Goldsmiths University Hates The Poor

Hello! My name is Matthew and I am fundraising to pay off a disputed student debt. Goldsmiths University is trying to take everything I own!

I have 28 days to pay them £2,934 for a course I was blocked from attending.

Their fees department has been pursuing me legally for almost eight years now and it’s taken quite a gnarly toll on my mental and physical health.

I’m in £33,000 worth of student debt and have absolutely nothing to show for it, aside from four wasted years, crippling anxiety and severe depression.

As someone from a low-income background, the education system has failed me spectacularly.

… But still, they come…

BACKSTORY

I never really wanted to go university but parents, teachers and bus drivers kinda pressure you into it, with their own bleak rendition of a five-year plan.

“You don’t wanna end up a bus driver like your dad,” Dad, 2004.

Driving a bus didn’t seem bad to be honest, but anyway… In 2012 I enrolled onto a Journalism degree at Falmouth University.

Smashed first year with a 2:1 then figured I should probably continue my degree in London for better post-uni job opportunities.

London is the news hub of the world after all.

I applied via UCAS for a transfer to Goldsmiths, nailed the interview, got accepted onto the course and moved up to London to start my second year.

After renting a van, realising how bleak 'living in London without wealthy relatives' is and finding a part-time job, I get an email from Goldsmiths:

“Yo. This is actually a brand new course for us. You mind doing year one again?”

… Bit annoying but I can’t afford to move again and have nowhere near enough time to find work that’ll pay the rent I just promised my maintenance grants to.

While smashing year one again, I received a £9,000 invoice from Goldsmiths - for immediate payment!!!

Turns out Goldsmiths didn’t register the move as a transfer and Student Finance England (SFE) wants no part in this madness, which means I now owe £9,000 for a year I already did.

I scramble around for advice and am told to drop out and return a year later but am informed by the fees department that it’s now too late and that this will not reduce my personal liability.

Shortly after this, I received funding from one of the many scholarships I applied for in a panic after the 9k bombshell. Full ride, for a kid from poverty, like how it plays out in films and that! Nope, hoodwinked again.

The scholarship I receive pays Goldsmiths £3,000 for tuition, the price for tuition two years prior. Fuck whoever tripled the price the year I start university.

Trapped with a £6,000 debt, I spent the next three years working, eating food from the bin behind Tesco, sending everything I could to Goldsmiths, all while studying with the little time I had left - still smashed year two.

By 2015 I had cleared 73.3% (£6,600) of the debt – which I was super proud of.

I was nearing the end of my third year, writing my dissertation.

This is when Goldsmiths decided I could no longer afford to be at university and kicked me out - blocking my access to all buildings and books.

Got hit by a car cycling to class when they kicked me out. Hobbled all the way to university with a broken bike and everything! Only to be turned away.

Had to go to the hospital for a bit but ultimately I failed my entire degree at the final hurdle due to Goldsmith's negligence and dog-shit duty of care.

Year three was already funded through SFE. There was no reason to kick me out.

I was told I could graduate, just wouldn't receive my degree until old fees were paid. But I was stopped from sitting/submitting final assessments.

Forced to accept that I wouldn't graduate, too poor for uni, despite making it this far and clearly making efforts to resolve a debt I feel was not my responsibility in the first place.

Bullied by the bigger boys… and it didn’t stop there.

Goldsmiths have spent the next seven years hiring law firms to take me to court in order to claw back the remaining £2,400.

On Wednesday, September 7th they won the case and were awarded £2,400 plus £534 in court fees.

I now have 28 days to pay them £2,934… for a degree, I, once again, do not have. On top of the £33,000, I already owe in student debt.

Lost my job in journalism in 2018 then lost my job as a delivery driver following a severe mental breakdown.

Been unemployed since October 2021.