Edinburgh Scottish students ask for support to combat classism
The Guardian|December 27, 2024
From the first day Shanley Breese started her law degree at Edinburgh University, she encountered demeaning comments about her accent.
Rachel Keenan
Edinburgh Scottish students ask for support to combat classism

She was told she was hard to understand, and was asked to repeat herself in tutorials when she used words from the Scots language. "It was just a little thing to differentiate us and point it out... It meant that I didn't participate in my tutorials," she says.

Breese was shocked to walk around campus and hear students "slagging off" clothes from popular high street brands such as Primark, as well as conversations in lecture halls about inheritance tax that concluded with statements such as "rich people just work harder than poor people".

With only about a quarter of Edinburgh University's students coming from Scotland, the rest being from elsewhere in the UK or overseas, Breese felt in a minority. She was so disturbed by the discrimination around her that she decided to set up a support group for students like herself.

This story is from the December 27, 2024 edition of The Guardian.

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This story is from the December 27, 2024 edition of The Guardian.

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