Are all University halls so mulitcultural?

[Papirus]

I moved DS in yesterday. A Redbrick University.

He's had a horrible time over the last couple of years, but got it together to get a place and seems genuinely excited by the study.

I've been excited for him as it's a fresh start and an opportunity to meet people far outside our usual circles (which would be mostly white, skilled working class/lower middle class).

The families moving DC in yesterday were indeed hugely varied, which is fantastic. DS was out last night with flatmates from 5 different ethnicities and 4 different countries. I am a little surprised though to find that the white English middle class don't dominate.

Not bad surprised, just having my preconceptions put aside and wonder if this is typical?

Depends which uni

Do you live in a rural area, small town outer suburbs OP? Most large cities are multicultural. My DDs went to very multicultural schools and their universities were too.

Bizarre question.

Also, you do know that most universities are now completely financially dependent financially on large cohorts of overseas, full-fee-paying students, right?

Of course I expected it to be multi cultural, but I was surprised it was so multicultural with the white middle class not represented at all.

I genuinely can't think of any reason why you would ask this? What difference would the answer make to you?

I do love the way people here want to tell me though. That hasn't come as a surprise

@AquaticSewingMachine Indeed, you can expect quite a lot of foreign students basically for this reason. The majority will likely be Chinese, but other foreign students with money will also be around, I would think?

Yes they are. Because Asian people now have money and value an education.

Also, you do know that most universities are now completely financially dependent financially on large cohorts of overseas, full-fee-paying students, right?

this.

even back in the days of grants my northern uni had a large number of overseas students. Some subjects are more ethnically diverse too- many of the overseas students were maths, engineering, medicine etc, less so the arts. Usually because they were being sponsored by an employer back home.

..does your son not count, then?

It depends. Exeter still has a predominantly white student intake.

If anything it's a good thing to me. DS is most definitely working class from a comp on the rougher end of the scale. I am excited for him to see that other ways of life exist, but I was a it worried that he wouldn't fit in where, I expected, large numbers would be posher, from posh schools.

They may well be but the backgrounds seem more varied than I expected. Which is good.

Have to say though, attitudes already on this thread are a good demonstration on why the white WC don't send more of our children to good universities. Yes, we're from a small town and a bit clueless. Do you need to be so condescending?

No, he's not middleclass.

I went to uni 10 years ago. A prestigious one. There were a handful of english whites and the rest all varied with a couple of dominating ethnicities. I repeat this was ten years ago….times have changed.

Most people in Dds block appear to be British, going by accent.

But it is multicultural as well. In her flat they are all from different cultural backgrounds. We are Irish/Indian. Ones family is From Zimbabwe, the others family is Korean.

Non UK students pay more.

Liverpool Uni: Of our 27,000 students on campus, more than 8,000 are international and EU students from over 130 countries.

Manchester Uni: with over 26,000 undergraduate and 14,000 postgraduate students. We are also the most globally diverse university in the UK, with over 10,000 international students enrolling from over 160 countries worldwide.

They pay over double and fund the home students.

It can also depend what type of accomodation your son/daughter has. Some halls will be more attractive to foreign students than others. Indeed, some halls are for foreign students only (in my experience these tended to be the nicer ones).

Are all university residence buildings so multicultural? No.
Is it usual for university intake to be multicultural, to the extent that white middle class school leavers could be represented in a minority? Largely, yes - depending a lot on the subject and faculty. Some subjects are also likely to be populated strongly by male or female students without a very equal intake.

My Uni Dc are middle class ‘of colour’.

I wonder if they were wondered about as they moved into hall?

They are represented!

Got me thinking about my non white DC as well!

Well this is my question. Not in DS's flat (of 10) they're not and they didn't appear to be in the corridors either.

My mixed race niece certainly was. She went to a campus uni in a small town and (in her words) stood out like a sore thumb. She was treated pretty badly and transferred to an urban university, and was pleased to have a similar experience to the OP. So OP, feel free to ignore the typical mn sarky comments, the diversity in your sons halls is not universal.