Goldsmiths Students’ Union stands in solidarity with Goldsmiths staff against the cuts, and rejects the destructive restructure.
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Goldsmiths SU Sabbatical Officers firmly oppose the Senior Management Team's (SMT) disastrous 'Transformation Programme,' which prioritises misguided financial prerogatives over the community and welfare of students and staff. This is an act of vandalism to the Goldsmiths community and culture that has led to the pursuit of devastating and extensive redundancies to staff at the expense of unparalleled expertise, the closure of unique programmes and modules, and the gutting of departmental identity. These measures risk a further decline in the student experience and support already severely impacted by previous restructures. The uncertainty and threat caused by the Transformation Programme to students rights is unacceptable.
Goldsmiths Students’ Union stands in solidarity with Goldsmiths staff against the cuts, and rejects the destructive restructure. We call for an urgent meeting with SMT to discuss the implications for students.
Last October, the Student Union alongside other key stakeholders were informed of an imminent financial crisis within the University, whereby Senior Management reported that, due to a reduction in the numbers of students, they would be facing a financial shortfall.
In response to this, the Senior Management Team launched a range of measures, collectively known as the ‘Transformation Programme’, that they claimed would stabilise the University’s finances. These measures included course and module closures, an academic restructure, and, most notably, the redundancies of around 130 academic staff.
Whilst Senior Management have consistently attempted to colour these decisions as rational economic measures designed to bring the University into a place of financial stability, the reality is that these are ideological decisions being made at the expense of students and staff. They have previously cited pressures at the Higher Education Sector level with reduced recruitment of international students, capped home student fees, and limited Governmental support, are additional justifications for their measures. We reject this narrative.
Nonetheless, poor financial management represents a significant, unaddressed cause of the College’s current financial woes. During the COVID era, the University took out multi-million pound loans with covenant conditions which were breached following the decline in the number of students.
Note: An earlier version of this statement inaccurately referred to covenant conditions that stipulated conditions on the number of students. The exact conditions of the covenant have not been released. We would like to apologise for this error.
This alone displays an astonishing lack of foresight on the part of Senior Management, at a time when there was great uncertainty as to the length and impact of the pandemic. This is compounded by the numerous other ‘efficiency’ measures imposed by Senior Management in recent years.
Senior Management have refused to acknowledge that any of their previous decisions have impacted on the financial situation of the College, and have further refused to take any accountability for not only the financial situation at the College, but the added burden and detriment caused to student experience, staff workloads and to the culture at Goldsmiths . Their decision to enact a previous ‘restructure’ that decimated administrative staff, creating centralised ‘hubs’, led to a marked and precipitous decline in student experience, and increase in staff workload. This created a negative feedback loop of a decline in student experience, severely overworked staff, thus leading to pressures with student retention and recruitment, in addition to finances, which the Senior Management have not directly acknowledged as a contributory factor to the current situation. It is notable that the current ‘Transformation Programme’ was embarked on by Senior Management after receiving the lower than anticipated student numbers for 2023/2024, continuing a downward trend in the intake and retention of students, pushing the University toward greater precarity. A fatal flaw in the supposed logic of these measures arises when considering how the destruction of knowledge, loss of student services and gutting of academic departments will further impact on the precipitous decline in student numbers under this Senior Management Team.
We believe that there are numerous other cost-saving and revenue generating measures that could have been implemented with a much reduced impact to the University community. Goldsmiths is in the fortuitous position of owning many useful facilities very close to central London that could have been utilised to create additional revenue. Instead, the Senior Management decided to impose the ‘Transformation Programme’ on students and staff, causing widespread impact on students at all levels of study, with uncertainty and a lack of direct consultation with students or a clear knowledge of the interconnections in impact caused by each measure they have proposed.
As the ‘Transformation Programme’ continues, Goldsmiths University and College Union (GUCU) members have sought to respond to protect the University, and their members' ability to teach students by balloting for industrial action. This includes Action Short of a Strike, which has been implemented in the form of the Marking and Assessments boycott. Whilst we recognise that Students may be anxious about the implications of this on their progression, it is paramount that the collective frustration be channelled to the root cause.
We stand in solidarity with Staff, recognising that the unique experience, perspective, and output of academic staff is a key motivator for prospective students in attending Goldsmiths. The risk that reduced academic staff will lead to a massive loss to student experience, from the amount of contact hours students will receive, to issues with supervision for theses at all levels, increased pressures for retained staff has not been considered, nor that a further decline in a student experience caused by a loss in the unique expertise to lead our trailblazing programmes such as the MA Black British History. Amongst further administrative chaos through the ‘consolidation’ of student support services, only two years after the previous restructure, the Student Union experienced a 258% increase in the number of Appeals cases after these changes were instituted. These measures threaten to upend student life. Students will have sweeping changes to their courses imposed, including vastly different content than expected as courses are axed and altered, and programmes being taught by academic staff without the specialist insights of their former colleagues.
