The closure of Carlow College and the decision not to integrate it into the South East Technological University (SETU) has been described as a “smash and grab operation” by campaigners. The third level institution was established in 1782 and largely teaches liberal arts and humanities programmes such as history, social care, teaching and psychology to its almost 600 students. In May it announced it would be closing on a phased basis over a two-year period up until August 2028, allowing all current students to complete their courses.The college’s 87 staff will be made redundant following a consultation process and its courses have been withdrawn from the Central Applications Office for the coming academic year.However, staff, students and union representatives have criticised how the closure was handled at a press conference on Wednesday ahead of an Oireachtas committee hearing on the issue.“It is so important that every single person should have the opportunity to return to education, and smashing locally based education should, to my mind, be treated as a criminal offence because it is a smash and grab operation,” Ailbhe Smyth, former academic and spokeswoman for staff and students said at the press conference on Wednesday.The closure announcement came as a surprise to staff and students who were previously told that despite the financial difficulties facing the college, which is privately run, a process of integration with SETU was underway.Carlow College had been engaging with education stakeholders on the issue as far back as 2017, with the explicit goal of retaining some or all of its courses and staff throughout.Regina Donlon, lecturer at Carlow College, said staff had been working “tirelessly” to try increase students numbers and secure the future of the college.“As recently as the Saturday before the announcement on May 19th, we had student recruitment officers out trying to recruit students for the coming academic year,” she said. “That was three days before the announcement. We had absolutely no information that the college was about to enter a teach-out phase.”James Heaney, also a lecturer at Carlow College, told the Oireachtas Committee on Further and Higher Education that the integration process had the support of the department, SETU, and Carlow College as late as spring of this year.The reason for its “very late failure” appears to have been “precipitated by the contents of the due diligence report issued by Mazars to SETU in February of this year; a report which – apparently – no one other than SETU has yet seen", he added.Yvonne McGrath, education organiser with Siptu, told the committee the failure to inform staff of the decision to close in a timely manner, and to engage with them along the way, raised “fundamental questions about governance, transparency, accountability and industrial relations standards within institutions that receive public funding to deliver a public service”.The committee has sought a copy of the Mazars report received by SETU in February and will be reflecting further on the circumstances which led to the closure of the college.