Elitism at Edinburgh University: What’s it like and what can be done to fight it

 With a staggering overrepresentation of private school students at Edi, issues of elitism are long overdue their proper place on the agenda 

Statistics from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), show that a staggering 36.8 per cent of Edi students have come from private schools, in comparison to the 7 per cent of students attending private schools nationally. This makes the University of Edinburgh ranks lowest in Scotland for admissions to students from state schools – and even lower than the University of Cambridge.

The Edinburgh Tab spoke to state-educated and working class students at the uni about their experiences of elitism. They told us that the overrepresentation of privately educated students often makes them feel excluded, shamed, and like they don’t belong. 

Losing their voices 

The Edinburgh Uni accent (if there is such a thing) is often stereotyped as a “honking” posh Home Counties accent. Lucy, from Liverpool, told us that she found this exclusionary. “The norm seems to be having a posh Londoner accent and anything else is looked down upon”. This belief has made Lucy feel as though she can’t speak up in tutorials due to her accent being drowned out by the “posh lads in the room”.  

Gill, from Dalkeith in Midlothian, also picked up on her accent being mocked as an experience of elitism at uni. She told us about an experience with a “posh” student, who on hearing her speak the first time, “openly laughed” at her. He then said to his friend: “can you understand a word she’s saying?”. She says that this experience left her feeling disillusioned from the other students on her course and made her more annoyed at Edi’s posh boy image. 

Several of the working class students we spoke to feel as though their voices are being drowned out by people from “posh” areas. This makes it harder for them to feel accepted at Edi and making it harder for them to participate in campus life. 

Subject matters

A lot of the state-educated students we spoke to thought there is a big difference between the opportunities afforded to state school versus private school students. Specifically, some also felt as though they have been disadvantaged by not being able to take more specialised academic subjects at school that might have been available to their privately educated coursemates. 

Ruby and Ewan, studying History of Art and Japanese respectively, have both taken issue that their courses allow some students who have studied the subjects at school to skip certain parts of the course. Whilst this may make sense practically, it is important to consider that many schools offering these subjects are likely to be private schools – whilst most state schools might lack the budget or pupil interest.

Ewan told us that he thinks the ability of private schools to offer more subjects is something that “inherently advantages the private school students at uni” and reproduces the inequalities that made it harder for him to get to an elite university like Edinburgh. 

Money talks 

But possibly the most obvious issue that the state-school students we spoke to faced was money. As a postgrad student who had to take two years out and work full time in order to be able to afford her education, Gill found she took a slightly different route to get here than a lot of her classmates. She told us that fellow students from well-off backgrounds often seemed confused at why she took so much time out. She says that her fellow students told her they “didn’t think you had to pay for it”, before asking: “why didn’t you just get your mum and dad to pay for it?” – a reaction that made her want to “throw hands”. This left her feeling alienated from her peers. 

So, what can be done? 

The Edinburgh Tab spoke to Annabel, the President of The 93% Club’s Edinburgh branch. She told us: “Essentially at The 93% Club we promote access and opportunity in higher education for socio-economically and educationally disadvantaged students, focussing on the state-private gap in schools and the later effects of this on university life.

“At Edinburgh, though 93% of the UK is state educated, state educated students represent less than 65 per cent of the intake (without even taking into account the non-selective vs. grammar school disparity), with this statistic being considerably lower in certain elitist subject areas, such as classics or law. Edinburgh is one of only two Russell Group universities at which the intake of state educated students is decreasing year by year.” 

The 93% Club hope to be able to fight for measures to promote inclusion on both a local and national level. One of the key things they are fighting for is the reinstatement of the participation grant that gave low income students funds to participate in extra curricular activities.

“The 93% Club, on a local and now national level, run welfare support, professional development workshops and events, campaigns for inclusion and resource information in order to support state educated students and give them the ‘leg-up’ in terms of professional skills and networking which those from the privately educated sphere receive through their schools automatically.

The University of Edinburgh did not respond to our requests for comment. 

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