Harper Adams University College

Dr Martin Hare outside some of the elegant buildings at Harper Adams

A winter wheat variety trial in the fields at Harper Adams

The indoor soil barn, an area for teaching and research, including 4 WD operations
The new dairy buildings at Harper Adams

If the layers of post-school education in Australia seem a little confusing, then the complicated English higher education system beats it into a cocked hat. Universities, university colleges, colleges, further education colleges and regional colleges all fit into this sector. Universities can confer their own degrees as can university colleges, but colleges have to have their degree programs overseen by a university. Confederations and affiliations abound. University colleges are stand-alone institutions, but lack the number of enrolled students to become a university. All sorted.

Harper Adams University College is an agriculture-centred college at Newport in Shropshire, north of Birmingham. Located quite near Wales, it is a marvellous setting for a learning institution. Old stately buildings, now mostly offices, are at the centre of the campus and it is surrounded by over 200 acres of farm land.

Dr Martin Hare, Senior Lecturer in Crop Protection, outlined the background to their Ag programs and took me on a walking tour of the campus. The bulk of land and activities are under the direct control of the farm manager who has a commercial agenda (run as a farm business). Research and student involvement in farm activities are negotiated between the academic and farm management groups. Arable (cropping) areas are utilised to produce inputs for the dairy, pig and poultry production units. A new dairy milking parlour and feed stall shed were opened last year and a regional Food Academy for food technology research and development was opened this year. Manufacturers and processors can bring new ideas or problems to the academy and have lab space and assistance to solve any issues.

A leader in adoption of new technology, the college has begun to incorporate alternative energy and building components in all new buildings. Solar panels (photo-voltaic cells here) have been retrofitted to student accommodation, a new student services building is utilising water recycling systems. A large boiler unit has been constructed which uses green and farm waste as energy sources, and this will supply the heating needs of more than half the campus. An anaerobic digestion system is planned for construction to utilise slurry and perhaps outside wastes from the surrounding area.

I had a meeting with Emma Pierce-Jenkins, a lecturer in Planning who teaches in the Land Economy courses (estate agents, land managers, environmental planning). She outlined the processes that councils go through to identify likely areas for urban development and how landholders or their agents propose their units of land for development. Councils then sort through proposals and discard them based on criteria such as the suitability of land for farming (the term "best and most versatile land" dominates development discussions about farming land so that very good farm land is harder to develop), the need for housing, the supply of services, and social issues. It is a requirement that a mix of housing be planned (different sizes, different prices, different classes of owners or tenants) and that any development is based on redevelopment of old sites (brownfield) 60%, and new greenfield areas 40%. This stops the centres of older settlements being left abandoned or isolated.

Other issues for farm landholders include the rights of public footpaths (already long established here) in areas of moors, heaths and upland areas and along a coastal marine path. There are some restrictions on who can access the rights of way, with which companion animals and when, but there are real issues of liability for livestock owners especially in the connection of calving cows with walkers with dogs or horse riders. The density of population here means that access to areas of public recreation are desired by many interest groups, I think to a point beyond which the general public in Australia would not tolerate.

The dairy sheds were being filmed by a Welsh television crew and the former principal of the college was being interviewed in Welsh. It is confronting to be in an English-speaking country and witness an interview where you have no knowledge of what is being said. That's ahead for me in Germany in a week or so.

There is a strong move to place full-time students on farm for a work-based placement during their second or third year. The work is paid and in some cases undertaken on overseas farms or industries. Students often go on to employment with the same workplace sponsor, and it enhances the link between the college and industry. We can learn from this for our Certificate 4 and Diploma students at Richmond TAFE.

The college also undertakes applied research for different companies and industry groups. this is co-ordinated through the farm manager for open field trials or they are conducted in specific trial areas. Issues such as wheat variety trials and the establishment of beetle banks for predator habitat have or are being studied at the college in this manner. The college adds value to its produce by using farm produced goods through the student and staff cafeterias. I can vouch for the tenderness and taste of its beef at an excellent lunch.