centre.

Falmouth University was founded as Falmouth School of Art in 1902, in response to the diminution of scientific activities in Cornwall that was brought about by the decline of the Cornish mining industry.

In 1902, Falmouth School of Art was a wholly private venture and offered classes such as Freehand Drawing, Model Drawing, Painting from Still Life, Drawing from the Antique, Drawing in Light and Shade, and Memory Drawing of Plant Form. Students were charged between four and ten shillings per session for the privilege, and were offered the opportunity to enter for Board of Education exams.

In 1938, the Local Education Authority (LEA) took over the administration of the institution.

In the 1940s, courses became the responsibility of the Head of Truro School of Art, Stanley Wright was appointed Principal, the School was recognized by the Ministry of Education and began to plan ambitious expansion. At this time there were six full-time members of teaching staff responsible for 21 full-time students, 55 part-time day students and 104 part-time evening students. Students were offered the option of studying either "Art" or "Craft". Art, by definition, covered fine Art, drawing and painting, museum study, and modelling and casting in clay. "Craft" included Leather, Weaving, Bookbinding, Block Printing and Wood Inlay.

In the 1950s, the College relocated from Arwenack Avenue to Kerris Vean in Woodlane (built in 1875), Jack Bridger Chalker was appointed Principal and courses for the Ministry of Education’s Intermediate and National Diploma in Design Examinations were offered for the first time. Studios for sculpture and printed textiles were constructed in the grounds. The School now occupied a unique site in the former Fox-Rosehill sub-tropical gardens (which rivalled many others of great renown, such as Glendurgan and Trebah), Michael Finn was appointed Principal, the School began a commercial design course for vocational students as well as a junior design course for school children, and the National Advisory Council for Art Education (NACAE) was established.

In the 1960s, the NACAE published its first report, Peter Lanyon and Terry Frost were appointed as visiting lecturers, a further storey was added to the textiles and sculpture workshops for use as a printmaking studio, and alterations to Kerris Vean presented opportunities for the study of photography. The question for Falmouth at this time was whether an art school with only 120 students, situated in a remote and economically disadvantaged part of the country, could compete for recognition with much larger institutions, against a national backdrop of changing approaches to art education. The LEA and leading artists such as Dame Barbara Hepworth, Bryan Wynter and Patrick Heron were both generous with, and energetic in, their support of the School.

The next dilemma for the School was whether it should seek the NACAE’s authorization to offer the new Diploma in Art and Design (equivalent to a degree), and at that point, it decided to focus on full-time Intermediate and National Diploma students, and relinquish both its commercial design course and some part-time classes. With the purchase of Woodlane’s Rosehill House (built by Robert Were Fox in 1820) in the offing, it had seemed certain that the School would successfully achieve the recognition that it so earnestly sought, but having underestimated the NACAE’s basic requirements for general accommodation, studio space and staffing, and having failed to convince the Council that such a small institution could survive, it was with regret that the School received the news that the NACAE had refused its application. Undaunted, the search for additional land commenced.

Encouragement came to try again from Dame Barbara Hepworth, Bernard Leach, Patrick Heron and Bryan Wynter in 1964. In 1965, the momentous day arrived when the NACAE overturned its earlier verdict, following a reassessment of the School by the Chairman and Vice Chancellor of the NACAE, and the Principal of the Royal College of Art (RCA). The School was now recognized as a centre for the Diploma in Art and Design, with Painting as a main course. Recognition for sculpture was to follow shortly. There were now 40 full-time students at the School, with a remit to expand to at least 100 students, but such expansion could only come about with a major building programme and the purchase of yet more land.

In the mid-1960s, additional studios and technical workshops were added to the School’s estate, and the LEA acquired Rosehill House on its behalf. Of great architectural merit, this building became the centre for Complementary Studies with History of Art, and the Library. Additional land was then purchased at the southernmost boundary of the Woodlane site to enable the enlargement of the painting studios and to provide a cinema, canteen, common room and games room.

At this time, the School offered a pre-diploma (the precursor of our modern-day Foundation programme), a Diploma in Art and Design (DipAD) which superseded the National Design Diploma (NDD), and entrance examinations for postgraduate art and design institutions such as the RCA and the Slade. Design became an important aspect of the School’s curricula, with Patrick Heron teaching two-dimensional design, and Dame Barbara Hepworth and Bernard Leach teaching three-dimensional design. Photography appeared in the College’s academic portfolio for the first time in 1963. The number of teaching staff at the School had risen from six in the 1940s to 25 in the 1960s.

In the 1970s, the School acquired an hotel opposite the Woodlane site and converted it into an hostel for 21 students, John Barnicoat was appointed Principal, and the School was recognized by the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) as a centre for a three-year programme of study leading to the award of a BA(Hons) degree in Fine Art. In 1976, Tom Cross was appointed Principal and the School continued to develop its resources by improving its sculpture studios and creating a new studio for ceramic sculpture. A purpose-built facility for photography and film was added, the library was enlarged, and the acquisition of a further student hostel in Woodlane, at Lamorva House, enabled the School to offer accommodation to 57 students. In addition, the original Arwenack Art School was handed back to the School to serve its introductory Foundation course as a centre for three-dimensional studies.

In the 1980s, BA(Hons) Fine Art was the principal academic course. A two-year BTEC General Art and Design course was added to the School’s portfolio and additional facilities for printmaking, photography, textiles and fashion were then created in buildings adjacent to the School in Woodlane. At this point, the School had a population of approximately 200 students on both HE and FE courses.

By 1984, the School was under threat of closure from the National Advisory Board (NAB) on the grounds that its Fine Art degree course "was academically and geographically isolated". The National Advisory Body (NAB) was set up to rationalise fine art provision in Britain in line with prime minister Margaret Thatchers belief that art education should return to its 19th-century role of providing designers for industry.

The Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Schools Board of Governors, the acting Principal, Ian Carrick, the acting deputy for the Principal, Charles Hancock and Patrick Heron, quickly implemented the School’s only available strategy for survival and galvanized the support of local MPs, renowned artists, former students and friends of the School. The response received was overwhelming and an extraordinary number of individuals wrote to the NAB in support of the School from both within the County and outside it.

Research conducted by NAB itself found that graduates from Fine Art courses headed the league tables for gaining employment in arts related fields after finishing their degrees. The NAB subsequently withdrew its threat of closure and agreed that it would turn its attention to reviewing Cornwalls art and design provision in its entirety instead.

Historically there had been no overall LEA policy for art and design education in Cornwall beyond an accepted notion that Fine Art should be taught at Falmouth School of Art and "applied" Art at Cornwall College, and it had been observed on several occasions that this anomaly presented the greatest impediment to the development of a real centre of excellence for art and design education in Cornwall.

As a result, a joint working party involving senior specialist staff from both institutions was formed by the LEA to consider the future development of art and design in the County.

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