The culture shock I’ve faced coming to Newcastle University

A northerner coming to northern uni — I thought I’d find like minded people from similar background, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

I’ll be honest, I’m not completely isolated in my experience of uni. I have a decent amount of northern friends and do share lots of similarities with people, however despite this I can’t help but feel out of place among the wealthier/posh majority.

Photo by Charlie Green on Unsplash

In my first week of university, I’d never expected one of my first questions to be, “Did you go to state or private school?”. I think lots of people knew the answer before I even responded. I’ve been state educated my whole life and have never interacted with people who had attended boarding/private school before university.

Coming from a working-class area in Sheffield, with two parents with alarmingly strong Yorkshire accents meeting people that were my polar opposites was quite overwhelming. I did really well in school and achieved more than needed to get into Newcastle, so why did I feel so out of place?

Other students who attended Newcastle University similarly commented on their experience through The Student Room — a forum designed for students in and around the UK to ask others for advice regarding courses and where they choose their undergraduate and above degrees.

User @davidelliott commented on his experience attending a Newcastle open day, originally from Edinburgh he said he felt immediately out of place among the many Southerners, as well as people coming from privately educated backgrounds.

He said: “Will someone like me fit in? I’m quite worried about the whole thing. I’m coming to uni to meet people from all different backgrounds, I just don’t want to be judged for mine. I never judge anyone by their background: tweed-wearing, pigeon-shooting, aristocrat or people like me, I really don’t care, it’s the people not their background/ accent but I’m not sure how many people share this view from what I’ve seen of the uni thus far?”

Many other students with familiar experiences commented on how they also felt judged for being from a less privileged background at Newcastle University. The environment surrounding the previous student accommodation of Castle Leazes “boarding school culture” another student said.

Photo by Einar H. Reynis on Unsplash

In my personal experience at uni, I’ve found many previous boarding/private school students often stick together due to the shared backgrounds and going outside of that may be intimating. Regardless of this, the ignorant comments I’ve received during my time at university have been nothing short of ignorant and classist.

I’ve had people respond with “Ew” and “That’s so rough” after telling them where I’m from. My family have always viewed me as more ‘posh’ than them, so moving to university was interesting as I suddenly became more aware of my accent and how people can negatively perceive regional accents. Based on the accent discrimination I have received at university, I felt like my academia has not been as valued in comparison to my Southern peers.

Alongside this, I have also felt judged for not having certain experiences such as annual skiing holidays and travelling around the world over summer. The pure amount of shock on some people’s faces when I say I’ve never been skiing never fails to amaze me.

Photo by Nicolai Berntsen on Unsplash

Furthermore, this niche culture perpetuates the large gap between myself and privileged students — a skiing holiday for me is a once in a lifetime opportunity, whereas for them it’s a yearly retreat. As a result, my concept of wealth and class is vastly different to when I first stepped foot in Newcastle two years ago. There’s no longer working-class and middle-class, it coexists with multiple homes, manors and Daddy’s money (not always). Since moving to the delightful suburbs of Jesmond last year however, the mullets, ‘rah’ accents and unbelievable conversations I’ve heard make me feel like I’m living in a simulation — stay tuned….