The current crop of students at Harlow Campus have come to realize they may be among the last. They are urging Memorial to reconsider the path to closure of the UK campus.
Memorial’s president Janet Morrison has floated around the idea of selling the UK-based campus in Harlow, which opened back in 1969 to connect St. John’s, the ‘oldest city’ in the ‘new world’ and Harlow, the ‘newest city’ in the ‘old world.’
Monetary reasons, low student enrollment and the university having relationships with various different institutions around the world are a few reasons Morrison gave for the potential closure. A decision on the future of the campus will not be made until late summer 2026.
For the past few weeks, the Harlow campus has been home to 26 students, who are attending for a theater and social justice themed semester.
The courses involved include Anthropology, English and Communications. These students will remain on campus until late November. It is also home to five education students, who have spent the entire semester in the UK.
When the news broke that Memorial may close down Harlow Campus, many students at the campus were unhappy that an opportunity like this would be taken away from future students.
I am currently studying at Harlow and asked many of my fellow students what they thought of Memorial potentially selling the campus. Every student I asked said it would be a bad idea.
Last Thursday evening CBC’s Krissy Holmes interviewed Dr. Jamie Skidmore, who is currently teaching at the Harlow Campus for the seventh time.
Aside from Skidmore, five students spoke to CBC in a live, over-the-phone interview in the Harlow Campus boardroom, along with other students who were also in the room, supporting their professor and fellow classmates.
Students believe MUN is not allowing their Harlow campus to live up to its full potential
One common answer I heard from students in Harlow was that they believed the university is not allowing the campus to live up to its potential.
Samantha Chafe said that they “think it’s clear that there’s an under-utilization and that something needs to be fixed on the administrative side of things.”
Adrienne Squires, another student currently attending the Harlow campus told me that updates to technology could improve the campus. “We are currently sitting in a library that used to have computers in it, and it does not have computers in it anymore…”
“We can’t print anything here unless we go to the receptionist and ask them to print something… just those simple things that every student needs has been taken away.“
“That’s all been cut for financial reasons. I think Harlow absolutely could live up to its potential if they put in the work,” said Squires.
Some students also believe that a lack of awareness of the campus, even among current MUN students, is also limiting its potential.
Multiple students told me they never even knew the campus was a thing until Dr. Skidmore and Dr. Andrea Procter, the two professors in Harlow for the current semester, came into their classrooms to recruit students to the campus.
Sam Rowsell is currently attending the Harlow campus and suggests that student awareness is a barrier.
“I didn’t even know this [Harlow Campus] existed until a year ago. Jamie is the only professor I’ve seen talk about Harlow ever.”
Drake Rose was one of the students that spoke to CBC, and he told them that they believed the Harlow campus has been overlooked.
“I only heard about this place once before I decided to come here, so I can only imagine how many students going to MUN right now have no idea this place exists.”
“Putting in more advertising towards promoting this campus as it is the only Canadian University that has a campus in the United Kingdom. I think that could be something that could drive other students towards this University and could actually help get MUN some of its lost money back,” said Rose.
Students at Harlow campus having an unforgettable experience.
While students think the university should do more to promote the Harlow Campus, they are also all having an incredible time, and say the learning opportunities are unique from what you would get back in Newfoundland.
Jack Drake, a third year MUN student, told me their time at Harlow has been a “horizon broadening experience.”
“There are so many things that I would never even dream of being able to do in Newfoundland that we’ve been able to do here,” said Drake.
Another student Harlow student, Logan Baker, told the CBC that the Harlow Campus is “absolutely incredible.”
“We have … access to what England has to offer, we go to museums, we watch theatre, I saw a three hour interpretive dance about climate change and extinction. I think it’s an absolutely incredible learning experience… there’s so much to learn from here that you would absolutely not get otherwise,” said Baker.
“Be innovative”
While on CBC, Skidmore mentioned a few ways MUN could “be innovative” and make more use of the Harlow campus.
Since professors cannot actually teach in Harlow, what they end up doing is actual in-class teaching in St. John’s for the first half of the semester, and then go up to Harlow for experimental learning for the second half.
Skidmore suggested having a cohort of students do the in-class portion in the last week of the summer semester, and then go up to Harlow for the second half, while another cohort would do in-class learning during the first half of the semester, and then go up to Harlow for the second half.
“Then you would have a constant cohort of students,” explained Skidmore.
He also mentioned that the university should let students and profs have a say in these types of decisions, using business prof’s Tom Cooper’s recommendations for the campus as an example.
“The students are the stakeholders, they should always have a say in these things,” said Skidmore.
