Goldsmiths strike now longest in UK university history
Management presses on with Future Goldsmiths, while the UCU union says it is fighting for the survival of the university. Recent Goldsmiths graduate Lola Coker charts how we got here.
March - June 2026: Goldsmiths University vs the UCU
On 28 March, Goldsmiths University, led by interim vice-chancellor David Oswell, announced Future Goldsmiths, the university's latest plan for “institutional transformation” that aims to achieve £22m in recurrent savings within a year.
The university's previous vice-chancellor, Frances Corner, stepped down in October 2025 ending her controversial 6-year term during which she implemented deep cuts to university staff.
The latest announcement sets out that £20m of the new round of savings would come from staff cuts, explaining that there had been “a sustained decline in student recruitment and resulting reduction in income".
It is the university’s third restructuring programme in five years.
On 27 April, Goldsmiths University and College Union (GUCU) launched an Action Short of Strike (ASOS) and a Marking and Assessment Boycott (MAB), and rejected the university’s explanation of its financial deficit.
On 22 May, the university responded with 100% pay deductions for striking staff. Faced with “what amounted to a lockout”, the GUCU commenced an indefinite strike on 8 June.
This marked the GUCU’s fourth formal round of industrial action in five years.
August - September 2026: build-up to graduation
Despite the industrial action, Goldsmiths published a commitment to return 25/26 session results to its students by July 3. The first cohort of graduates would walk the stage in early September.
Salamander asked for figures on how many final-year students had received their results in time for graduation. A spokesperson for the university said: "Our latest data shows that nearly all of our students have received their results for the year with the majority of these full and final marks.
"Where students are without marks, we are doing everything we can to help them progress. We recognise how important it is for students to be able to mark the end of their studies with their friends and peers.
"Because of the potential impact of industrial action, we are allowing students to attend our summer celebration if they do not have their full results”.
Emma, 22, a recent graduate from the university, said that she had not received her results following the ceremony, despite numerous communications from the university promising her grade releases. “It’s just kind of let me down in the end, really. I wasn’t able to properly celebrate," she said.
Emma also recalled a friend who had to return to their home country after Goldsmiths stopped offering his course in the midst of the Transformation Programme, the university’s 2024 reorganisation effort.
Approximately 128 staff left the University as a result of cuts in 2024.
Emma is critical of the university's lack of transparency with students as to what the latest recovery plans will mean for them: “It's a bit gimmicky as well, because I'm paying for service and I can't get the service.”
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The controversial legacy of Frances Corner
On 16 September, Goldsmiths announced the appointment of new vice-chancellor Joanna Newman, former provost and vice-chancellor at SOAS University.
The previous permanent vice-chancellor, Frances Corner, implemented rounds of deep cuts across the university, while the union says that almost £15m was spent on consultants during her term including over £2.65m to KPMG.
In 2020, in a vote held by Collective Change and the Professors Forum, 87% of voting staff supported a Vote of No Confidence in Corner and the senior management team, following their recently announced Recovery Plan.
In 2024, Goldsmiths Student Union (GSU) held a referendum in which students overwhelmingly (98.9%) supported a Vote of No Confidence against Corner, in reaction to the Transformation Programme proposed earlier that year.
GSU said: “Students have been greatly misled in regard to their degrees in terms of academic content, opportunity, and student experience.”
September 2026: Joanna Newman vs. Joe Newman
Joanna Newman took up her post on 5 September and met with the union. The university management put forward another offer which the union rejected.
On 29 September, GUCU co-president Joe Newman, GSU president Sofian Kourkzi, campaign and activities officer Starr Thomas and a representative from the campaign group Free Goldsmiths held talks to discuss their strike aims and potential student involvement, before further planned negotiations with management on 6 October.
Joe Newman made the GUCU’s demands clear "most crucially, the commitment to no compulsory redundancies over two years.”
The union's further demands are “an immediate pause on further curriculum review work" and to involve staff in this, "to be part of recruitment strategies, a moratorium on the use of generative AI in university systems" and a loan salary sacrifice scheme for international staff to help them pay "exhorbitant" NHS surcharge costs.
The Free Goldsmiths rep, who prefers to stay anonymous, told Salamander that the industrial action has had a “huge impact” on students. They have reported that they have been “unable to enrol because they have not received marks back” restricting their access to student finance, “which means struggling to pay rent.”
Starr Thomas adds that “students that want to do Masters degrees at other unis, can’t.”
Both Thomas and the Free Goldsmiths rep said that "around £200,000 had been taken off [the student union's] budget”, and that Goldsmiths’ financial issues had begun to affect the wider university.
They also reported that paid breaks were taken away from security staff, and many security and cleaning staff were made redundant in the wake of the scheme.
They added that security staff were previously outsourced by the university, and it took a “big student movement around GARA (Goldsmiths Against Racist Action) occupation to make them in-house.”
Salamander asked what Free Goldsmiths wanted the university's senior management team (now recognised at the Goldsmiths executive board) to do differently.
They responded: “Maybe a bit of a utopian answer is cease to exist in the current form.”
The rep added: “What we need is a democratisation of university structure and governance, right?
"So universities are [structured] in a way where you have the governing body council in complete detachment to the university, to teaching, to education, to knowledge, to research.
"They don't know how these things work.”
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October 2026: The dispute continues
The university’s latest proposal was rejected by GUCU on 7 October.
A spokesperson for the university said: “We are extremely disappointed that, despite extensive discussions through ACAS mediation, we have been unable to reach an agreement after the GUCU did not accept our latest offer."
The offer included “a moratorium on compulsory redundancies until the New Year, an enhanced Voluntary Severance Scheme .. and staggered pay deductions for striking staff."
The spokesperson said like other UK higher education institutions, Goldsmiths is facing "very significant financial challenges" and is “unable to make further concessions.”
The executive board declined to comment.
The GUCU said that the offer was rejected “as it merely postpones compulsory redundancies to January rather than removing them.
"The union maintains that job cuts are neither necessary nor inevitable and refuses to accept compulsory redundancies while management continues to withhold the financial evidence behind the decision.”
Starr Thomas claims two new appointments, John Duffy and Peter Mitchell, were made to the executive board, and they are “making six-figure salaries at the same time as cutting [jobs].”
On 16 October, the GUCU set the record for the longest strike action for a UK university at 130 days.
A third of the way into the new university term, GSU says that students are supporting the staff strike action through walkouts, picket lines and open letters.
With current negotiations at a stalemate, the future of Goldsmiths seems uncertain from every angle.
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