Link: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/sep/27/st-andrews-university-class-divide-american-students

A good read here. Classism is alive and well in uni, in the workplace, in our schools, and I'm sure in our end of life care too. And the no fees attempts to address this, and does it well, but it is pernicious and vigilance needs to be maintained

My partner teaches in the US and this has been standard fare there for decades; colleges underfunded or misallocating assets toward sports/new fancy dorms/etc. meaning there is an even greater need to allocate admissions to high-tuition international students. At her school it's been the Saudi, UAE students making Americans feel like the Scots portrayed in this article are: guests in their own country's institution. Every school/region has its own cohort of overrepresented wealthy students; school admins work tirelessly to market to these students to ensure their current business model can be sustained despite it working against their own country's students' interests. It's sad.

I have to agree with the St. Andrews rep that it's a societal issue(economic distribution) and not one caused by the school--however--if society hasn't fixed what it has known to be such a major problem in decades/centuries/millenia, how can 19-year-olds turn it around to a point of learning, fixing and absorbing the lesson in a few transient years at a university? It's quite a convenient concession for administration.