Exclusive: Goldsmiths faces mass layoffs (again)

Dear Londoners — Welcome back to the full working week. Though the sky is, at the time of writing, sludge coloured, we have more than enough colour (and juicy just-for-you stories) in today's briefing to make up for it. To start with, there's our exclusive on the massive cuts and large scale layoffs that south London university Goldsmiths' is planning to implement. Though it's bad for all higher educations institutions at the moment, the once-esteemed arts university seems in particularly dire straits. The redundancies an attempt to save £22m in the space of one year — and comes only a couple of years after the last round of redundancies (and the admission that they've lost a quarter of their student numbers within the last five years).

Then, there's our dispatch from Broadway Market, where graffiti artist 10Foot has made a barber's life hell. And there's also news from Chelsea FC, where none other than Katie Price's husband has claimed he's put in an offer... Though let's say the jury's out on whether that's legitimate. Plus: the international bot farms spamming anti-London myths and on social media, a glorious Kilburn pub and the birth of the London Eye. Enjoy.

Exclusive: London’s most radical university is cutting over £20m of jobs… again

Goldsmiths, the south London university famed for producing famous alumni such as Damien Hirst, Mark Fisher, Bernardine Evaristo, David Graeber and Damon Albarn, has announced one of the deepest redundancy rounds of cuts of any university in the capital. The aim is to try and save a staggering £22m in the space of the next academic year to stave off the risk of insolvency.

The programme of cuts, titled the “Future Goldsmiths” programme, was announced in a jargon-laden email sent by interim vice chancellor David Oswell seen by The Londoner. Oswell said the move was necessary as a result of “rising costs, global competition in higher education, geopolitical insecurity and rapid technological and cultural change.” But the move is particularly painful for staff who just two years ago underwent a redundancy round — communicated as an action that would save the university — that saw about a quarter of employees lose their jobs.

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We wrote about the first round of cuts not long after we first launched, and the consensus from the dozen or so staff we spoke to was that this was a different beast to the typical financial struggles seen at universities around the country. While newly established departments like computing and law were protected from cuts, the university’s famous arts courses (the ones that spawned most of its famous alumni) were decimated.

The worry at the time from staff was that the move was self-defeating: that by decimating the niche degrees that formed the basis of Goldsmiths’ appeal in favour of more typical degrees like Business and Law, the university’s unique appeal would be equally damaged. In the latest round of cuts, the university has now admitted its student numbers have fallen by over 25% in the last five years, significantly higher than the national average.

The university’s branch of the University and College Union (UCU) also expressed concern over the university’s spending on professional services despite its financial crisis, citing an FOI it filed in which Goldsmiths admitted spending over £14m on outside consultants since 2019.  

“We’re taking action to secure our place as one of the world’s leading creative universities, at a time when many in higher education are facing uncertain futures and are having to make difficult decisions,” A Goldsmiths spokesperson told the Londoner. “In an increasingly disrupted world we cannot afford to stand still and our plan will ensure that we are able to continue delivering unique critical education and research while supporting our students to achieve their ambitions.”

10Foot tag leads to defacing of Hackney barber’s 

Once you notice one 10Foot tag, you’ll start to recognise it everywhere. The much-discussed graffiti writer from the Isle of Wight has scrawled his moniker across practically every conceivable corner of the city (and particularly its railway network), winning him exhibitions with Banksy and getting his work featured in the Saatchi gallery.

While tagging may have its detractors, there is meant to be something of a code of ethics about targeting independent businesses — nevertheless, 10Foot recently tagged Sharpes barber’s on Broadway Market with a permanent acid-etch pen. After this, Matt Jones’ business has been hit by at least six more taggers — seemingly eager to have their tags seen alongside such illustrious graffiti royalty. “It just makes the shop look horrible,” says Jones, and he thinks he’s losing business as a result.