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?

Are you on glue?

Oh dear. No just working class and never went to Uni. Although I did do a degree later by distance learning actually, but I've always suspected I don't belong here, just as I feared DS wouldn't fit in. Thankfully he's not overly worried about that sort of thing.

I’m not sure what you imagine the UK to be like OP, there’s no segregation laws. I think there’s few areas that are all white people for miles and miles around. Yes, some areas are far more diverse than others but most areas have at least a little diversity somewhere around.

OP whether you are wishing to or not, you are coming across incredibly ignorant and comping across that you don’t want your son to be around other ethnic people.

Or are you wondering why there are not more whites children at University and is it that ethnics are favoured OVER whites in admissions, you would be wrong.

African, Asian and Indian cultures are very strong on educating their children. Families will send a life time education and saving for private and Universities.

Unfortunily many white/English families don’t prioritise education and you will see this trend continue, while whites becoming the minority in University and professions.

Have you not noticed many Doctors, Dentists, Opticians, Chemists, Lawyers, Accountants and Business people are not white?

I think one of the benefits of going to Uni is that it lands you in situations that are different from life at home.

My non-white Dc, educated in S London comprehensives of a non-leafy nature had never been in such a white environment. And coming from one of the most-left / Remain areas in the country were not used to being with lots of people from different thinking backgrounds.

It is all good for them.

This is an EXCELLENT thread to demonstrate how the “liberal” in their desperation to prove how fabulously woke and not snobby they are can’t help but show their snobby elitism.

i think it’s an interesting observation from the OP - and hopefully has allayed some fears she may have about her working class son being marginalized

I have an awful feeling however that there will lots of wokes at the uni falling over themselves to educate her son about the right way to be working class…

OP you might be interested in this article about Eton College:
www.economist.com/1843/2016/08/16/eton-and-the-making-of-a-modern-elite

It's been a long time since the elite schools in this country were dominated by upper class white people.

Very few students in my DS' "very posh" independent school had two British parents. Varied ethnicities, but even the white students (including mine) had one or both parents from other European countries, the US, Russia etc etc. And the boarders were mainly from overseas (largely Chinese). Expecting (and hoping for) the same ecclectic mix at his London uni.

I don't know why you are getting so many snarky answers.

DD went to a university in a city that attracts a good mix of students from various backgrounds - locally and from overseas as well as elsewhere in the UK, and she made friends with people of all colours and ethnic backgrounds.

I would say that most of the students I saw in and around her halls were white, but at her graduation there was a good mix of students of all backgrounds. They may have stayed in other halls or just weren't out and about when I was around.

@Papirus I think you were just making an observation and weren't being rude at all, but some posters were just looking to be offended. I got snapped at on here for observing that there were a lot of overseas students (and yes, they were from overseas) at DD's graduation.

OP do other ethnicities make you nervous?

Yes, this is exactly my point and (one of the reasons) why I was excited for him to go.

I love how people assuming that the whole country is multicultural like the cities they live in are calling me ignorant. Of course there are loads of small towns that are almost all white. Some of the most deprived areas of the UK are all white.

I work with troubled teens in this county. 200 children on an ever changing roll, who travel from all corners of the county. We get maybe one or two non white children through a year.

@Ladywinesalot whether or not you mean to be you are coming across as very insular and unable to understand the lived experience of others.

If you are aspiring to be wonderfully openminded and diverse you are also failing miserably

Depends on the university and depends on the halls. Diversity is not the case in every instance. And in others it will be much more so. Hope your son has a great time at university.

Is he in slightly lower cost accommodation OP? My experience at uni 10ish years ago was that it was very multicultural- but the white English students were predominantly middle class (very few seemed to have working class backgrounds) - I went to Bath though - else did see Bristol as a melting pot that Bath wasn’t quite! The middle/upper class white British students were all in the posher halls though 😄.

Now you're looking for it. I've repeatedly said it's a good thing. I'm just surprised because of my preconceptions (probably from spending too long on MN) that it's not more white MC. I didn't expect it to be all white MC, but I did think they would dominate. I'm glad to be wrong.

TBH he was such a late applicant we took what they had left, but if this is cheap I dread to think what the rest costs! It's very nice actually.

here you go OP masses of actual data published by UCAS

www.ucas.com/data-and-analysis/undergraduate-statistics-and-reports/ucas-undergraduate-sector-level-end-cycle-data-resources-2021/2021-entry-ucas-undergraduate-reports-sex-area-background-and-ethnic-group

you can select by individual Uni/

You seem to have quite a chip on your shoulder @Ladywinesalot.
As the daughter of an immigrant myself I don't understand why you are being so defensive. There are parts of the UK that aren't very multicultural, so when your young person moves to somewhere that is more multicultural then it is more noticeable to them. SuperCamp makes some good points about this.

Funny you say that. We moved ds to his uni yesterday. We were really surprised at how white and middle class it was.

I think it also depends on what subjects universities are strong at. For example, Sheffield has an excellent engineering department and there are a lot of Chinese students there. Any university that has a medical school will also have a lot of students from all backgrounds.

As the mother of an international student at a London uni, this thread is more than a little odd. Maybe I am reading too much into it. His uni offer was so high this year that the intake appears to be dominated by brilliant Chinese and Indian students with 45 out of 45 in the IB.
These days, Tiktok is the great leveller for students across the world.

But yes, we and people like us have been saving all our lives to send our DC to British unis because the unis in our home countries are crap or oversubscribed.

I think some halls tend to have more international students than others. Your DC will suss whether this is the case soon enough and could probably swap if he doesn't like this one.

In my experience, a big mix of nationalities = fun and eye-opening educational experience. A preponderance of a few nationalities = a lonely way to not make friends because they stick together. I had this experience with Chinese students at uni, they spoke Chinese the whole time, kept Chinese hours, took over the kitchen a lot etc.

@LobeliaBaggins can you not imagine that some people in England have a different lived experience to your own? I find it a little odd that you can’t imagine that someone would have expected an english uni to have a proportionaltely larger number of white middle class English students - that being the demographic that is typically perceived as having greater educational advantages.

It’s interesting as my DS went to Manchester and was expecting a lot of diversity but his flat of 8 was all white British, though from diverse backgrounds and regions but 100% state schools. He has made friends from outside his flat who are more diverse.