EDUCATION union the UCU has demanded an independent audit of “deeply dishonest” plans to sack more than 90 academics at Goldsmiths University.

The union urged Labour to intervene in the proposed jobs cull, as it warned its analysis of senior management’s business case showed “no pressing financial rationale for these redundancies” as the London institution has £10 million in cash reserves.

A UCU spokesman said: “Goldsmiths senior management are not only attacking jobs but doing so based on false premises and through the use of potentially discriminatory ‘rank and yank’ tactics.

“We need a full, independent audit of the institution’s finances, as management refuse to open the books and be honest about their position.  
 
“These cuts will not only wreck the lives of many academics; they threaten the future of unique, world-leading programmes which are likely to be stripped of the specialist staff required to run them.

“This should prompt intervention from the Labour government. 

“It is despicable and perplexing that Goldsmiths is exploiting the generalised sense of crisis in the higher education sector to burn down its own house.

“We call on the institution’s senior management to immediately halt its arsonist ‘Transformation Programme’ and work with us to protect jobs.

“The union is also clear that Goldsmiths’ justifications for the mass jobs cull are deeply dishonest.

“In particular, Goldsmiths senior managers have repeatedly claimed — in an effort to present their expenditure on staff as unsustainable — that the sector average for staff costs as a proportion of total expenditure is 43 per cent, despite the latest HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency) data putting the figure at 51 per cent.”  

Goldsmiths has been contacted for comment.