Last year, when I was eating lunch in the university library cafe, a woman approached our table. She was encouraging everyone to use reusable cups, if I remember rightly.
She was polite, approachable and friendly, and I thought nothing of it, until one of the people I was sat with, turned around and said 'she looks like she comes from a council estate', or something similar.
Not that it matters, but to give you an image, she was white; she had matted blonde hair, a few ear and facial piercings, and black eyeliner on.
I asked him what he meant by this, does someone that 'comes from a council estate' have a particular appearance? Do they look different to someone who comes from a privately owned home?
Slightly taken aback, he responded defensively: 'no, no, I don't mean it in a bad way, she just looks like she's come from one of those council house raves, you know the ones they have?'.
No... I didn't, because they aren't a thing.
None of us knew whether she was a student in that moment. None of us knew anything about her, but to me in that moment, he decided that she didn't belong in the university space.
After all, I can’t imagine him looking at someone in the same space, and saying ‘she looks like she comes from a mansion in Jersey’.
Do you imagine someone who comes from a council estate to be studying at a prestigious university in the UK? I imagine not, and that's because it's rare, even with social mobility.
Students from low socio-economic backgrounds are accepted, but the amount is not equal to the rich students who are accepted; and even though it does happen, there's a feeling that working class students don't belong.
Students from low socio-economic backgrounds are accepted, but the amount is not equal to the rich students who are accepted; and even though it does happen, there's a feeling that working class students don't belong.
The reason I was so bothered by the comment is because I had this feeling throughout university. I grew up on a council estate, and even though it was only until I was 10, which is when my family moved us into a house in the middle of the countryside, I still identify with these roots. So, to me, coming from a council estate isn't alien, it's home.
I’ve spent more of my life not living in a council flat in Hackney than living in one, but understandably, it's still close to my heart. When I lived there, my Nan, Grandad, Aunt, Uncle, and Cousins, also lived on council estates.
That's what I grew up around, kids hanging out around the flats, lifts not working, the drunk man always shouting at night, estate trips to Margate and BBQ’s in the town hall in the summer; and generally a tight-knit community. A place where neighbours are friends, and people looked out for each other, but also where poverty and crime existed. I grew up in the diverse melting pot that an inner city council estate offers, which served as a stark contrast to university and the people I was surrounded by, who mostly came from wealthy, educated backgrounds.
I’m not in the position to talk about how I was discriminated against; I had access to many opportunities that most people around the world don’t have. I was still educated, had access to food, water, heat, and had a roof over my head. I am also white and straight, so don’t experience marginalisation, I wasn’t ‘neglected by the institution, ignored, misunderstood and unrepresented’ in the same way BME and LGBTQ+ communities are.
But it’s no surprise that top universities in the UK favour richer applicants, either. Recently, a report by the Higher Education Policy Institute, found that seven Russell Group Universities were found to be among the 10 most unequal institutions for accepting students from different economic backgrounds.
There's so much to be done when it comes to elitism at universities in the UK. I can only comment on what I've experienced, but it doesn't take a genius to see that deep within the roots of university culture, there is white privilege, lineage of money and education.
There are now suggestions of context being taken into account when considering prospective students, meaning a shift would be made in the admissions policy, taking into consideration that students are not ‘competing on a level playing field when demonstrating merit through the school examination system’. When I moved to my new school at the beginning of year 6, I was three levels below what they considered average, but I was considered average in my primary school in London.
So, clearly the results a student gets are relative to the education they receive. Like Sathnam Sanghera says: 'don't tell me that a kid who grew up on a council block, attended a bad school in West Bromwich, had to do homework while caring for a disabled mother and gets ABB is somehow not as good as an AAA Boris-Johnson-wannabe from Eton who was spoon-fed his A-level syllabuses'.
From the age of 10 I received a middle class education, surrounded by mostly middle class people, and because of my life up until then, I have first hand experience of the large disparities between both worlds. I was lucky enough to gain access to one of the best universities in the UK, arguably because we moved into a nice area, but most people don't have this opportunity.
So, saying 'she looks like she comes from a council estate’ can be read 'she doesn't look like she belongs here'. She shouldn't be in this space. This space is not for her kind; and that imbedded culture of exclusivity in university, spanning across attitudes towards race, sexuality and socio-economic backgrounds, is what needs to change.
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