Alumnus donates £0.5million to support students

Posted 20 May 2009

A graduate of Harper Adams whose skills, dedication and attention to detail created a major company in the poultry industry is set to donate half a million pounds in support of the University College’s students.

Mr Robin Faccenda, Chairman of the Faccenda Group, a major chicken producer, will be investing £300,000 in a new student centre at Harper Adams, which will bear his name when it opens in 2010. A further £200,000 will fund a long-term programme of student financial support.

Mr Faccenda, who completed the National Diploma in Poultry at Harper Adams in 1961, said:  “After a long association with Harper Adams with the Faccenda Award and Temperton Fellowship, it gives me great personal pleasure in being in a position to give financial support to a new student centre along with funding for student development.”

Mr Faccenda has been working with the Harper Adams Development Trust to arrange his generous donation. The trust aims to enhance the experience of every student by raising funds to make sure they have access to the best possible facilities and a wide range of scholarships.

Trust chairman Anthony Burgess said: “We are incredibly grateful to Robin Faccenda for offering such a high level of support. It is always a delight to hear the success stories of Harper alumni and I’m sure the students using the new Faccenda student centre will be inspired not only by their modern surroundings and the fantastic support available within it, but also by the generosity and determination of the man who will have made it possible.

“Furthermore, this donation will increase in value in the long term, thanks to the Government’s match funding scheme for Higher Education. All monies passed on to the Development Trust through this scheme will be ploughed straight back into student support, allowing more and more young people planning careers in the rural sector to benefit from the kindness of one of their predecessors.”

Established more than 40 years ago, the Faccenda Group has grown through a series of acquisitions. Operating from sites in Northamptonshire, the West Midlands and Shropshire, the Faccenda Group is a food company supplying chicken products to the retail, food service and food manufacturing sectors.

Harper Adams is the UK’s leading specialist university institution for agriculture and the wider rural industries, providing excellent teaching in land-based subjects and internationally recognised research.