A debate has broken out at the University of St Andrews after a former student accused the establishment of having a “culture of anti-Scottish classism”.
In a LinkedIn post three weeks ago, Sophie Rose Jenkins said that the culture she encountered at the elite university made working-class students like her “feel ashamed of their home life”.
Speaking to The National, she recalled a group chat where members exchanged recommendations for designer clothes, and tutorials in which fellow students “refused to include me in the conversation because apparently, they couldn’t understand my accent”. She claimed disparaging attitudes extended to staff: an adviser attempted to remove her from an elective course, telling her she was likely to fail, only for her to average more than 90%.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Latest Videos FromThe Week
‘Anti-Scottish bias’
Jenkins' story has “resonated with hundreds” of other students and “touched on a growing tension at St Andrews”, said The Guardian. “My parents were worried about me coming here,” a Scottish fresher on a scholarship told the newspaper. “They didn’t want me to be left out.” Since arriving, “most of the people I have met are international students” who maybe “can be a bit ignorant to the cost of things”.
The “exclusivity of expensive, invite-only events rattled me,” said another former St Andrews student Carla Jenkins in The Times. “I too experienced anti-Scottish bias.” An American tutor “disagreed with everything that I ever said”, including marking me down for “using the word ‘Glaswegian’”, and in tutorials I was “asked to speak slower or change the words I used”.
The “debate around classism at Scottish universities is not new,” said The Guardian. In 2024, Edinburgh University offered guidance on how students should treat one another after rising claims of discrimination and classism. “Don’t be a snob!” it advised.
St Andrews vice-principal Niall Scott acknowledged in a statement that some students arrive with “immature, offensive, and classist views”, but claimed “they tend not to leave with them”. Universities have a “crucial role to play in challenging these attitudes by bringing together people from different backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives, encouraging understanding, respect, and inclusion”.
Manhattan microcosm
The feeling that Scotland’s most famous university is not a welcoming place for ordinary Scots is rooted in its unusually high international make-up. US students, many of them escaping even higher fees back home, represent around 20% of the total undergraduate body and are a particular source of friction. An article in student newspaper The Stand last year complained that “our beloved Scottish town is day by day turning into a microcosm of Manhattan’s elite world; complete with intrigue, privilege, and secrets that spread like wildfire”.
Scottish universities have a “capped number of places” each year for Scottish students, whose fees are paid by the devolved government. The issue is not as simple as Scots being “squeezed out” in favour of rich international students, said The Herald; the Scottish government has a limit on how many subsidised places it can fund. But in practice it means institutions may “continue to accept high fee-paying international students” while turning Scottish applicants away.
The international tuition fees are “significantly higher than what the government pays for a domestic student” so they’ve become “an essential, if increasingly volatile, source of income” for universities.
