Have you ever felt yourself changing some aspects of your behaviour to fit into a certain group environment? Perhaps you’ve downplayed a regional accent, or avoided talking about some topics that you usually would for fear of snobbish reactions. Beth Ashley’s article, published earlier this year, did a great job of shedding light on an issue that is not often talked about. The undue pressure on students from less affluent backgrounds to “pass” as middle class in order to fit in at university is something that we shouldn’t ignore.
What is class passing?
Class passing is the act of concealing your true social class to blend into a certain environment. From achieving class mobility to not wanting to be the odd one out in a group, there are plenty of reasons why someone may want to class pass. However, putting on an act may soon turn out to be exhausting and unsustainable for the person involved.
When this phenomenon is talked about, it’s most often in relation to the workplace. It’s linked to the American Dream ideal of pulling yourself up by the bootstraps. However, university is very much a place where class passing occurs on a daily basis. The cycle of incoming freshers being thrust into an environment with a completely new group of people means that this type of behaviour is inevitable.
Students feel “like outcasts”
Particularly concerning those who are not from middle-class backgrounds, class passing has had a tangible, and often negative, effect on the lives of students who have experienced it. This view is shared by Andrezza, a Digital Marketing Assistant who grew up in the North and moved to London to study. ‘I find that moving to London and studying and working with quite affluent or “well-bred” posh people has definitely made me subtly change a few things about myself over time,’ she admits.
‘I would definitely say in the past two years my accent has definitely changed a little, but only where Northerners would call it posh. In London people automatically point out that I’m Northern, which obviously comes with the stereotype of being working class and “chavvy”.’
The divide is deepened by the fact that a disproportionate amount of students, particularly in the UK’s most elite universities, are privately educated. Perhaps unsurprisingly, institutions like Durham, Edinburgh and Exeter are among the worst culprits. 60-65% of their students are from state schools, compared to 93% of people in the UK as a whole. In fact, less than 75% of students are state-educated in over a third of Russell group universities.
Andrezza affirms that discussions about shared schooling experiences are embedded in the culture of her university. ‘It’s all about which private school or prep you went to and who you know. At this point, I don’t join in with any of that sort of conversation, because from experience it really just makes you feel [like an] outcast.’
‘You’ll just randomly hear about paying thousands for school fees and their million pound holiday homes, and it’s just very odd sometimes when you can’t relate in the slightest.’
A global phenomenon
The UK is perhaps notorious for its entrenched class divides, no more prominently displayed than in its education system. However, class passing behaviours in schools are not limited to this country alone. Keeara, who lives and studies in New Zealand, reports similar experiences.
‘I came from a Southeast Asian immigrant family, where I grew up in a neighbourhood of a lower socio-economic status. Many decisions about living and education all came down to money. This was a huge point of tension and struggle in my household.’
‘I never felt like I missed out on anything in life, until [I attended] an affluent, single sex high school, where I was targeted by the other students for not wearing trendy or branded clothes on casual dress days.’
‘This was a source of bullying, as well as the suburb I was living in. The school had a reputation for affluent students and families who had gone to the school for generations. Older friends also report many instances of class-related bullying.’
While this type of bullying did not continue during Keeara’s time at university and she was able to embrace her heritage there, her experiences in high school deeply affected her and pushed her towards activism.
‘At the time, I would hardly mention culturally distinct things my family did or my experience in my culture,’ she says. ‘[Becoming] involved in human rights activism in my last two years on campus helped me feel more secure in being different.’
‘At the same time, I felt I had to work twice as hard this way to feel some kind of positive recognition from my peers.’
A toxic environment
Although many students find themselves making friends with people from all sorts of backgrounds, bullying based on socio-economic status is very much present in our universities. Several Northern students have accused Durham of failing to tackle the toxic environment on its campus, detailing the abuse and mockery they have experienced due to their accents and backgrounds.
Human psychology dictates that people tend to modify some of their behaviours to blend into certain social settings. In many ways, this is an inevitable part of adult and professional life. Learning to act in ways that seem inauthentic is, perhaps unfortunately, a large factor in how people network with others and get ahead.
However, at some point you may need to take a step back and consider how this type of behaviour may be affecting you. Keeara, who now reads Law at university, has found that her campus is still dominated by affluent, and often closeminded, students. Having realised that class passing has negatively impacted her, she has decided to change her mindset.
‘I decided that I did not want to exhaust myself to be recognised by people whose opinions I did not want to be governed by,’ she asserts. ‘If you keep pretending, you risk becoming your mask or being burnt out by maintaining a persona of wealth, prestige, competitiveness and high reputation.’
‘You don’t want to keep pretending for the rest of your life. Your unique experiences and struggles make you who you are. What you study and how you make major decisions shouldn’t be based on how others perceive you, because only you know what’s best for you and your life.’