Goldsmiths MFA students seek £15,000 refunds as 21-week strike halts teaching

Nineteen thousand pounds is the approximate cost of one academic year for a full-time domestic student on the master of fine art program at Goldsmiths, University of London. That figure is central to a new financial demand from students who argue they are paying for a service that has not been delivered since early June.

The MFA cohort is currently requesting compensation from the university. Florence Sweeney, a part-time student, told the Guardian that many students have received virtually no teaching this term. She described the situation as a financial drain and noted that the disruption has caused distress among classmates, some of whom traveled from other continents to begin their studies.

The industrial dispute has now lasted 21 weeks. It began as a marking boycott in April over proposed job cuts. University and College Union members have been on indefinite strike since early June after a formal ballot. Ten of the twelve tutors on the fine art course are participating in the action.

John Carver, a second-year part-time student, suspended his studies after a departmental meeting at the start of the current term. He said the regular tutors were praised by peers, but the replacement staff did not know the students. James Evans, an international student from the US, said visa and funding restrictions forced him to remain enrolled. He reported that he still has no feedback on projects from last year and that this term lacks structure and communication.

Goldsmiths faces financial pressure from falling applications in core humanities subjects and the erosion of domestic tuition fees. A staff member described recent years as involving non-stop rounds of redundancies and restructuring. The university stated that only 8.5% of staff are currently on strike, a small portion that leaves most students unaffected.

Management has offered compromises, including a pause on compulsory redundancies. However, the university is not dropping the 100% pay deductions applied to staff for the initial marking boycott. A university spokesperson said the institution faces significant financial challenges and that continued disruption risks harming its long-term reputation. The university said it is offering regular updates and meetings with schools to support affected students.

Joe Newman, co-president of the Goldsmiths UCU branch, said the strike is a response to the unprecedented scale and speed of management's cuts. He said students were largely supportive of the action and mostly aghast when told why staff were striking. One international student told the Guardian that induction sessions kept turning into discussions about strikes, leaving them shocked by the experience on arrival.