When I was working at a Russell Group university, I supervised a student whose dissertation was on the experience of being a working-class student in a Russell Group university (Working-class lecturers should come out of the closet, 10 September). She conducted a small-scale study of herself and her peers and concluded that “new” (post-1992) universities were much more supportive of what she described as the “emerging cultures” of working-class students. I was inspired by this, and have now moved to Manchester Metropolitan University, which does celebrate its students with the “first generation” initiative.
The research was called “Ofs” and “Mets” and I am proud now to be working at a “Met”. We should celebrate our new universities for their inclusive practices and proud legacy of supporting first-generation students to go to university.
Kate Pahl
Professor of arts and literacy, Manchester Metropolitan University
• Melanie Reynolds beseeches working-class academics to come out of the “closet” of their background to act as role models for students from poor families. She cites the problems of conforming to middle-class values as inhibitors to success. What closet? Outside of Oxbridge, what middle-class values? Being the son of an East End joiner did not inhibit my gaining a place at a Russell Group university or subsequently climbing the greasy pole in a series of such institutions. My experience would be far from unique among my contemporaries. Indeed, we tended, if anything, to use our class as a badge of honour.
Emeritus Professor Graham Hall
Bury, Greater Manchester
• As an itinerant land surveyor in the 1960s, I looked up, at Exeter University, a Yorkshire school friend. In the students’ bar, I blurted out, in typical bluntness, “Why are you talking like that?”, much to the amusement of his southern peers and his embarrassment. I never saw him again. Sorry, Brian.
Geoff Naylor
Winchester, Hampshire
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