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?

I expect there's lots of wondering going on all over. DS is working class and looks and sounds it. I expect people wonder.

Also with the cost of living now I think increasingly white british students are staying at home and going to local uni’s to avoid hall
costs.

My halls were 80% white middle class at uni.

Surely everyone knows that unis now get a mix? I graduated back in 1981 and it was very mixed then!

My DD is in halls in a big city and I was shocked by the lack of diversity. Sadly she says that there are very few people that aren't white in her halls. I hope when classes start that she may find that there's more of a mix.

Well glad DD was a nice little box ticker for a white student getting to experience new ethnicities and nationalities at uni

How do you even know the ethnicities and nationalities of who he went out with OP? Seems an odd topic of conversation

I suspect it varies hugely depending on the uni and the course.

Well there you go. You went, I didn't, so you have that experience. But you carry on with your "everyone" when what you mean is everyone just like you.

All I know is that I hear Univeristy admissions are dominated by public schools, grammar schools and the kind of comprehensives people move house to get into. Which in this area are almost exclusively white and upper middle class/ professional parents.

No it's not. Have a look at the data.

You are a bit out of date. These days public and grammar schools have mostly Asians or mixed race families.

That’s very specific unis OP.

Also for example, a minority of students go to private schools but are over presented at certain unis.

Lets say if 10% of students go to private school, and a uni has an intake of 20% from private schools, that’s still a small number but disproportionate.

Interesting you’ve heard of the issue but not all the outreach programmes etc designed to tackle it, or didn’t see any diversity at open days.

Not in this "small town" they don't

Many universities have a multicultural mix,
At dd’s university there are students from all over the world who pay three times as much as home students
As others have said, universities rely on overseas students in order to survive

DS got in, I suspect in part, because of his "deprived" postcode and low performing school, but I still expected it to be tokenism and not to have achieved such diversity.

If I'm wrong, that's good.

I dropped my ds off at university yesterday and noticed this too. We are from a small town of predominantly white working class families. Like the op, I love how diverse his university is.

The people who move area to get onto good comps include a lot of non-white families. I know because of the area I live in.

Yes, I'm sure, but not in areas where the population is predominantly white, surely? Where would they move from?

There are some universities where there is a high proportion of public/private school. Namely St Andrews, Exeter, Bristol and Durham.
Also one must remember that some POC may deliberately choose universities which are more multicultural
In addition there are many communities who value education. For example in dd’s uni there are many British born Nigerians, Indians, Chinese etc

Ah, this is Bristol, so maybe just his halls then?

The city itself didn't seem particularly multicultural.

What do you mean where would they move from? Presumably they’d move from wherever they lived before?

You’re coming across very ignorant OP.

Congratulations to your son, OP, and to you for encouraging him. Don’t be put down by the nasty comments here. Some people just come online to be rude.

There’s no reason why you should know the demographics of a university if you haven’t been in one before. I hope your son does well and enjoys it.

Cities/ towns and the universities based in them are not always greatly in step with each other. They can be, but their communities are often pretty different.

I believe there’s a list of Uni’s that provide all white middle class accommodation for those who want it 😳

Thank you.

Presumably when people move for schools.they only tend to move a few miles, not to a whole different part of the country? But yes, it's me who's ignorant (which I admited from the start anyway).

He was actually "warned" that if he applied for single sex accomodation it would be almost all foreign students, although I suspect you're being sarcastic.