Anyone put off Exeter University after the news today?

[AlphaApple]

And an RG university as well.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-43473517

Not that unusual

Exeter has always had a reputation for being very white upper middle class. I thought over the last five years or so they were doing better with these issues but it seems possibly not

Being white and upper middle class does not mean you are necessarily a racist

What relationship is there between the white upper middle classes and racism? Why do people jump on certain universities and equate that with racism? It’s completely wrong to do that.

All the young people I know who have been to Exeter do have parents who are middle class, by job definition, but only one is close to being upper middle class. The vast majority are products of state schools, like the majority of the students at Exeter.

Of course a university that is not in a large city may attract a less diverse student population but that is not the same as students being intolerant. It’s completely different. If you go to university in Leicester or Birmingham you would no doubt find greater diversity within the student population but that does not mean there is more tolerance and no racism. Few students are racist, anywhere! Most young people pride themselves on being tolerant and welcoming. It’s very wrong to imply students are more likely to be racist at the universities named above due to the background of the students.

I don't understand what you are shocked about? How have Exeter University done wrong here? Presumably the University was informed of the whataspp group and an investigation was conducted.
And?

You get racist idiots everywhere sadly - I'm sure it's not an Exeter-specific problem. Other universities, in other parts of the country, probably have a more diverse student body because the local population is more diverse. The SW (outside Bristol) is very white generally, so there won't be many potential BME students looking to save money by living at home and going to the local uni. Durham and St Andrews likewise: not diverse towns. And if I were a BME sixth former, news stories like this certainly wouldn't encourage me to apply to Exeter, so I suspect it becomes a self-perpetuating problem too.

It wouldn't put me off because the university have taken action rather than swept it under the carpet.

Yes and in terms of the local population I've come across some outrageous racism over the years around here in the SW - in one recent case so extreme that the local vicar was called to remonstrate with the person inciting hate (a very elderly but very belligerent woman calling a new villager names which were about as bad as it gets). We are certainly not a haven of tolerance, far from it.

Not to badger the point, but there's been story after story about racism and students at Exeter, not other unis in the SW. What's the deal with them? Have they just been unlucky and been caught?

Not sure what the uni can actually do to make it better.

There’s an article in the Telegraph today about Millennial racism, focusing on this problem in universities. It’s behind a paywall so I can’t read it - just enough to see that Exeter and NTU are mentioned.

The Telegraph article is saying that there is an increase in far right views amongst students and discusses events at Cardiff, the University of London (?) and Exeter. It also seeks out younger people who have racist views such as Jo Marney to back up the rather flimsy evidence about some students, which are mostly single incidents, but are nonetheless unpleasant ones.

I think it has been evident for some time that white middle class students flock to certain universities. That does not mean they are racist. They are looking for a security blanket with their tribe. You could say the same about our multicultural universities where many ethnic minority students live at home.

Very many children meet children from other backgrounds at school and see them as equal in every way. It is often people who perceive they have lost something, “Britishness” is often cited, the chance of a Council house, their white childhood, their ability to see a Dr when they want, etc. that are vociferously racist.

The article illustrates that a few young people are not tolerant but some are so stupid as to make it obvious and in many ways that’s arrogance. Whether there are huge numbers of alt right students is very debatable.

The article illustrates that a few young people are not tolerant but some are so stupid as to make it obvious and in many ways that’s arrogance.

I kind of prefer it when it’s obvious. That way I know who the knobs are.

Are you put off Oxford because of the Bullingdon Club?

This sort of rubbish happens across the country - I'd bet that it's there, under the radar, at every university in the UK.

It's not the universities - it's parents who raise children to have these views. Most academics I know from all kinds of universities (including Exeter) work extremely hard to counter such vile sexism & racism. BUt we know that it's there.

Ask any female academic about the low-level sexism she has experienced from male undergraduates. It's there, all the time. Ask any academic of colour about the low-level persistent racism they experience. It's there.

For example, there's been some very interesting research about the way that student evaluations of teaching are much better at indicating students' sexist and racist biases than assessing the teaching of the lecturer being assessed.

So, parents, look to the values you are encouraging in your DC.

Are you put off Oxford because of the Bullingdon Club? I've just come back to this thread after overhearing a conversation at work yesterday which I'll summarise as "Oxbridge isn't for our kids, it's for braying, boorish ex-public schoolboys". So, yes, I think it does contribute to people from less privileged backgrounds thinking that certain universities are not for the likes of them. I realise these boorish students are a small minority, but the vast majority of sixth formers in the UK have probably never visited Oxford, Cambridge, Exeter, St Andrews, etc or met any students from those institutions, so the stereotypes can be very powerful. In a similar way, my view of Oxford when I was a teenager was based entirely on the 1980s tv version of Brideshead Revisited.

My son is going through UCAS at the moment. He is white British, but has an Indian girlfriend. They went to visit some universities together, including Durham, Exeter, Bristol and Warwick. She said that Warwick was the only one where she felt truly comfortable and that she would fit in...