The Royal Agricultural University’s campus exudes regal charm, spread majestically over 25 acres on the edge of the Cotswolds. For alumni, however, it was a “boarding school without rules” where there was drunken outdoor sex and barns were accidentally set alight.
The university — known as the “Oxbridge of the countryside” because of the number of students from rich and privately educated backgrounds — was in the spotlight this week when charges were dropped against four young men accused of rape after the Mad Hatter’s May ball in 2014.
The case was thrown out after new evidence raised questions about the alleged victim’s claims.
The university, which has only 1,200 students and was set up in 1845, was the first agricultural college in the English-speaking