Goldsmiths students made their feelings known in Deptford, south-east London, on Friday. Photograph: Lily Renshaw/The Guardian View image in fullscreen Goldsmiths students made their feelings known in Deptford, south-east London, on Friday. Photograph: Lily Renshaw/The Guardian Goldsmiths, University of London 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
Prefer the Guardian on Google 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.
Read more 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.”
Read more 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,”…