Part of the University of London, Goldsmiths currently has nearly 9,000 students from around the world and offers a broad range of undergraduate, postgraduate, professional and adult education courses. These range from the arts and humanities (including design, drama, history, literature, media and communications, music, visual arts, visual cultures) to the social sciences (anthropology, psychology, sociology and computing and education), with interdisciplinary work across all areas. The unifying factors spanning this range of diverse subjects are a liberal approach to teaching, with emphasis placed on independent thought, and a strong research-led teaching ethos.

Goldsmiths is all about the freedom to experiment, to think differently, to be an individual. Former students include names like Antony Gormley, Julian Clary, Damien Hirst, Mary Quant, Bridget Riley, Graham Coxon and Malcolm McLaren. Goldsmiths brings creative and unconventional approaches to all its subjects, and everything is based on the highest academic standards of teaching and research. As a member of the 1994 Group of research-intensive universities, Goldsmiths aims to promote excellence in research and teaching, to enhance student and staff experience, and to set the agenda for higher education. Goldsmiths is part of the internationally-recognised University of London.

Gerald Lidstone, academic adviser to the Việt Nam Arts Management Curriculum Development Project, is the founder and director of Goldsmiths' postgraduate Arts Administration and Cultural Policy course. At undergraduate level he currently teaches courses in Performance Art, Arts and Audiences and Theatre Production. He originally trained as an art teacher and theatre designer and has designed and toured productions extensively in Eastern Europe and the USA. For the British Council and other international organisations he has taught Arts Administration training courses including - Audience Development, Fundraising, Copyright and Curriculum Design in many parts of the world including, Russia, East Jerusalem, Korea, Philippines, Cyprus, Slovakia, Romania, Indonesia, Bulgaria, Belgium, France, Hong Kong, Việt Nam, Ukraine, Singapore and India. He was also the director of a four-year British Know-How Fund (Foreign Office) project establishing Arts Management training in Slovakia. In 2004-6 he evaluated the NESTA Creative Pioneers Academy and since 2003 has been working on Closer to the Museum for the British Council and the Foundation Centre for Contemporary Arts Slovakia. He is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a trustee of the Royal Victoria Hall Foundation and a member of the Board of Governors of Sadlers Wells Theatre. He is also a council member of the British Centre of the International Theatre Institute (ITI). In 2002 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Vysoka Skola Muzickych Umeni v Bratislave in Slovakia.

Building on experience gained in Eastern Europe examining and analysing arts and cultural policy in the post communist context, Gerald Lidstone co-authored the first book on arts management in Slovak and contributed to http://www.blizsiekmuzeu.sk. This in turn led to his work with Visiting Arts for the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) in Việt Nam, in which the Ford Foundation funded the development of an infrastructure for arts, heritage and cultural management education to adapt to the new policy of social, economic and political reform under the rubric of dổi mới (‘renovation’), aimed at transforming the old command economy into a market-based one – this has now been running for nine years and has involved the publication of two major reports.