The governors of Heythrop College announced on Friday 26 June that the college in its current form, as a constituent college of the University of London specialising in philosophy and theology, is to come to an end. In justifying this closure, the governing body referred to the cost of compliance not the cost of teaching, which implies that there are externally imposed bureaucratic requirements, and that this is what has made this small college unviable. Anyone who has worked in higher education knows how difficult it is for a small institution to survive financially in the current climate, that financial crises are a constant fact of life, but also that things can quickly improve. It would be a tragedy if this unique Jesuit college, with its centuries’ old history, were allowed to