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24 April 2024

Britain is divided by educational status

The crisis at Goldsmiths is symbolic of what is going wrong in our universities.

By Jonathan Rutherford

Shortly before Easter, Frances Corner, warden of Goldsmiths, University of London, announced the “Transformation Programme” that would take the college into “a new era”. And so, in the bureaucratic doublespeak of corporate management, the cutting of up to 132 full-time academic jobs was announced, and an iconic institution laid to waste.

With its long line of artistic, musical and intellectual alumni, Goldsmiths in south London has been a symbol of a bohemian cultural class. Home to such disciplines as critical theory, postcolonialism and queer history, it has also been a beacon of leftist, radical academia. The college has an intellectual history that makes it unique, and the last surviving institution with links to the cultural studies tradition dating back to the New Left.

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