Goldsmiths students fed up with the 'Goldsmiths way' as university senior management team risk Goldsmiths’ future
‘Goldsmiths: a close-knit community, a rich academic heritage, a creative powerhouse, a thought-provoking place’ – Goldsmiths University
Goldsmiths University and College Union (GUCU) set out on yet another strike as a result of a ‘Recovery Plan’ to be implemented by the College Senior Management Team (SMT) which will see 52 redundancies across the college.
The 3-week strike set to begin on the 23rd November and ending on the 13th December 2021, becomes the second strike of the year, following industrial action taken by the college union in early 2021. The GUCU were informed of senior management’s plan to cut ’52 jobs this year: 20 academics in English & Creative Writing and History, and 32 professional services staff’, in an attempt to improve the College’s finances in a ‘Recovery plan’ deal struck with Lloyds Bank and NatWest bank committing to £4million of staff cuts in 2021 followed by £2million In 2022.
Intended to be a “thought-provoking place”, the consequences of the ‘Recovery Plan’ run further than making staff redundant. With essential degrees and services on the line, the reputation of Goldsmith’s College and education for students’ face an uncertain future. Offering a future of higher education which prioritises the providers over quality of education, voting in favour of the bank's requests.
Despite Goldsmiths financially thriving with an overall net cash inflow of £24.8million between 2018-2020, a financial deficit of £9m was declared in 2020, with a sharp increase to £13m alongside projected post-covid deficits standing between £25m-£40m in 2021.
Following the projected deficits of the College the SMT not only agreed to £6m in staff cuts but also agreed to give ‘a bulk of the College’s buildings & estate (£60m) as collateral to the banks' setting the keys of the College and the future of education in the banks back pocket.
Goldsmiths ‘Recovery Plan’ costing over £3.5m, and counting, has seen years’ worth of strikes and outcry in the College’s community, with students now protesting for their money back.
Altogether, students graduating in 2022 will have missed out on a total of 5 months of classes in a degree that runs for a total of 21 months long. Having also endured a marking strike, which lasted 4 months during an all-online approach due to COVID-19, students are now protesting for a rate of 23.81% (£6600) back from their tuition fees as well as protesting alongside staff members surrounding the issues of the ‘Recovery Plan’.
“Out of the four years I have been studying at Goldsmiths, in total I haven't had 4 months of classes due to strike - that is almost half of an academic year... I'm not saying that this situation is fair on the professor's, it’s not... But most definitely isn't fair on us, the students, who have paid for something we did not get, and will not get.” – Veronica Tavares del Amo Year 3 BA Anthropology and Media
“I wholeheartedly support the strike… we need to understand that what the Goldsmiths SMT is proposing is not only morally wrong, but directly in line with what this current government wants to do with higher education” – Noah Enahoro, Year 2 BA History and Journalism
College professors and temporary staff, who have been fighting for their contracts for the last 6 years- a media professor has told us- will see themselves losing their salary once more and withdrawing their labour so that an institution that claims to “put students first” lives up to their promise.
“The strikes over the past few years don’t seem to be doing much which is irritating seeing as it impacts our education so much” – Poppy Dunn, year 2 BA Media Communications
With members of the SMT earning a hefty salary of over £120k a year, all attempts at negotiation between the GUCU and SMT have so far failed to meet demands for alternative ways to reduce the College’s deficit. As well as GUCU’s demand to #OpenTheBooks also being ignored by the SMT.
Senior Management have clearly destroyed the very foundations and deceived the very promise of the College which once had the best interest to promote the individual skill, general knowledge, health, and wellbeing of its community belonging to the industrial, working, and poorer classes. Hope for the SMT to agree to a better future for the College remain a distant hope.
by Ashlea Abbs and Marianella Lopez
Student links:
https://goldsmithsucu.org/2021/11/02/nojobcuts-resources-for-students/
https://goldsmithsucu.org/industrial-action/