Guy lied about which university he went to

Reading this thread I immediately thought of Bristol; I've lost count of the number of people who (maybe or maybe not disingenuously) say they went to university in Bristol to give the impression they went to the red brick and not the former technical college which is now the University of the West of England.

If its leeds, my brother went to both

That was my thoughts, as well as Carnatic which closed in 2019.

It's called Anglia Ruskin or ARU (merger of two former polys)

I once had a boss who did this! She would tell people she went to university "in Oxford" and they would assume she meant the Oxford, and she wouldn't correct them.

Am not sure how I found out it was actually Oxford Brookes, I may have asked her a direct question about it and she had the decency to tell me the truth.

Does it matter?

I went to a poly but it changed to a university while I was there. I don’t bother telling people that. What’s the point? If it ever comes up (hardly ever) I just say, I went to Liverpool.

The location where he had his lectures may now be different.
My daughter had lectures for her subject in the city centre instead of on the university campus. This was for the 3 years of her course whilst a new building was constructed on campus to accommodate her course. Current students are now taught on campus.
Something similar could have happened to the course he took.

To be honest - I don't think he is for you.
Whether he lied or not - who knows?
Your comment about not being fussed about him going to gigs because "they can be expensive" is an odd thing to say.
Surely he doesn't go because he doesn't enjoy them or he would have said something like "I don't go as much as I'd like to" and the conversation would have led to discussing music.
You thinking because it's about costs makes me wonder if you are more interested in how much money he has than his interests 🤔

It is not picky to be wary of dishonesty.

whether he went to a crap Uni isn’t the issue; it’s dishonest and insecure and cringe.

if he was otherwise a good guy and just had an inferiority complex I may give benefit if doubt as long as not a pattern of behaviour but I think it may already have stopped me fancying him by that point…

i disagree that we all lie about stuff like this; I never ever have and would find someone who did not to be my cup of tea if we are talking an intimate relationship. Neither would I hire on this basis either.

I think this is fairly common to "upgrade" your degree via ambiguity !

I mean technically you can say "I went to university in Oxford" - is not a lie. But obviously if you went to Oxford Brookes rather than Oxford University and lied when asked for clarification it would be.

There are many cities that have two institutions and I expect the use of deliberate ambiguity when asked the question is quite common ! So much for the myth that all universities are equal, so often touted on here.

But to me it does show some signs of insecurity if the person does not come clean when questioned further.

It would put me right off. The desire to control how you perceive him rather than being honest, and the insecurity driving that is not for me. That said, it clearly wouldn't bother everyone here so maybe red flag is too strong a term. I'd say the fact that it bothered you enough to post here means it's a non-starter. You'll always be wondering what he's bigging up to make himself look better at.

I thought the same. Liverpool Uni does have halls in the Greenbank Campus which is in the south of the city. I don't think they have lectures there but still.

Try being an actual U of Oxford student from a non-traditional Oxbridge background going home with your friend in the vac and dealing with a barrage of questions from her parents’ friends who just needed to check about seven times that I wasn’t telling a teensy little fib and was really at Brookes.

(Apart from one guy who thought I must be at ‘the secretarial college’ if I wasn’t at Brookes.)

It got to the point where I was stoutly saying that Brookes was an excellent university, though I wasn’t at it.

I was going to say so many people pretend to be into bands / types of music etc to try to build a relationship with their crush.

might be a sign he’s very impressed by you and feels a bit inadequate next to your effortless coolness!

i have a friend who’s always been a bit like this. Have known her for 25 years and she’s lovely in lots of other ways- a very loyal friend. I’ve also known her for ages so more likely to pick up when she fibs to someone in my earshot.

she moved areas recently and I overheard her telling her posh new neighbour that she moved from the slightly more upmarket area which borders the rougher area she moved from.

That's exactly what someone we knew years ago did! She went on to write a couple of mediocre books and even then was talking about her time 'up at Oxford'.

Is he very young? Can't imagine why he'd be embarrassed not going to frequent gigs?
I do think you perhaps feel a little bit superior from that gig comment!

People are really harsh - I’ve seen that you’ve said he’s shown insecurities in other ways. That doesn’t mean he’d be a bad partner necessarily. It’s more of a ‘see how it goes’ situation I think.

I think this is something that happens a lot, tbh. I know parents who say the equivalent of "My son's at Oxford" when it's Oxford Brookes.

Oxford Brookes, Nottingham Trent? Tbh I couldn't care less and if it is Oxford Brookes, the number of times those poor graduates have to explain that no Brookes isn't the name of an 'real' Oxford college would do my head in and I would have long since given up.

Could be Liverpool / Hope from the way the locations are described

I knew someone one who did the same thing. Told everyone he got a first from 'uni of' blah blah. Turned out it was actually the poly he went to. He was very full of himself and thought he was amazing.

How old is he? Maybe the Uni had another campus when he went there