I have been reading with interest the debate on the future of art education hosted in these pages over the previous months.

Eighteen months ago myself and a group of fellow art foundation students were eagerly debating the choices available to us for further study on BA fine art courses. We researched the possibilities, speaking to students and recent graduates from universities in the area. Our research revealed much disillusionment and the feeling that the time (and money) spent had not yielded the expected results. The expectation seemed to be that graduation would signal the arrival of an accession point, where the student would become an artist. On talking to graduates several years out of college it was clear that a whole other period of 'education' was required to even begin to carve out something that resembled a career.

During our year as foundation students, those of us who were interested in talking to tutors about some of these issues found it to be an education in itself; their frustrations with management, the requirements to maintain numbers and to retain students on courses they were plainly unsuited to. To hear opinions on some university selection criteria like 'they would accept you if you turned up with half your brain hanging out' did little to inspire confidence in moving on to thirdlevel education.

We were left with many questions: what is three years of a university art education worth? What can you reasonably expect? Is this the best way to develop a career as an artist? What does it actually mean to be a practising artist? When do you become an artist? In the end, when it came to UCAS deadlines and the general expectations of family/society, most of our fellow students went off to university. After much discussion and debate, a few of us decided to take a different approach and set up Islington Mill Art Academy.

Islington Mill Art Academy is a self-directed, self-organising, alternative art school. We began the project to experiment with what an education in art could be, where it could take place and how it could be paid for. At the outset, we embarked on a period of writing, debating, planning and imagining. With some initial budgeting, we arrived at similar calculations to JJ Charlesworth's analysis of UAL's annual report for 2007 (AM317). We talked about the idea of introducing fees, each putting a fixed amount of money in a pot to pay for tuition and other expenses. With no history, track record, tutors or accreditation, not even knowing how long this experiment would last, would anyone be prepared to pay for this? How many people could realistically afford an education without the assistance of student loans?

During this time of uncertainty we took advice from artists that we knew. The general consensus was that if we had a place to work and a number of interested people, we should just do it. We found a space at Islington Mill, a former cotton-spinning mill now housing artists' studios. We came to an agreement whereby we could work the bar in the club there in return for a space to work in. The Art nothing happens. Most professional practising artists we have met have told us that this balance between personal practice and administration is a reality for them also. Many of these are the basic considerations of any education. However, we are excited about the potential to reassess our own art education from the bottom up.

On the plus side, we have managed to attract many more visiting artists and lecturers in the past year than some of our local universities. We have been invited to work on projects by established artists, groups and institutions (Castlefield Gallery Manchester, Westgermany Berlin, Transmission Glasgow). By disregarding the need for university accreditation, we have been treated as a group of young artists, working alongside and learning from other more established and experienced practitioners. It is doubtful that we would have had these opportunities were we now students at the end of our first year on a BA fine art degree.

The group does not position itself in competition to the university system. We often work with artists, lecturers and students that are based within these institutions. Many have confirmed and reiterated the opinions expressed in these pages over the previous months. For those of you who are interested in this discussion, we would very much like to hear from you. We have not found the answer to the problems facing art education at the moment but we are willing and eager to put our energies into furthering and expanding on this debate.

Maurice Carlin, Islington Mill Art Academy, Salford, reproduced from the letters page, Art Monthly, September 2008.

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