Goldsmiths reinstates academics suspended in job cuts row

Goldsmiths, University of London has reinstated two academics who were suspended after emailing students to warn them about the potential impact of a marking boycott on their ability to graduate. 

Des Freedman and Gholam Khiabany, the head and deputy head of the department of media, communications and cultural studies, were found to have “no case to answer” after an independent investigation into their conduct.

They had been suspended from their leadership roles for 115 days for sending an email to students in their department in the midst of a dispute over redundancies at the arts, humanities and social sciences institution, located in south-east London.

Professor Freedman and Dr Khiabany maintained that the email had been sent to lessen students’ anxiety and had been worded with “care and compassion” after it became clear that some would not be able to graduate as planned because of delays in marking their final assessments as a result of the industrial action.

Both academics were allowed to return to teaching and research roles in August after UCU settled the dispute but had remained suspended from their leadership positions until the investigation had been concluded. A petition calling for the academics to be allowed to return to work gathered more than 5,000 signatures.

In an update, the college said that the independent inquiry – carried out by a KC – had concluded and had found no case to answer, and that the academics would be immediately reinstated. “The college respects and will abide by the findings of the investigation,” it added. 

Writing on Twitter, Professor Freedman said he and Dr Khiabany had been “vindicated and reinstated” and thanked colleagues around the world for their support. 

UCU’s London regional official Barry Jones said the union was “delighted” to see the academics reinstated. 

“They are entitled to feel that they have been very poorly treated by Goldsmiths, as this matter has taken far too long to resolve and clearly never should have got to this point in the first place,” he said.

"We trust that the leadership at Goldsmiths will have learnt important lessons from this exercise."

Feyzi Ismail, co-secretary of the Goldsmiths UCU branch, said that the announcement had been greeted with relief but also anger that the college’s management had not apologised to the two academics after they were cleared by the investigation.

“They were acting in students’ best interest and were penalised for it – for telling the truth. This is trade union victimisation and that is something that affects the entire sector,” she said.

Dr Ismail said the branch would now be calling for the full report to be published alongside the costs involved in carrying out the four-month long investigation.

“They did not tell us anything that was going on until we heard they had been reinstated. We think publishing the report is in the public interest, and the senior management should be held accountable for their actions,” she said.

A Goldsmiths spokeswoman said: “We are unable to comment on any confidential internal matters.”

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com