The University of Edinburgh has been declared the fourth most elitist university in the United Kingdom and has one of the largest privately educated student populations, with almost 40 per cent of its students being privately educated. The university has made steps to try and make it a more inclusive institution through initiatives such as the widening participation programme and access to Edinburgh scholarships, but will a university that has benefitted from its elitist roots ever be able to create a more equal environment?
From speaking with students who have felt the impact of the elitist atmosphere here in Edinburgh, it is clear that it has affected their experience at university. Many students from working-class and lower-middle-class backgrounds have even been made to feel inferior.
One third-year student says that: “I had never felt like I wasn’t ‘normal’ until I came to Edinburgh, but when I told people I was the first university-educated person in my family and that I went to a state school, people acted like I was some sort of miracle.”
She continued by revealing that at a party in her first year, after saying that she was from a state school a boy laughed and responded, “Oh, so you actually had to work hard to get in here”, while the people around them “didn’t bat an eyelid.”
Katie, a third-year immunology student, stated that in her first week at university, she got called ‘exotic’ for being from Liverpool.
She often experienced people, usually privately educated Southern English students, making jokes about her, such as asking if she had robbed the clothes she was wearing or insinuating she was up for a fight. She was even called a “dirty scouser” by one of the presidents of a university society, which she claims shows how deeply ingrained elitist and classist dispositions are in some students. Many of these remarks and encounters were swept under the carpet and even condoned by some of their peers.
“I feel like this issue is so much worse at Edinburgh than at other unis”, she explained. “None of my friends from home seem to experience this at universities like Birmingham or Manchester.”
Additionally, a second-year student explained that in her first year while at a party in Pollock Halls, she received classist comments due to her Glaswegian accent without any further knowledge of her socioeconomic background. “They synonymised my Scottish accent with being working-class, and I felt judged by it. I wanted to say: umm hello, you’re in Scotland!”
Moreover, a third-year student from Bristol stated: “I have a relatively generic Southern accent that could be confused with being from London, and I had people in first year think that I would agree with their classist comments just because I had a similar accent to them! I’m from a working-class background, but they couldn’t believe that someone with the same accent as them could be!”
These experiences demonstrate the overt elitism and classism that takes place at university and how many elitist students categorise students on how they should be treated on their accents and where they come from, which is a significant issue when it comes to classism at university.
Often, gaining a place at university is seen as an outcome of a meritocratic system, as it is often ultimately decided by a student’s grades. All students are then expected to be on a level playing field once they arrive at university.
However, many students at the University of Edinburgh (and many other institutions) do not believe this is the case.
A second-year Politics student stated: “I thought that once I was in university, I would feel less inferior to privately educated, rich people, but honestly, it’s worse at university. They felt that they were deserving to get a place at the university, but it is more than that. It’s a general entitlement that impacts everything.” Another student explained: “Edinburgh feels very elitist, even down to the resources they expect you to have. One of my classes last semester expected the students to spend almost £100 on textbooks for one class! The tutor didn’t even seem to think that was a lot of money which was alarming”. For many students, it is not just the elitist attitudes of other students that impact their university experience – it is also the expectations and attitudes of staff and the institution itself.
From speaking with Grace, the president of Edinburgh’s 93% club, a UK-wide student charity which aims to address socio-economic inequality at British universities, it is clear that efforts are being made to make the university a less elitist environment. Edinburgh’s 93% club is the second largest in the UK after Durham.
The club creates a space where students can meet people from similar backgrounds, share their experiences and organise initiatives and meetings to help the university work towards levelling the playing field for all students.
Grace noted that it is particularly important that students run the club, as it’s not just Edinburgh students but also the staff who uphold elitist norms.
She recalled an experience of a tutor claiming they could distinguish who had been privately educated and who hadn’t from their writing style, which displays the embedded elitist bias that exists within the university staff. Grace explained how the club works closely with the widening participation team at the university, who are “absolutely brilliant” at trying to close the elitism gap at the university. However, she also explained how sometimes, in meetings, staff will be surprised by the classist experiences or issues students have had as it is the first time that they have heard about it, and this is why it is vital to have state school voices in conversation with staff at the university.
Ultimately, in an academic institution like the University of Edinburgh, elitism seems tightly interwoven into the make-up of the university. As seen with the statistics and experiences of many students, it evidently impacts people’s experiences as a student at Edinburgh, and it is certainly not an anomalous occurrence. With the hard work of initiatives such as the 93% Club and the widening participation department have seen positive moves towards closing the gap, but will this ever be a solved issue? Undoubtedly this is a far more complex issue that is riddled through British society, but will Edinburgh University be one of the first British universities to heavily clamp down on elitism?
Image Credit: “Old College, University of Edinburgh” by Ipoh kia is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.