Schumacher College is a progressive college for ecological studies offering postgraduate and undergraduate programmes, research degrees, short courses and a practical agroecology residency.
We focus on interactive and experiential education to help students develop the practical skills and strategic thinking required to face 21st century challenges and to instigate regenerative futures.
Our learning ethos is about participating, getting out into the field, into the kitchen, experiencing the world as a starting point for more in-depth enquiry. These experiences then inform anti-reductionist, whole systems thinking that can help to break down traditional disciplines and foster collaborations that reach towards a better understanding of the truth.
ABOUT US: Read more about our history and ethos >
live chats & open days
Get to know our College, our faculty and our programmes with these online and offline events.
flexible learning
There are so many ways to connect with our learning programmes to suit your lifestyle – including low-residency or part time routes, unaccredited modules, and blended learning models.
postgraduate programmes
Regenerative Food, Farming and Enterprise
MSC | PGDIP | PGCERT
This radical new course is designed to help you develop your knowledge and understanding of resilient human-scale food systems and learn the skills needed to design, influence or develop resilient, productive food-based networks and businesses of your own. With an ecological and systemic approach, you will carve out a path towards making a positive contribution to the food economy.
Regenerative Economics
MA | PGDIP | PGCERT
Regenerative Economics challenges and offers alternative perspectives to mainstream economics programmes – by looking through the lens of ecology as if both people and planet mattered equally.
Movement, Mind and Ecology
MA | PGDIP | PGCERT
Explore the rich intersection of embodied practice, environmental philosophy and ecological thinking with this distinctive new course. The first of its kind, the MA programme encourages you to use your own physical engagement with the world to reshape your understanding of place, nature, self and society, with the help of world-renowned experts from a wide range of physical pursuits.
Engaged Ecology
MA | PGDIP | PGCERT
A radical programme for students looking to reconsider their relationship with the more-than-human and find solutions to the environmental and social crises of our time. The course equips you with the skills to engage practically in the field, while also allowing you the time and space to develop a personal understanding of the interconnected nature of the world.
Ecological Design Thinking
MA | PGDIP | PGCERT
Be active and transformative within organisations, communities, economics and education as we meet the challenge of transitioning to low carbon, high well-being and resilient places and systems. Never has there been a more important time for a new approach to design.
undergraduate programmes
Regenerative Food and Farming
BSC (HONS) | DIPHE | CERTHE
The BSc in Regenerative Food and Farming gives you the opportunity to explore leading-edge alternatives to mainstream agricultural practices and food systems, through a programme of integrated experiential learning, study alongside expert faculty and practitioners, meaningful work placement, and guided independent projects.
Short Courses
Our courses celebrate the ethos of learning by doing and nature connection developed here at Schumacher College and across a century of arts learning on the Dartington estate. They unite ecology, craft skills and contemporary art with politics, philosophy and social justice, underpinned by a stronger sense of our place in the world. Our learning experiences are offered alongside short courses from the Dartington Arts School as part of a collaborative learning community.
more from schumacher
Unaccredited modules
If you love our degree programmes but can’t commit to a full course, it’s possible to select modules as unaccredited short courses.
Practical Residency In Agroecology
A rich, six month immersive programme learning how to grow food in a way that maintains and restores soil and ecosystem health.
virtually schumacher
– Ongoing series of live chats with course tutors
– Podcasts
– Video archive – including our long-running Earth Talks series
research at dartington
We offer research degrees in partnership with University of Westminster CREAM. Our researchers have expertise in a wide range of topics including arts practice-led research; animism; medieval literature; modernism; story and myth; arts, design and ecology; ecology and spirituality; Goethean science; regenerative economics, farming and food; social work with adults and children; and social enterprise.
latest news & blogs
Food will help us change the world says anthropologist Simon Platten
Listen to our podcast with Dr Simon Platten, programme lead on BSc Regenerative Food, Farming and Enterprise in which he talks about his passion for teaching on the UK's first ever course in regenerative farming and why he thinks changing the food system can...
Resurgence & Ecologist magazine is looking for a senior editor
The Resurgence Trust is seeking a talented and experienced senior editor to work on all aspects of the production of our bimonthly membership magazine, which has been hailed as the flagship publication of the environment movement. The successful candidate will be committed to ecological, spiritual and social values.
Circling back to flax: Practical insights from Dartington
In this blog post we reflect on the cycle of learning as experienced on MA Engaged Ecology through the process of growing, treating and weaving flax into linen.
watch: Soil To Supper – Sustainability at Schumacher
watch: our students in their own words
follow us
We have two brilliant (and FREE) talks coming up this week at @dartingtontrustbooks
On Thursday (9th Feb) we have Sylvia V. Lindstead reading from her new book 'The Venus Year', an almanac of one Venus year in her own life. A year of loss and of gifts; a year of transformation, spent between the Greek island of Crete and her home in California. It is at once memoir and myth, monthly seasonal notes and glimpses of daily life, and the poems and short stories that came from those days.
Dr Lucy Maddox will also be joining us on Monday (13th Feb) to talk about her latest work 'A Year to Change Your Mind'. She pinpoints issues common to each month, and shares evidence-based ideas from the therapy room which help us to reflect on our own experiences, both joyful and painful, and learn to live a more thoughtful, positive life.
’12 months’ worth of smart self-help from someone you’d want on your team in a crisis… genuinely useful, charming, comforting.’
Anoushka Groce, The Guardian
dartington.org/whats-on/
#literature #books #author #memoir #reading #totnes #dartington
Our BSc Regenerative Food and Farming students grilling experienced farmer and activist Ed Hamer at Chagfood CSA on Friday.
@chagfordcsa
📷 @aitkencaroline
#regenerativeagriculture #regenerativefarming #farmerlife
Attending open days can help you get the answers you need before applying to a university. On 09 February, we will be hosting a virtual open evening where you can speak to academic staff from across our degree courses. Discover our ecological, regenerative approach to learning and find out more about each course we offer. Additionally, we will have a member of the admissions team on hand to answer any questions about the application process. You still have time to register, link in Bio.
📷 Josh pratt
#highereducation #degrees #tranformativelearning #ecologicalpractices #opendays #university #apply #students #undergraduate #postgrad #learningopportunities
@schumacher_center @schoolfarmcsa @apricotcentre @riverford @oxfordrealfarmingconference @landworkersalliance @landskillsfair @dartingtonmill
Satish Kumar embodies his Soul, Soul, Society triptych so much that he kindly agreed to don our Schumacher College hoody on his latest visit to Dartington. Like and tag in someone you know who might like it and we will give away this hoody to one lucky person. Or grab your own via our @teemillstore online store. See our Schumacher Apparel store in our bio to order other version incl. the “You are therefore I am” sweater. #steez #clobber #threads #dapper #ecofriendly #sustainablefashion #clothing #hoodie
#garms #apparel #sustainablefashion #satishkumar #dartington #slowfashion #guru