Bristol vegan’s case against compulsory farming module prompts college to back down

A vegan student who refused to compromise her beliefs to pass a course instead took up the fight with her college and won.

Fiji Willetts says the animal management course with South Gloucestershire and Stroud College (SGS College) was advertised as being “great for people who love animals” and she enrolled with the intention of progressing onto a degree programme in zoological management or integrated wildlife conservation.

In October, the 18-year-old raised a complaint with the college about the compulsory module on farm husbandry.

Fiji, who has been vegan for four years, says the focus on raising animals for meat, milk, eggs or other products is against her beliefs. Students were also expected to attend working farms to help the farmers and Fiji says a visit to a slaughterhouse was also discussed.

The Downend-based teenager claims that when she raised her concerns with the college, she was told she would have to complete and pass the module or risk failing.

SGS College says Fiji was told she “would not be expected to undertake any activity with which she was uncomfortable and that she could opt out of all or some of the unit if she so wished”.

Fiji says she was told she would have to complete and pass the module or risk failing

Fiji says the college’s response to her formal complaint stated it was “unable to remove unit 19, Farm Livestock Husbandry, from the curriculum or substitute it with another unit”.

A complaint was then issued to the Education and Skills Funding Agency, which dismissed discrimination claims.

The case was escalated to the awarding body for non-compliance with equality law – after which Fiji says SGS College agreed to provide a more suitable module.

Speaking about the case, Fiji said: “I couldn’t simply break my way of living purely to pass a course. I am vegan because I love animals and so to go against my beliefs and attend a farm where I would be supporting a farmer would be wrong.”

Fiji sought assistance with the case from Jeanette Rowley, a vegan rights advocate at The Vegan Society, and says without the help she would have been denied a college education.

The 18-year-old added: “I just hope I can now be an example to other vegans so they don’t have to go through the ordeal I went through.”

SGS College says the national diploma in animal management level three course was developed to meet prospective learner and local need, the requirements of local employers, the needs of relevant apprenticeship programmes and to otherwise address local employment needs.

In a statement, the college said it made “every effort to explain to Fiji that the unit was chosen with the intention of delivering a holistic and well-rounded programme that both meets local need while also enabling learners to progress onto the next stages of their education”.

It also says action was taken to reassure the teenager and her parents that the unit had been ethically planned and would be delivered to the highest possible standards, with the highest regard for animal welfare and that it would not be delivered in a way that either disregards Fiji’s beliefs or places her at any disadvantage.

The college says the student was never told she must study the unit but that she was encouraged to do so “because of its usefulness to the local economy”.

Fiji says she couldn’t compromise her beliefs purely to pass a course.

Speaking about the case, Jeanette said: “Vegans in the UK have the protection of human rights and equality law and it is vital that schools and colleges understand that they are under a statutory duty to examine how their educational policies and practices might have a negative impact on vegan students. They must do everything they can to remove any observed disadvantages faced by vegans.”

All photos courtesy of Fiji Willetts

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