Goldsmiths walkout becomes longest strike in UK university history

Staff at Goldsmiths in London have reached 130 days on strike. That count on 16 October 2026 makes it the longest strike in UK higher education history, according to The Art Newspaper.

Members of the Goldsmiths branch of the University and College Union, the staff union, started action short of a strike on 27 April. That is working to contract while refusing extra duties. They then began indefinite full strike action, a walkout with no fixed end date, on 8 June over the university's restructuring programme and proposed academic job cuts.

The previous record was held by the University of Brighton. That strike lasted 129 days, according to Times Higher Education.

More than 50 postgraduate fine art students say they are paying the price for a dispute the university has failed to resolve. They said so in an open letter. Ten out of 12 staff on their course are on strike, the students said.

Second-year students on the Master of Fine Arts, a postgraduate art degree, had still not received marks or feedback from interim assessments. That was the position on 16 October. New students said they were not told before enrolling how far the strike would reach into teaching.

There were no academic or workshop inductions, the letter said. Second-year students explained how the course functions instead.

The letter also claimed students who do not pay term fees by 31 October will be withdrawn almost immediately. They will still owe 25% of the term's fees, the students said.

The dispute traces back to two restructuring programmes. Goldsmiths launched its Recovery programme in 2021 and its Transformation programme in 2024. The union said Recovery delivered £7.6 million in recurrent savings, with Transformation adding a further £16.1 million.

A Goldsmiths spokesperson said the university had engaged with the union throughout and made three offers to end the dispute. The latest was rejected. Fewer than 2% of programme modules across the university are currently affected, the spokesperson said.

Goldsmiths is part of the University of London. It has faced earlier stoppages. Staff were scheduled to strike from 23 to 27 September 2024 in a dispute over a redundancy programme, according to the University and College Union.