Social Class of London Students

May i ask what course your doing? Plenty of students from the arts to the sciences take on jobs and a 101 things and are still succesful, unless your doing medicine I think it is possible to work. I think students SHOULD work, if they have the opportunity to do so.

However, I think the real point is whether working class students are still able to study at London universities, or whether financial reality or Government policy has forced them out. I would say that the top 20 unis have always been middle-class bastions due to their reputation and the high A-Level scores required, and this ultimately causes problems for people from working class backgrounds getting into areas such as finance, IB, Magic Circle Law etc.

What is wrong with THOSE sorts of people.

People get so het up about being pre-judged on this issue, that they deny themselves the opportunity of going to some great universities.

You will meet "rahs" wherever you go in the country. London is no exception.

I'd agree with that. But really, the amount of money "working class" people can get is ridiculous, there's so much from grants and burseries and ucl has some policy where they match 50p to every pound of government grant you're getting, i don't see how people who are eligible for these grants/burseries can't survive at uni, it's the "middle-class" people who aren't eligible for any grants etc who will probably struggle. I hate the government's presumption that if you have an income of over 37k (or whatever it is), you don't need any financial support at uni and "daddy" will pay for it all.
Sorry that turned into a bit of a rant!

I have not met a single one at Southampton. Mostly because they stand out a mile so I can avoid them.

One I did kind of meet (I knew who she was and saw her on the bus) phoned for a taxi at 4pm in the afternoon (so daylight) to take her the 15 minute walk to the train station when she was going home for the weekend (So no huge bags to carry). WTF is up with that?

If you are born that way, and imbued with that culture/way of life, you know no better. It is very easy to be friends with "rahs" if you make the effort and get to know them properly. I say the same thing about working class folk. If you look past the accent etc...there are some very nice people amongst the working class.

Really it is quite pathetic to be prejudiced against someone merely because of what circumstances they were born into.

I have not met a single one at Southampton. Mostly because they stand out a mile so I can avoid them.

One I did kind of meet (I knew who she was and saw her on the bus) phoned for a taxi at 4pm in the afternoon (so daylight) to take her the 15 minute walk to the train station when she was going home for the weekend (So no huge bags to carry). WTF is up with that?

Oh please. The way I was bought up I could very easily have become a 'rah', but I CHOSE not to.

What exactly does that mean? You deliberately shun your roots and pretend that you're poor. Isn't that a bit condescending to people who are actually in that position?

I do not pretend I'm poor or rich. I do not flaunt what I have, why would any normal person do that?

Language and Culture is the course. The profs seemed to say there wasn't time for jobs, one said you should be doing 50 hours study a week, i don't know if that's realistic but i certainly don't think i could fit in a job if i had to spend that long doing uni work.

I would suspect that it is more marked in the prestigious London colleges where 40% are from private schools etc. The student magazines of London and Oxford are the only magazines I have ever seen with a fashion section.

Also, I get the impression that London students don't party as hard as those in provincial unis.

Oh please. The way I was bought up I could very easily have become a 'rah', but I CHOSE not to.