The QM-glomerate: Remembering Westfield

It is no secret amongst the Barts and QM community that tensions have been on the rise as the future of the name Barts and The London hangs in the balance. The QM principals’ tactics have become more and more underhanded, cancelling orders and refusing to sign off on anything which appear black and white.

Now, the argument we are hearing from the other side is that ‘it’s only a name’, nothing will happen to your culture’, it will actually make all of our goals more achievable and we wouldn’t have to be sacrificing any of our convictions.

That being joint under one name in fact benefits everyone and will improve student and staff life.

But is that true? Or are we going to repeat a little heard of piece of QM history, which they would rather you not remember.

Have you ever heard of the Westfield College? I doubt it, as in all material senses, it no longer exists. It was set up in 1888 and was the first college to aim to educate women for University of London degrees. Founded by Constance Louise Maynard and Dudin Brown who wanted to create a collage to provide women with University of London degrees. It was revolutionary due to providing subject degrees beyond what would be considered traditional or relevant for women. It began with studies in the arts and humanities and went on to offer botany, being one of the first universities to allow female students to conduct experiments and scientific research. It was also proudly international and taught botany to the first Chinese student to graduate from the University of London, Pao Swen Tseng.

The merger with Queen Mary occurred in 1989, due to reorganisation within the University of London. It retained its separate identity for a few years till 1992, where most of the site facilities were relocated to Mile End. In fact, Queen Mary University of London was named Queen Mary and Westfield Collage up until as recent as 2013.

So, what became of the actual brick and mortar of the collage? Sold off, some went to Kings College, and some was demolished to make way for luxury apartments. It’s teachers? Mostly relocated to Royal Holloway College and Kings College, many choosing not to follow through with the merger. It’s legacy? A student accommodation complex named the Westfield Student Village and the Westfield Trust Prize, an academic cash prize given to outstanding undergraduate or postgraduates studying at Queen Mary. And a Trust which went to a £4 million library square redevelopment and restorations.

These prizes, trusts and developments were established in memory of the College but fail to memorialise the ethos of the College.

Principles of the empowerment and education of women were lost when the name was lost, corroded over many years. Queen Mary’s wage gap is that female staff make 90p for every pound male counterparts make and make up only 37% of the highest paid jobs. This is even worse when factoring in bonuses, where women earn 22p for every £1 that men earn when comparing median bonus pay. The Westfield College was historically women lead, in the history of the College only one of the Principals was male, so the lack of female representation at the top is concerning, especially considering that highest executives decide how the trust money is used and how to continue the legacy of the College. Much of this is lost, there is no poster or celebration for this historic and innovative school, and our university seems to be regressing in many of these areas.

So, is this how Queen Mary memorialises the histories of colleges they have merged with?

An academic cash prize and their name pasted on a random road. I suppose Westfield can be grateful for at least keeping their name on something.