Goldsmiths Students’ Union calls for formal complaints on the university’s admin delays

The Students’ Union at Goldsmiths, University of London, called for students to file formal complaints about the college’s delays with results release, enrolments processing, extenuating circumstances outcomes and personal timetables.

In a statement, the SU claimed that lags were due to a newly-centralised system that resulted in shrunken offices of limited staff dealing with administrative tasks and student queries. This new system came after cost-cutting measures that involved firing 17 members of staff, including 8 non-academic professional services workers.

Goldsmiths’ SU said: “Time and time again, the College has failed us. We do not agree with the structure of the College, complaints or appeals process. However, it is important that as many affected students are in the system as possible as it allows action and escalation to be taken.”

Under the new system, former departmental services were merged into three school hubs that would now handle a much higher number of enquiries from an average of six departments each.

A tutor who prefers to remain anonymous told The London Tab that school hubs are currently experiencing a two weeks-worth of emails to go through.

The towering information backlog caused many inconveniences for students, who felt anxious and uncertain. Progression was affected as grades and transcripts were unavailable, and many personal timetables are still incomplete or blank almost a week into the autumn term.

Students are waiting long queues to have their queries addressed

Goldsmiths’ SU, in reinforcing their call for student appeals, described the chaos as “one of many instances in which the institution has prioritised corporate interests over the needs of students.” The confusion was to be attributed to the new system, which came after the uni imposed cost- and staff-cutting measures to receive a loan worth up to £7 million with two major banks, Lloyds and Natwest. As of now, the loans have not been accessed by the College.

A spokesperson from Goldsmiths, University of London told The London Tab: “All undergraduate students have now received their results, and all extenuating circumstances outcomes have been shared. Timetables have been released to all students following a delay which we apologise for. Those students who have recently chosen optional modules can use the programme timetable to see when these are scheduled.”

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