Good luck getting Edinburgh to change here
Och some things never change … at least Ed Uni had the same reputation when I was a student there from 1990, but in reality this mainly applied to humanities departments - in chemistry, geology, agric, etc. down at the ‘King’s buildings’, it was mostly Scottish students. Overall a fine diversity.
I’ll admit I’m an idiot, but isn’t Edinburgh University like… the Scottish university and located in Scotland?? But it discriminates against Scots…? I’m so confused.
I don’t think the article is saying that the university itself discriminates against Scottish students (other than some tutors asking for people to repeat what they said, which given a high number of non-Scottish/EAFL staff isn’t surprising tbh).
It’s saying that other students sometimes do though, which is a problem.
Probably less relevant because this is about undergrads instead of postgrads. I did my masters degree there and I was one of maybe 3 Scottish students out of the 40+ person intake for my course.
You got that all correct! St Andrew’s also has a snobbery issue, and Glasgow uni accent is also a thing in the west. But Edinburgh in particular is known for English ‘yahs’ who look down on the locals
I was at Edinburgh and while there were some like that, by far the majority of students I encountered were just young people living their lives. Tbh I’ve seen more prejudice against English people than by English students against Scots.
For sure, most are fine with it. But as a teuchter I did find quite a few struggling to understand my accent, which is pretty mild, and I’m pretty sure making fun in hindsight. I socialised mostly with other Scots as a consequence. Anyway, they wouldn’t write this article if there wasn’t some truth to it
For sure, most are fine with it. But as a teuchter I did find quite a few struggling to understand my accent, which is pretty mild, and I’m pretty sure making fun in hindsight. I socialised mostly with other Scots as a consequence.
Well, that sounds unfortunate, but it also sounds like at least some of it was stuff you were thinking (possibly correctly) might have happened rather than knowing for sure it did. And if “most are fine with it”, that doesn’t really explain you socialising mostly with other Scots.
I’m from Fife, have a bit of an accent, occasionally had to clarify for someone who didn’t pick up what I said, but never found it to be a serious issue at all.
And it wasn’t like I didn’t have to ask for clarification myself sometimes. I had friends from Manchester, Liverpool, Norwich, London, Northern Ireland, the west of Scotland, Germany… At some point I probably asked all of them to explain something I hadn’t caught, but not in a way that implied criticism or judgement.
Don’t get me wrong, I was very aware of the whole “yah” phenomenon, but it certainly didn’t put me off hanging out, or getting on, with people from all over the place, including some of those apparent “yahs” who often turned out just to be perfectly decent young people who happened to have what we might consider a posh accent, and found themselves in an unfamiliar town surrounded by a populace which in many cases was actively hostile to them, just because they were English.
I didn’t once see or hear anything anti-English in my time there, but there are baduns the whole world over. Let’s all agree not to be snobs or prejudiced against those without a local accent
Can’t disagree with that.
Re the anti-English thing, maybe I just saw it because I had a few mates from south of the border who got the odd comment.
This goes to my theory that if you dig deep enough into any problem in the world, there’s an English twat at the bottom of it.
Yeah it’s terrible when people make over-broad and prejudiced generalisations, eh?
Nah, not really. I would encourage the university to make some generalizations about class background and nationality and become more prejudiced against the wealthy and the English and create a mandate to serve more of their underprivileged countrymen and women.
become more prejudiced against the wealthy and the English
Quite a telling sentence. It’s not just the wealthy, it’s the English themselves, regardless of wealth.
Not the other UK nations, not non-Scottish students generally - no, it’s specifically the English you hate. Slow hand clap…
I’m simply responding to the article and the OP. I’ve already noted I’m largely ignorant on the topic/school. The article notes the discrimination is largely against the Scottish and the working-class – two separate categories they can but needn’t overlap – and OP’s comment mentioned it’s largely a problem of the English at Edinburgh.
My second comment was actually intended as a light-hearted joke in the vein of “always blame the English!” but I can see it really offended your sensibilities. Here’s hoping you recover soon!
