Warden responds to universities announcement

The Warden of Goldsmiths has responded to this week’s government announcement over changes to the university sector.

In a letter to Education Secretary Gillian Keegan (PDF), Professor Frances Corner OBE has criticised the plans for narrowing opportunity by “reinforcing structural barriers to learning that many students face”.  

Professor Corner highlights proposed changes to foundation courses as being completely at odds with the government’s levelling-up commitment to “spread opportunity more equally across the UK”.  

And the Warden warns that using an economic lens to measure the success of courses will reinforce structural prejudices by ignoring the social stresses that Black and minority ethnic students can experience on a daily basis and which affect their achievements at university. 

Professor Corner also criticises the rhetoric which the government continues to use around the UK university sector, which is a £95 billion a year success story, and calls for a more nuanced and detailed approach to address the sector’s broken funding system.  

The Warden sets out how Goldsmiths should be part of this conversation and has offered to meet with the Minister to discuss a more constructive way forward.