Goldsmiths fine art students call for compensation over record tutor strike

With industrial action over job cuts heading into its 21st week, students at famed London college are unhappy

Students arriving at Goldsmiths, University of London this autumn found a campus embroiled in a bitter industrial dispute that has upended timetables and disrupted courses.

“I was really excited to start my studies at Goldsmiths,” one international student told the Guardian at a gathering of unhappy students on Friday. “But when I first arrived, I was quite shocked because almost all the induction sessions seemed to turn into discussions about strikes.”

The international student was one of the unlucky ones, having enrolled on the master of fine art (MFA) course that has been among the worst affected, with 10 out of the 12 usual tutors on strike, and students now saying they want compensation from the university for their lost learning.

Florence Sweeney, a part-time student, said there had been “virtually no teaching” so far this term for many of the fine arts students, and that a group were seeking remuneration.

“Not only has it been a financial drain, but I can see my cohort are very distressed and anxious, and some are depressed by what’s going on,” Sweeney said.

“Some people have moved from the other side of the world, and for them it’s such a risk. To not even get welcomed or proper briefings, it’s really disappointing, especially for a place with such a good reputation for producing exceptional contemporary artists.”

Goldsmiths is famous for the stellar array of artists among its former students, including Steve McQueen , Sarah Lucas and Damien Hirst . But it has been financially squeezed in recent years by falling applications in its core humanities subjects and the erosion of domestic tuition fees, setting off what one staff member described as “non-stop” rounds of redundancies and restructuring.

Now entering its 21st week and with no end in sight, the current strike involving University and College Union (UCU) staff is the longest in living memory in British higher education, originating from a staff marking boycott in April over proposed job cuts.

Goldsmiths’ management responded firmly to the boycott by deducting 100% of pay from those involved. The union argued that amounted to a lockout and a formal ballot followed, so that since early June a group of UCU members at the south-east London university have been on indefinite strike.

Joe Newman, a Goldsmiths UCU branch co-president, said: “We’ve resisted as much as we can over the last two rounds of restructuring and redundancies. But right now, the scale of the action that we are taking is in response to the unprecedented scale and speed of the cuts management are pursuing.”

Newman said students were largely supportive because they “have more in common with staff on precarious contracts than with senior managers on six-figure salaries”, who he said wanted more savings despite earlier cuts.

“When we talk to the students about why we are on strike, of course there are a range of opinions, but overwhelmingly they are just aghast,” Newman said. “The students who have been here longer have seen the impact of previous cuts and seen how things have only got worse. Students who are new can’t believe that management is about to launch an incredibly messy redundancy process.”

The university said only “a small portion of our staff – around 8.5%” were on strike, leaving most students unaffected, and that it had offered significant compromises to the union, including a pause on compulsory redundancies. But it was not prepared to scrap the 100% pay deductions for the marking boycott, saying it had spent significant amounts to ease the impact on students.

“Like many UK higher education institutions, Goldsmiths faces significant financial challenges, which need to be addressed to ensure its future sustainability,” a spokesperson for the university said.

“We recognise colleagues’ right to take industrial action, but continued disruption risks further impacting students’ education and the university’s hard-earned reputation as a world-renowned academic institution in the long-term.

“We are doing everything we can to monitor and mitigate disruption, and are supporting students on courses affected by this strike action, including offering students’ regular updates, meetings with their schools and other appropriate support as needed.”

MFA students said they had been disappointed by the impact on the two-year course, which charges nearly £15,000 a year for full-time UK students and £33,000 for international students.

John Carver, a part-time student in his second year, said he had decided to suspend his studies after attending a “dismal” departmental meeting at the start of term.

“I’m a mature student, time matters to me, and I would be going into a chaotic situation where tutors have been on strike for so long. There wasn’t any light at the end of the tunnel,” Carver said.

“The tutors at Goldsmiths are fantastic, and the way they interact in tutorials, when you do get them, it’s as good as it gets, you build relationships with all the tutors. But what’s going on now is that [replacement] tutors are being brought in who don’t know the students and it’s not as impressive, to put it politely.”

James Evans, an international student from the US, said visa and funding restrictions meant he had to stick with the MFA course despite the disruption.

“Towards the end of last year, in the first days of the strike, I never received marks back, the end-of-term show wasn’t graded. The marks aren’t the important part, but the dialogue is, and there were very important fixtures for the year that went without any discussion. It was a bit frustrating. But this year it’s been worse,” Evans said.

“Our fees went up this year, [and] as an international student they were exorbitant to begin with. There’s still no feedback on projects from last year, but beyond that there’s no structure, barely any communication. We’ve been left to our own devices. It’s been difficult to navigate.”