University bosses have told a public meeting that there are no plans to close the Lampeter campus, despite moving courses to Carmarthen.

On Thursday 27 February the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) held an open public meeting at its Lampeter campus.

Chaired by Elin Jones, MS, the meeting was an opportunity for the University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Elwen Evans and her team to restate the University’s commitment to the campus.

The university said it will work with key stakeholders including local representatives to identify appropriate education-related activities that can bring long-term, sustainable, economic benefit to the campus and the local community.

A spokesperson for UWTSD said: “It was confirmed that there are no plans to close the campus, and the university intends to continue offering its conferencing and venue hire activities as well as other contracted arrangements.

“All existing, informal, commitments for the use of its facilities by the local community will continue until the end of the summer term in July 2025, after which they will have to be reviewed and considered on a case by case basis.

“The number of students enrolling on Humanities courses across the UK higher education sector has reduced significantly over recent years. UWTSD has been impacted by this decline. With only ninety-two undergraduate students it is not viable to maintain the infrastructure of a university campus with all of its buildings and services.

“The university has therefore made the decision to move teaching of its Humanities courses to its Carmarthen campus from the start of the new academic year in September.

“It is vitally important that current and future students have the best experience that UWTSD can offer. This move will enable students to access a wider range of services and experiences. It will also provide the Humanities discipline with the opportunity to revitalise by benefiting from Carmarthen’s multi-disciplinary campus environment.

“The university’s Council made the decision at the end of January 2025 that a formal project should be established that would include representation from key external stakeholders including politicians, the Town and County Councils.

“The intention is for the first meeting of the group to meet in March 2025 and over the following weeks for it to draw together and present viable proposals to the university for securing the future of the campus and bringing new opportunities to the Lampeter community.”

Reacting to the meeting, Ceredigion MS, Elin Jones, said: “There were questions to be asked and answers to be given.

“We probably didn’t cover everything - always difficult in large public meetings to do so. No-one likes the decision to end undergrad teaching at Lampeter - not even the university.

“But we have a chance to re-design its future and use those wonderful assets. The University has committed to work jointly with the town on what the plans could be and there’s enough energy and creativity in Lampeter and Ceredigion to come up with ideas and projects.

“Important message from last night - the campus is not closing.”