Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College (stylised as Welbeck – The Defence Sixth Form College), formerly named and often referred to as simply Welbeck College, was an independent, selective sixth form college in Leicestershire, England. While run as a sixth form college, the school was an institution of the Ministry of Defence (MoD), and part of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom.
Founded in , the school was originally based at Welbeck Abbey near Worksop, where it provided A-level education for boys planning to join the technical branches of the British Army. By 2004, the school accepted both male and female students for all three branches of the British Armed Forces, and in 2005, the school was re-opened and relocated to a purpose-built site in Leicestershire, where it also began admitting potential civil servants for the Defence Engineering and Science Group within the Ministry of Defence. The school closed on .
History
Foundation
Recognising a decline in the number of cadets passing to Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS), particularly from the north of England, in 1951, the Army Council appointed a committee to consider ways to attract young boys to take commissions in the army. The committee concluded that either a system of scholarships should be established to encourage boys to stay at school until they were 18 before graduating to Sandhurst, or that the army should open a school of its own. The second method was preferred by the council, who appointed a second committee which selected Welbeck Abbey; previously an army college for adults, as the site for the new school. The report was approved by the council, and in the autumn of 1952, work commenced to convert the abbey, which was let by the Duke of Portland to the Ministry of Defence, into a teaching facility.
Following several meetings throughout September 1953 to finalise some last details, Welbeck College, The Army Sixth Form, was officially opened on .
Expansion and re-opening
In 1992, female students were permitted to join the school for the first time.
In 2002, the Defence Training Review resulted in a decision to expand the school to accommodate candidates for the engineering branches of the Royal Navy (RN) and the Royal Air Force (RAF), starting from 2004. Having operated from Welbeck Abbey for half a century, the review also resulted in the decision to close the school at the abbey, and open a new Defence Sixth Form College on the site of some disused barracks outside Woodhouse, near Loughborough.
The purpose-built site was selected for its proximity to the M1 motorway and the East Midlands Airport, and reportedly cost £38 million to develop. The school officially re-opened as Welbeck – The Defence Sixth Form College, on . Upon its re-opening, the school continued to admit potential officers for all three branches of the armed forces as it had started doing the year prior, and began admitting potential civil servants for the Defence Engineering and Science Group (DESG) within the Ministry of Defence.
Closure and current use
On 11 March 2019, it was announced in the House of Commons that the school would be closed in 2021. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence acknowledged that the school had "produced some excellent young graduates", but said that the school was "not meeting Defence's requirements or providing sufficient value for money".
In a parliamentary debate called by then-Conservative MP Nicky Morgan on 30 April 2019, Defence minister Mark Lancaster said that "the scheme as it stands has consistently failed to deliver the required number of engineers and technical officers to Defence since its establishment in 2005", and that, "on average only 53 per cent of entrants have completed [the scheme] successfully, and a proportion of those have not achieved STEM degrees". He also noted that "the scheme has cost the Ministry of Defence and the taxpayer some £200,000 per student who has become a STEM graduate".
The school was officially closed at the final graduation ceremony on , which was attended by Princess Anne.
The site has been retained by the Ministry of Defence, and in September 2021, converted to a military establishment, renamed as MOD Garats Hay. In January 2023, a regional medical centre was opened on the site, for use by serving personnel. The site is currently being used by the military for military training and conference purposes, along with sports events and general classroom learning. Civilian emergency services, including the police also make use of the site, including 'blue light' training, pyrotechnics and simulated gunfire, and canine training.