Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Accent discrimination in the UK?

Via Marginal Revolution, this story in The Guardian: 

Universities must act to eradicate discrimination against working-class students, including the mockery of regional accents, equality campaigners have said.

A Guardian investigation has found widespread evidence of students at some of the country’s leading universities being ridiculed over their accents and backgrounds, in some cases prompting them to leave education.

The analysis found discrimination against working-class students was particularly prevalent among Russell Group universities. The group, which is made up of 24 institutions, has a reputation for academic excellence.

In a series of Guardian interviews, students past and present reported bullying and harassment over their accents and working-class backgrounds. Some said their academic ability was questioned because of the way they spoke.

The Social Mobility Commission (SMC), which monitors progress in improving social mobility in the UK, described the situation as unacceptable and said accents had become a “tangible barrier” for some students.

This week the Guardian reported complaints of a “toxic attitude” towards some northern students at Durham University. Last month the university launched an inquiry after wealthy prospective freshers reportedly planned a competition to have sex with the poorest student they could find.

People will find different ways to distinguish the in-group from the out-group, so it shouldn't be a surprise that there is discrimination based on accent. I suspect that happens a lot less in the United States, although I can't imagine someone with an intense Noo Yawk accent having a great time of it at UT-Austin, or a someone with a Southern drawl getting 100% fair treatment at Harvard from fellow students. 

I imagine this kind of treatment extends its way into the workplace as well, but, in chemistry, I imagine it's much more about foreign accents than it is about various regional accents in the United States.  

4 comments:

  1. Occasionally, a few peers or lecturers would have such strong nothern accents in the UK, such that it becomes very hard to understand them. This can become a very frustrating issue for overseas students who might not have the best mastery in English. That said, "sizing" one up based on one's accent is quite common anywhere, and like mentioned by CJ the unpleasant aspects of it towards foreigners are all too common

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fiona Hill agrees. 2:05 mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ1Xq_Lu_zw

    Sad to see it's still going on.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bear in mind that these problems are worse in arts and social sciences departments in the UK. I went to Edinburgh, and there was a definite problem in some parts of the University. In chemistry however, it is (was) much more of a meritocracy. Although, like all top UK departments, there is (was) a huge over representation of Oxford types amongst the permanent staff..

    ReplyDelete
  4. I went from the North of the UK to Durham for undergraduate and PhD studies and agree with 12:19. The chemistry department was much more international and representative of the UK population than the general student body (although still incredibly white).

    Anecdotally the proportion of students who were from 'normal' backgrounds increased going from undergrad to PhD, presumably because all the posh student left chemistry to work in consultancy etc.

    However everything that was brought up in the guardian articles, yeah that's true.

    ReplyDelete

looks like Blogger doesn't work with anonymous comments from Chrome browsers at the moment - works in Microsoft Edge, or from Chrome with a Blogger account - sorry! CJ 3/21/20