Students: give back our Monet
Post-grads at School of Art demand damages for having to use ‘cold studios’
stUDEnts at the fire-ravaged Glasgow school of Art are demanding compensation for having to study in ‘freezing’ premises during rebuilding work.
A letter signed by 29 students who studied for a Masters in Fine Art Practice says they were forced to use poorly-built, leaking studios with broken radiators.
they also complained teaching was disorganised and poorly staffed. the 29, who were among 34 students who paid up to almost £20,000 in tuition fees, now want their money back.
the GsA’s iconic Mackintosh Building was extensively damaged in June last year while undergoing a £35million restoration following a previous fire in May 2014. But the students – charged up to £19,440 for the one-year course – claim they were not made aware of the ‘severity’ of workshop closures caused by the fire.
the letter, dated July 10 and signed by students who studied in 2018-2019, says one suffered from a decline in mental health after feeling ‘isolated and detached’. It lists complaints including leaks, broken radiators, unreliable internet and ‘unclean’ toilets, according to the sunday Post.
staff were told about the issues on several occasions during the year but ‘often without response or change, or only temporarily fixed’, the letter claims.
the students were relocated to trongate, where studio space was ‘unpleasant’ and the working environment ‘difficult’. staff were ‘stretched or limited by their contracted hours’ which made it difficult to ‘communicate with them or seek clarity throughout the course of the year’.
the letter alleges some students went months without a tutor – and that a visiting lecturer was overheard saying he was unfamiliar with the marking criteria while assessing students’ projects.
But the students said their frustration is not directed at tutors, who expressed empathy and understanding, but with ‘forces operating in GsA’.
some students relocated to the McLellan Galleries on sauchiehall street after the GsA signed a 95year lease following the first fire.
But the letter says this caused ‘isolation and detachment’ from peers which led to the ‘worsening of a mental health condition of one student in particular’.
the students later had meetings with Dr Alistair Payne, head of the school of Fine Art, who offered additional tutoring and assistance with tuition fee payments. But they have now demanded damages, saying in their letter: ‘We are asking that financial compensation is paid in line with the fee paid, so those who paid a larger fee receive more compensation.’
A GsA spokesman said: ‘We take all complaints seriously and have a robust formal complaints procedure. As this issue is currently subject to that procedure, it would be inappropriate to comment at this point.’
the GsA board has been criticised by MsPs in a report into the fire which devastated the Mackintosh Building last year.
holyrood’s culture committee found it had not given sufficient priority to safeguarding the historic structure.
the report concluded that, prior to the first fire in 2014, the GsA had not addressed the heightened risk of fire to the Mackintosh Building or carried out an adequate risk assessment.
the committee was also concerned about the time it took for a modern mist suppression system to be installed. the system was not in place when the second fire broke out.
the GsA is ranked among the top five institutions in Europe to study art and design, according to the latest annual Qs World University rankings.
‘We ask that financial compensation is paid’