Rose Bruford facing financial difficulties following lockdowns

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Rose Bruford College

Drama school Rose Bruford has revealed it is experiencing financial difficulties in the wake of the pandemic, due to factors including reduced government funding, according to its latest accounts.

It said it would focus on the recruitment of international students as a result, because higher fees can be charged.

The accounts, which cover the period of the year ending July 31, 2022, were published last month.

They state that while the college was in a better position than in the year ending July 2021, the drama school was still facing financial difficulties post-lockdown.

Rose Bruford College said in a statement: "Following the negative financial impact of the pandemic, a combination of factors has both reduced the college’s real income levels and seen a rise in the cost of delivery across the sector.

"Cuts to specialist funding over recent years have partially been recouped with the recent additional specialist funding from the Office for Students [to support the intake of students following the closure of drama school ALRA], but was only a portion of what is needed to meet the full cost of the college’s operations."

The statement added the college had put initiatives in place to address current challenges, including working towards increasing student numbers, increasing efficiency in the delivery of its courses, investment in new technology and fundraising.

According to the accounts, the college had an operation deficit of £215,000 in the year ending July 31, 2022, which was an improvement of £1,382,000 from previous year.

The accounts state: "The college achieved a significantly smaller deficit in 2022, when compared with 2021, it was also cash positive. This means the college starts 2023 in a stronger financial position."

Writing in the accounts, chair of Rose Bruford’s governing body Jennifer Sims said "the college, alongside many others in the sector, has continued to experience financial issues".

She added, however, that the college had emerged from the pandemic "an institution determined not to be offset from its mission".

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According to the accounts, the college plans to deliver financial sustainability over the next five years to combat the impact of "reduced government funding and [higher education] legislative changes, the fallout of Brexit, the impact of Covid-19 and wider competition from new providers entering the higher-education market".

The accounts added that while additional specialist provider funding from the government over the next five years would help its situation, "the uncertainty of a volatile recruitment market, recent high rates of inflation and increasing costs of living combined with space constraints, challenged [its] ability to grow at pace".

The accounts highlighted factors that pose risks to the future of the college, including a potential failure to increase student numbers. They state that growth will be focused on international and postgraduate students, due to the higher fees that can be charged. For example, the BA acting course fees are £9,250 a year for students from the UK or Ireland, compared to £23,000 a year for international students.

Other factors highlighted as financial "risks" include inadequate IT systems disrupting the efficient running of the school, the possibility of inflation causing costs to increase beyond what is affordable, and the difficulty of maintaining a high-quality student experience against a backdrop of reduced funding from the Office for Students, which is the non-departmental public body of the Department for Education.

Sims also referenced the intake of more than 140 students who were left without a drama school following the closure of ALRA in May.

"The ALRA initiative bought a great deal of additional work for staff across the college, but it has been a great success, with students able to continue to the end of their courses with the very minimum of disruption after what was a traumatic time," she said.

Acting principal and chief executive Mary Oliver, who took over from Clarie Middleton earlier this year, said in the accounts that there had been a "significant increase" in demand for accessing student support services following the pandemic.

She added: "Nevertheless student retention and performance remained high, with other 90% retention and the majority of programmes achieving 100% retention post-attrition."

Oliver also referenced lower-than-expected recruitment to undergraduate technical arts, design and production management courses, which have been highlighted by other training institutions as a sector-wide issue.