Goldsmiths MFA students seek £15,000 refunds after 21-week strike

Nearly £15,000 a year is the price of full-time domestic tuition at Goldsmiths, University of London, a cost master of fine art students now argue they are not getting value for. With the industrial dispute entering its 21st week, a group of these students is formally asking the university to compensate them for lost instruction.

The current walkout traces back to April, when staff began a marking boycott to protest proposed job cuts. Management responded by deducting 100% of pay from participating employees. The union members argued this action amounted to a lockout. Following a formal ballot, staff at the south-east London university began an indefinite strike in early June. The conflict has now lasted 21 weeks with no immediate end in sight.

For the new academic year, the disruption hit the fine art department particularly hard. Ten of the program's usual 12 tutors took part in the strike action. Florence Sweeney, a part-time student, said many fine art students received virtually no teaching this term. She described the financial burden as a drain and noted that classmates, some of whom traveled from other continents, struggled with the lack of orientation and support.

At a student gathering on Friday, an international student told The Guardian that induction sessions frequently devolved into discussions about the strike. The student said arriving at the campus was a shock after having been excited to start studies. Another student, James Evans from the US, noted that visa and funding restrictions kept him enrolled despite the chaos. He said he had received no marks or feedback on projects from last year and described this year as having no structure or communication.

John Carver, a part-time second-year student, suspended his studies after a departmental meeting at the start of the term. He praised the regular tutors but said the replacement staff did not know the students. The university faces financial pressure from falling applications in core humanities and reduced domestic fees. One staff member described the result as non-stop rounds of redundancies and restructuring.

Joe Newman, a co-president of the Goldsmiths University and College Union branch, said the strike responds to the unprecedented scale of management cuts. He said students were largely supportive and mostly aghast when told the reasons for the action. The university stated that only about 8.5% of its staff are on strike, leaving most students unaffected. A spokesperson said the university paused compulsory redundancies but would not drop pay deductions for the marking boycott. The university is offering regular updates and meetings to affected schools.

The MFA program remains the focal point of student complaints due to the high cost of attendance. International students pay £33,000 a year, while domestic students pay nearly £15,000. The group seeking remuneration believes the lack of regular teaching justifies a refund for the current term. The university has not yet issued a formal response to the specific refund request.