In the previous restructure, issues with centralised administrative processes caused significant delays, depersonalising experiences of anonymous mailboxes, and persistent unresponsiveness. Students sought help from their tutors, departmental staff, and the Student Union as official procedures failed to provide adequate answers or deliver the respect that students deserve. However, the Senior Management team's focus on financial priorities has stripped resources and power from staff, leaving them overworked, underpaid, and struggling to manage an ineffective system, while college management continues to receive substantial salaries. This situation will be compounded by the effects of the Transformation Programme. The senior management's relentless focus on finance undermines the integrity of education, the Goldsmiths community, and the welfare of both students and staff. This is particularly acute at an institution that supposedly professes the merits of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences against a societal shift that has devalued them. The deliberate overworking of staff compromises the quality of education and support students receive, forcing them to rely on an already strained system. The Student Union stands in solidarity with Goldsmiths staff.
We know that students have already begun to experience significant uncertainty, from not knowing what their programme or modules will look like, to not knowing who will teach and supervise their work. We also know that students are experiencing a wide range of administrative issues. Students should not have to flood to appeals or complaints procedures to have their voices heard or their issues resolved, nor wait excessively to receive a response. These experiences speak to ongoing, systemic issues caused by a broken institutional system’s financial prerogative which disempowers its community, with emergency and contingency procedures being used for day-to-day business. It is the responsibility of Senior Management to ensure that students are not prevented from getting their well-deserved awards and progressions in an accurate and timely manner, and thus we would encourage students to participate in voicing their frustrations by documenting the impact they have faced. The SU is also committed to advocating for students' rights to timely graduation and progression, and call for the College to recognise that it would be a failure of College administration to not prioritise these.
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Voice Your Concerns: We would encourage students to voice your concerns to the College. Do not hesitate to reach out to the College via your hub, registry, department with questions and concerns you may have, such as if you are uncertain about your programme, modules, or supervisors.
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Document Impact: Keep a detailed record of how the changes and delays are affecting your studies and progression. This documentation can be useful for complaints or appeals.
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Submit Complaints: If you have experiences which have been exacerbated by the restructure, or for which you want to seek redress from the College, consider submitting a formal complaint.
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Use our email template: Email senior management or executive decision makers about your concerns. You can use our email template to get you started. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yruH6HOjUW83dJzUA5SBGtrgPox5oawxRq8ik08q0rg/edit?usp=sharing
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Look out for actions: Keep an eye out for upcoming initiatives, campaigns or actions to stay informed and involved.
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Seek Support: If you need support with academic issues, an appeal or complaint, you can reach out to the SU Advice team for support: https://www.goldsmithssu.org/advice/. You can also reach out to the sabbatical officers at: sabbs@goldsmithssu.org
Participating in the above action would complement that of the Marking and Assessments Boycott being undertaken by staff, to increase the pressure on Senior Management to bring about a swift conclusion to this situation.
Goldsmiths has, over recent years, had an outsized impact on the Cultural, Political and Academic landscape, both within the UK and beyond. When you switch on your radio and hear an A.G. Cook chart-topping hit, visit an art gallery to view a Yinka Shonibare piece, read Forensic Architectures' latest investigation in the Guardian, loan Sara Ahmed’s groundbreaking work The Cultural Politics of Emotion from a Library, read Will Davies lucid political insights in the LRB, or put your children to bed with Michael Rosen’s We’re Going on a Bear Hunt; you are benefiting from the legacy of the University, a legacy that is being put at risk. We believe depriving the next generation of Goldsmiths students and staff of their opportunity to follow in these footsteps is an act of callous vandalism that contradicts the shared values of this unique institution, which will only hurt students as the relative prestige of a Goldsmiths degree declines in response to this Programme.
Despite the widespread calls to reevaluate, protect academic staff, and secure a future for students - including numerous open letters from academics, students, alumni, and civil society actors, both within the Goldsmiths’ community and beyond – Senior Management are refusing to step back from the precipice of impending disaster, pushing ahead with these measures with insufficient consideration over potential consequences. Despite their apparent business experience, the Senior Management team are still blinded by the sunk cost fallacy. We, as an officer team, continue to urge them to reconsider: It is never too late to stop this impending tragedy.
In the meantime, we will continue to push for student protections, rights and support throughout this, and stand in solidarity with our academic colleagues.
Yours in Solidarity,
Goldsmiths Student Union Sabbatical Officers