Two groups of senior academics have written to the Tablet expressing their concern over the breakdown of talks on the future of Heythrop College.

It was announced in June last year that the Jesuit-run college would cease to exist in its present form as a constituent college of the University of London in 2018, for financial reasons.

Heythrop, which has a 400-year history beginning in Belgium, became a specialist theology and philosophy college of the University of London in 1971.

Discussions about a partnership with the University of Roehampton in south-west London broke down earlier this month over concerns about the Bellarmine Institute, the ecclesiastical faculties at Heythrop which offer teaching to seminarians and priestly candidates. Concerns arose because of the pontifical status of qualifications from the Bellarmine Institute, within a secular university.