Scotland versus England, north versus south, south London versus north London… okay, maybe you don’t hear much about that last one in Scotland, but at the University of Edinburgh, you do.
For years, the University has had a reputation for attracting posh, privately educated, southern English students who treat Edinburgh like a mini-London. This stereotype has always existed, but tensions reached a breaking point after a certain social media scandal in semester one. The controversy opened a space for non-English students to voice their frustrations about campus culture – and many did.
Although the dust has settled and the University even published a guide on “how not to be a snob” (with advice like replacing “What school did you go to?” with “What are your hobbies?”), the attitudes held by guilty parties seemed to not have changed much.
Some of my Scottish friends now use the scandal as shorthand for a certain type of English student. “Oh, I met someone today who was totally giving ‘The Tab’ energy,” they’ll say. Others use it to justify their frustration with certain students, which ironically only deepens the divide instead of bridging it.
My friends from London have mixed reactions. Some fully agree with the criticisms. One often says, “Yeah, Scots are right.– there are a lot of ‘not very nice’ people from London.” But others feel unfairly judged. One friend was frustrated by the backlash, saying, “It’s not fair for people to dislike me just because I have a southern English accent. I didn’t ask to be privately educated.” And honestly, that’s fair too.
Truth be told, this division exists because we are different. But different doesn’t have to mean divided. Students can’t control who the University admits, but we can control how we engage with each other. The recent scandal finally shed a lot on this issue and helped many inside and outside of the University realise that there’s a much bigger problem than “Pollock versus Kincaids.” However, instead of using the scandal as an insult or as an excuse to further look down on others, maybe we could use it as a lesson – one where we challenge our biases, stop making assumptions, build a university culture which more accurately reflects that of life outside a university bubble, and stop defining people by stereotypes.
Besides, isn’t that the kind of critical thinking that we’re constantly being asked to improve in our essay feedback?
“New College, Edinburgh 1” by Gareth Davies is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.