University snobbery shows class still matters whether you’re 18 or 80

In November last year Edinburgh University issued guidance to students saying 'Don't be a snob!' (Picture: Lisa Ferguson)

I still shudder when I recall my first few weeks at university, even though it was 50 years ago. I was the first in my family to enter higher education and I was the proverbial fish out of water.

All the other students, even those who like me had just left home for the first time, seemed far more sophisticated. I had never handled a cheque book before, my family still did not have a landline at home, and I had one pair of decent shoes. Make that two pairs, after I blew my first term’s grant in Biba on Sauchiehall Street, where I also got a very nice leather clutch bag if my memory serves me.

But although I often felt lonely, I never felt looked down on. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about working class students at Edinburgh University. The institution has had to issue guidance to students from privileged backgrounds not to be “snobs”. Apparently some students, and astonishingly a handful of lecturers, mock people for their accent and background.

Perhaps it is not surprising that such snobbery exists at Edinburgh University, where 40 per cent of its students went to private school. This may upset those city residents who send their children to one of Edinburgh’s many private schools, but there is unquestionably a class divide between children in the state sector and those whose parents pay thousands of pounds a year for their child’s education.

In my experience, many of the young people who enjoy the privilege that a private education brings them believe they succeed in life because of their inherent brilliance, rather than the networks and self-confidence that their parents bought for them. Young people like that are quick to mock others who did not enjoy the benefits of their mother’s annual bonus, or grandparents’ inheritance.

I am not sure how successful Edinburgh’s guidance on tackling “socio-economic disadvantage” will prove, but at least the university is trying. As for the snobs themselves. I would like to think they will get their comeuppance when they leave their cosseted university life for the real world, but somehow I doubt it. Sadly, social class still matters, whether you are 18 or 80.