Olivia Rohll: Ag college prepares next gen for changing industry

I loved my time at the Royal Agricultural University (RAU).

I was only there for a year, but that was more than enough to get a sense of the huge value specialist colleges provide the agricultural sector and the young farmers who come through their doors. 

I have heard agricultural colleges criticised for focusing too much on theory and, increasingly, on sustainable farming.

See also: Lucy Walker – frustration at fields filled with walkers

About the author

Olivia Rohll

Olivia Rohll is a former consultant who recently studied a graduate diploma in agriculture at the Royal Agricultural University. Based in Oxfordshire, the 28-year old is building a portfolio career in food and farming focused on research, writing and podcasting.

Read more articles by Olivia Rohll

While I was there, I even heard of one class uprising over a module that students didn’t feel was relevant enough to their future lives.

You wouldn’t get that level of student engagement on a history degree. 

Such criticisms take too narrow a view of the role of specialist universities.

They are there to provide the next generation with useful knowledge (and who knows, your child’s exposure to agroecology might save your family business one day), but they are also a source of resilience and vitality for the whole sector. 

As a new entrant (a former London consultant with no familial connection to farming), I feel obliged to point out the pathway universities provide for people with diverse educational and professional backgrounds to get started.

There is no way I, or many of my classmates, would have ended up in farming without the RAU and, dare I say, there is a value to the various skills and interests we bring. 

Specialist universities also keep home-grown talent from leaving the sector; a second child from a small farm can become an agronomist, while another who is not sure they want to farm can study business within an agricultural context.

Let’s be honest, agricultural college is also a dating service. After all, it’s a sector where it’s more useful than most to have the whole family involved.

By attending agricultural college, young farmers are put on an equal footing with their peers who will go on to advise them or influence their fate – whether as suppliers or policymakers at government level.

This connection and mutual understanding has not always existed historically, but will be hugely valuable for navigating the years of change ahead.