The staff strike at Goldsmiths, University of London has become the longest in British university history, passing 130 days on 16 October and overtaking the 129-day record set at the University of Brighton. Members of the Goldsmiths Universities and Colleges Union have been on indefinite strike since 8 June, following action short of a strike that began on 27 April, in a dispute over the university's restructuring programme and proposed academic redundancies.

The row centres on Future Goldsmiths, a two-year recovery plan under which the university aims to save 22 million pounds by the end of the 2026/27 academic year. Management says it has made three resolution offers, the latest rejected on 8 October; the package included a moratorium on compulsory redundancies into 2027, a voluntary severance scheme and staggered salary reductions for strikers. The union rejected the offer and held a rally on campus on 12 October. The university says fewer than 2 per cent of programme modules are affected, while the union says members faced 100 per cent pay deductions from April.

The milestone lands in a turbulent fortnight for the institution. Vice-chancellor Professor Frances Corner, who led Goldsmiths since 2019 through successive restructures, stepped down with immediate effect on 1 October, with deputy vice-chancellor Professor David Oswell filling the role in the interim.

The dispute has drawn attention well beyond higher education because of the school's profile: Goldsmiths alumni include Damien Hirst, Steve McQueen and Sarah Lucas, and nine of its graduates have won the Turner Prize. A stoppage now longer than any previous UK campus walkout leaves the institution that helped define British art of the past four decades as the sector's cautionary tale.