AN ONLINE post by a former University of St Andrews student gained more than 200,000 views online after she accused the university of having a “culture of anti-Scottish classism”.
Scholarship student Sophie Rose Jenkins’s post on LinkedIn attracted dozens of comments, with some recounting similar experiences.
She wrote: “I expected the bullying from the other students, but I wasn’t prepared for how I’d be treated by university staff.”
Jenkins decided to drop out after the second year of her Comparative Literature and Classical Studies degree course. She wrote: “I was taken off a subject because my adviser believed I’d fail, only to average above 90% both semesters.
“Being a scholarship student, I was paraded around in front of donors as the face of the university’s philanthropy while being left more isolated every time.
“I was told university staff “didn’t believe in” the disability support I have been receiving since I was 12, resulting in my worst ever relapse that drove me close to taking my life on several occasions.
“I sobbed more being dropped off for second year than I did when I arrived for my first day.
“Spending two years in a claustrophobic environment that stood against everything I believed in killed any passion I had for my subject.
“Paired with the treatment I received from staff and students, I made the difficult decision to step away from my studies at St Andrews.”
St Andrews was recently ranked as the best university in the UK by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide.
Speaking to The National, state-schooled Jenkins said her experiences of a class divide began in her first week at St Andrews.
She said: “We set up a group chat for the girls in my year. Someone asked: what’s a good cardigan I can just go out and buy? The answer was Ralph Lauren.
“Then somebody posted, ‘Guys, I’m going to an auction tonight. Which necklace should I buy?’. She sent a catalogue of necklaces dripping with gold and diamonds. From that moment on, I was like, what have I got into?”
Jenkins said that in tutorials “on several occasions, people completely refused to include me in the conversation because apparently, they couldn’t understand my accent.
“I don’t have a very thick Glasgow accent at all. But aside from that, these people chose to come to Scotland to study and then refused to listen to our accents or try and understand our accents. It felt so insane.”
Another Scottish scholarship undergraduate student at St Andrews recounted similar experiences: “There have been many times where I’ve been ignored or made fun of in class because of my accent being ‘too strong’ or because the American and international students ‘can’t understand what I’m saying,’ and the tutor just laughs or says nothing.”
Around 20% of students at St Andrews are American, more than at any other UK university. It offers a two-week academic induction exclusively for international undergraduate students before the start of term.
“According to the website: “The course has a strong focus on writing and presenting information in academic contexts.
“You will meet students from other countries and territories and have the opportunity to participate in a range of social activities, so both your social life and your academic life should be off to a flying start.”
The scholarship student said: “Because of that, everyone becomes very cliquey. I was completely ignored because all the American students were already in these tightly-formed friendships and they didn’t want anyone else to kind of join in.
Jenkins said classist, anti-Scottish attitudes also felt systemic among university staff. She said she picked Russian as an elective class in her second year, only to be taken off it by her American student adviser.
Jenkins said: “He said, ‘You know, if you fail Russian, you have to repeat a year. So, I’m just going to be safe and take you off that module’.
“I still to this day have no idea why he did that,” said Jenkins, who went on to achieve above 90% in the class.
Jenkins says that when she went to the university’s wellbeing support to discuss struggling with her mental health she was told: “They didn’t believe in counselling, and they instead provided wellbeing coaching, which was more just kind of make a schedule, take a bath.
“It didn’t make me feel like I mattered. I had no idea where to go for help, that was the only resource they provided for mental health. I think I had two or three sessions and then I never really heard from them again.”
Current students at St Andrews described feeling similarly dismissed or even pushed out by student services.
One said: “Throughout my time at university I have been ignored by student services to the point that the university was advocating for me to ‘take a semester off’ due to family grievances’. It was quite harrowing advice.”
A PhD scholarship student claimed that when they went to student services with issues over the financial support the university was providing, they were pressured into taking a leave of absence to focus on working a seasonal retail job to cover expenses.
“The trying (and usually successfully) forcing a leave of absence is a typical tactic of the university to manage Widening Participation students who aren’t coping,” they said.
They added that: “solutions offered were not made with a working-class student’s background in mind”, pointing out that joining societies is not a useful solution to mental health problems caused by financial difficulties.
The student said that when they submitted a complaint about student services, the university took more than three months to respond before ultimately suggesting an informal mediation procedure as a resolution.
They said: “While I appreciate that class is not a protected characteristic yet, the university could include class discrimination as a reportable issue through their report and support system.”
A spokesperson for The University of St Andrews, said: "While we wouldn’t comment on the circumstances of any individual student, we were very concerned and sorry to read Sophie’s post. We did reach out to her so we can better understand her experience, and we do wish her every success in future.
"Inclusivity is really important to us, and is central to our University Strategic Plan. Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion information and training for all students – designed by students themselves – addresses both classism and accents. We want everyone who studies and works here to feel that they belong.
"Commenting on someone’s accent or background can amount to bullying, harassment or exclusion, and that sort of behaviour will not be tolerated.
"We’re a Scottish university, Scottish students are our heritage and lifeblood, and every year we take in the maximum number of Scots we’re allowed to under the Scottish government rules. Scottish students make up over 30% of our student community.
"We do have very robust measures in place to support any student who seeks help, particularly with their mental health. Wellbeing advice and mental health coordination is available through Student Services, including help with significant or complex mental health difficulties. Counselling, academic adjustments, pastoral support and student-led support. Students can contact a Wellbeing Adviser and access emergency support.
"Students can report bullying, harassment or discrimination through our online Report and Support tools, and can do so anonymously if they wish."
