Students from Falmouth University took to The Moor on Tuesday afternoon in protest at cuts and closures and a lack of communication with the senior management.

Campaign group Falmouth Against the Cuts gathered students for a demonstration which was ostensibly aimed at the closure this year of the arts foundation course, but which also marked a deeper dissatisfaction with what is seen as a focus on profit over education and the arts.

Around 30 people gathered in the town centre with placards and banners, before marching up to Wellington Terrace for a show of solidarity with the foundation course students - the last of whom will finish their course at the end of the term.

The university announced last year that it would be shutting the course for at least one year, and has said it should reach a decision this month on whether to permanently it or reopen it for the 2018 student intake.

Tom Austin, one of the march organisers, said: "We're here because we're sick and tired of the decisions the senior management team have been making."

He claimed that teaching and studio hours have been cut, courses have been closed, and tutors have had to leave after speaking out about senior management, while there has been a breakdown of communications between tutors and students and management.

"We want to show our disapproval and our distress at what's happening. We love our university and hate seeing it being disassembled in front of us."

He added that the senior management team refused to connect with students and respond to them, and only by protesting and "challenging" the university's reputation could they get a response.

Emily Seffar, another of the organisers, said the protesters were "concerned" about the direction the university is taking.

She said: "They claim to be the number on university in creative industries, but they are not investing in courses, they are cutting courses. We want to be respected, we want our courses respected, and the local community respected as well. We want clearer communication routes with senior management."

She added that the students understood that arts education was facing similar cuts across the country, but that students chose Falmouth "for the beautiful place, and the community, and that's being threatened.

"We want our voices heard before it's too late, and we want to protect the reasons we chose Falmouth."

A spokesperson for Falmouth University said it had recently held a drop-in session where students could talk to vice chancellor Anne Carlisle, which was "part of a series of meetings the university organises with senior management."

They added: "We want the students to be heard, there are regular drop-in sessions with the two vice chancellors," although this was later disputed by demonstrators.

The spokesperson also responded to what they saw as accusations that the university was no longer respecting "art for art's sake" by saying there had "never been more art and design students," and added: "There has been huge investment in the campus."

And they answered claims that the university has become too corporate by saying: "What the university is trying to do is ensure that our students going out into creative industries are equipped with everything they need to get a great job."