The Invisible Diversity of Class

Class differences at uni aren’t widely spoken about, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. The invisibility of the working class in university spaces is a problem that impacts friendships, academic life, and self-esteem. The invisible class divide at Leeds is something that has always irked me, and it’s time for people to start having honest conversations about it.

Culture shock

I grew up in a fairly working-class area, and coming to university was a shock to the system. One X user (@livia_scott) talked about the lack of discussion around “the absolute culture shock of coming to university. Particularly, as a student from a more working-class background.”

The school I went to strongly encouraged us to pursue university and to break the cycle that is so embedded where I grew up. For my parents’ generation, the standard was typically to finish school at 16 and go straight into work – university wasn’t exactly pushed on young people. When you’ve grown up in an environment where going to university is rare, you aren’t exactly prepared for the university lifestyle.

My first year of uni was somewhat strange, and I felt like a fish out of water in any social interaction. Almost everyone I met was from the Home Counties and, for the first time in my life, I was surrounded by people who went to private school, whose parents had received higher education at 18, and who had never even stepped foot in a council estate. In some ways, it was comical to watch people’s genuine astonishment that I’d never been on a ski holiday and didn’t play a sport at school. Yet, it was just pretty isolating.

Sometimes being a student from a more working-class background can feel a bit embarrassing, or even make you feel like a burden. Having to say no to plans because you can’t afford it, or making cheap food when flatmates are ordering takeaways – it all feels a bit demoralising at times. One moment that stood out to me was when I did student house viewings: I realised that my budget was different to my friends’, and I worried that it would make things awkward or that I’d be seen as difficult. Fortunately, it is possible to find a house within budget, but the weight was still on my chest.

Class and friendships

I talked to a couple of students about their experience coming from different backgrounds at university in hopes of further examining the class divide at Leeds. I asked one student about her experience at uni as someone who went to private school, and whether she felt at an advantage in making friends because of this. “If I needed to rely on it to meet people, I probably could have,” she said.

But what is this implicit hierarchy founded on? How does the school you went to dictate your social circle at university? “People often already know people before they come to uni, usually they went to the same [private] school, or they have mutual friends,” she told me. “I think there are a lot of people who search for the same “kind” of people as them, like others who can afford to have the same hobbies and interests.” 

Societies, for example, are said to be one of the best ways to make friends. Yet, societies cost money to join and offer socials like the Otley Run or nights out, making them relatively inaccessible to students on a lower income. Sports societies, especially, seem dominated by middle-upper class students given their association with private school culture and the cost just to join.

Another difficulty with making friends when struggling financially at uni is the balance of academic work with a part-time job. I worked weekends at a shop throughout my first and second year of university, so most of my time was taken up by this. Plenty of students have to work to support themselves, so it isn’t impossible to study, work, and have a social life, but it is certainly more difficult.  

Academic settings and the class divide

One student I talked to explained that the way she was treated by students of a more advantaged background made her feel isolated and insecure: “I started to internalise some things.” Accents, in her opinion, play a role in identifying someone’s social class at uni: “It seemed like an opinion was formed based on how I sound, which was that I must be lower class and therefore not as educated.” 

Seminars, she said, were a particularly divisive space. “I often feel like I shouldn’t take up as much of a seminar by giving my ideas because my education isn’t as “high quality” as that of others in the room”.

I would argue that a lot of aspects of university life actively exclude anyone from a lower-class background, resulting in issues of internalised classism, fears of accent bias, and imposter syndrome. The class divide needs to become visible, and it shouldn’t feel like a taboo subject; transparency and honesty are the key to overcoming these divisive barriers that appear among the student cohort.

Words by Callie McGinty