The Power of the Pen (And the Mind)
Looking at St Andrews Through the Lens of Social Mobility

‘The pen is mightier than the sword.’ This phrase is key to understanding education as a tool for social mobility and it is a concept I have always felt attached to. Numerous measures, policies, and movements around the globe echo this assumption and promote education for all, believing it to be the best way for people to advance themselves. For many, university is the holy grail of such academic achievements, with a degree–though maybe less valuable today–being an important ticket for access to job opportunities and future success.
My own aspirations aligned with this meritocratic ideal, perceiving a distant, prestigious university to be my only real path towards a ‘successful’ life. But waking up on the day to leave for university, the pull of my hometown never felt so strong. I found that both me and the education system I had grown up with had trained me to aspire to what I had already achieved. They left me no roadmap, tool kit, or instruction guide for what to do when I got there.
Many of my fears about university turned out to be completely exaggerated, but a few of them didn’t. Academically, my first semester was an overwhelming and dejecting experience in which I often felt out of my depth. There was more content in my first history lecture than my entire A-Level module and in every tutorial, it seemed people were simply better than me at articulating themselves and had this wealth of knowledge on which to draw.
These feelings are not unique to me. Something I found extremely comforting when I got to sit down with President of the 93% Club, Katie McAdam. Founded by Sophie Pender whilst a student at Bristol University, the motto of the club– “Serious about social mobility”– sums up their ethos and intentions. They aim to provide a community for students to talk about their experiences with social mobility, providing career advice and guidance, personal support, and industry knowledge. Their name is a reference to the 93% of UK pupils who go to state schools, compared to the 7% who are privately educated.
These figures may seem surprising considering the over-representation of privately educated people in the top jobs and fields, constituting 35% of Senior Judges, 34% of FTSE 350 CEOS, and 56% of journalists in the UK. Warped perceptions of the proportions of people in private school can also come from the surrounding environment in St Andrews, with only 60% of UK students being from state schools, the university has the second highest density of privately educated students in the UK. Though there are an entire range of socioeconomic reasons for this, one best articulated by McAdam was the self-exclusion of many state school students before they even get the chance to apply. The ‘elite’ reputation of St Andrews is no doubt something to take some pride in, but this reputation is often accompanied by perceptions of elitism, generating feelings among many that they would not fit into such an exclusive environment.
I also had the opportunity to speak to Danielle Ennis, an author and educator whose work has focused on engaging with and encouraging young people in their personal development. Danielle’s own background, the subject of her book MIND: Memoirs of a Young Londoner, exemplified the contrast between a young person enjoying the school environment, but struggling with safety in her external environment. Her personal ambition and the support from her parents contrasted to the trouble and tragic stories around her in East London, reflecting the way in which socioeconomic background is influential, but not the only determining factor in one’s success.
However, such backgrounds can impact people's perceptions of themselves. Talking to Katie about her experiences and those of others in the 93% Club, a clear picture was formed of many students from state-educated backgrounds suffering from imposter syndrome, feeling like you don’t belong or deserve to be here. These feelings were described as almost imperceptible, through subtle implications that your perspective is not valuable or that you do not fit in. The nature of tutorials is one that can seem anything but natural, with some students comfortably questioning and debating tutors, something that McAdam described as alien to her– “the things that were valued in my school culture were not valued in my university culture”. These experiences reflect the gulf between the aims of a state education (mainly to get everyone to pass their Maths and English exams) and the culture of tutorials where you are expected to engage and debate rather than stay quiet and listen.
Danielle Ennis’ work with students, which specialised with higher risk students who had been excluded, highlighted to her the importance of looking beyond behavioural problems to recognise that these are not often reflections of ‘bad students’ deliberately causing harm, but could be a result of neurodiversity. Shifting focus from the standards of a traditional, standardised learning environment allows us to question labels of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ students, with Ennis speaking of students who understandably struggled to ‘see the point’ in an education focused on passing exams rather than engaging with things they are interested in. Recognising the value in diverse forms of intelligence is something people in academia should consider, with St Andrews’ pretentious Arts versus Sciences divide seeming irrelevant in comparison, creating hierarchies according to academic standards that do not reflect the worth of more practical forms of education.
At university, although it is fair to assume that people in a class should be at a similar educational level, there is also an assumption of a standard experience. It is often not understood or appreciated how different people’s educational backgrounds may be. References to philosophers, politicians, and historical events that are not standard to the National Curriculum of state schools leave some feeling left behind. Katie spoke of her desire for people to explain the things they are referencing, rather than censoring themselves, explaining the book or person they are referring to rather than assuming that everyone will be familiar with what they take to be common knowledge.
Danielle’s own experience being made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts also made evident that, although she had been successful and was naturally adept in a traditional learning environment, she was still seen as ‘one of the different ones.’ The dominance of older white men in such an environment could have been cause for similar forms of imposter syndrome, but instead Danielle chose to embrace the unique perspective she brought, realising that she was providing a viewpoint that no-one else there could or would have done. In a university context, we should also be embracing the different and diverse perspectives among students, recognising the ways in which our backgrounds help inform our unique positions and interpretations rather than sticking to textbook traditional answers.
How can we move past this? Speaking to Katie and learning about the 93% Club, they have already begun the journey to making changes in this small and ‘bubble-like’ town. Hosting events (which are all free) highlighting alumni from Widening Access backgrounds to provide role models to students demonstrates how success is achievable for everyone despite their backgrounds. Balancing recognition of structural disadvantages with an acknowledgement that you do have some agency and control over your own situation, the 93% Club hopes to focus on more advocacy work in the future, expanding beyond its career’s sessions and social events. One key aim for Katie is for St Andrews to address social mobility in its diversity and inclusion policy as there is currently no mention of the impact of socio-economic status on student experience.
Speaking to Danielle, I was reminded of bell hooks’ philosophies on teaching. Practicing what Katie preached about explaining your references: bell hooks was an author, activist, professor, and feminist whose book Teaching to Transgress highlighted the role of education in activism, utilising its power to engage students in critical thinking to free their minds. Moving beyond education which focuses solely on remembering information, the proposals made by hooks align with Danielle’s emphasis on critical thinking and emotional intelligence as tools to engage students and help them navigate their own path rather than follow the one laid out for them. The priority Ennis’ gives to young people’s agency has a powerful potential and implications for social mobility, meaning that rather than being trapped by your situation, young people can use their minds to question life and find what makes them excited.
On a practical level, Danielle suggested this could involve engaging with teaching soft skills, emphasising the significance of the mind of the individual on their own education. The rhetoric of mental health in schools thus needs to be matched by practical support which recognises the ways in which people socioeconomic backgrounds feed into the mentality, their health, and their educational achievement. Also, changing how we perceive academic success and achievement to expand beyond traditional academic standards to incorporate a range of subjects into the curriculum which include practical subjects. In St Andrews, the 93% Club is, in President Katie McAdam’s words, ‘making history just by existing’, a reason to hope for change in the long history of the elite St Andrews’ bubble. Creating a space where people can bridge the gap between university and home life, people now can engage in discussions about social mobility, using their own perspectives and building the kinds of critical thinking and emotional intelligence skills to recognise and speak about their experiences.
Social mobility is a much bigger issue than any individual, but it is important to recognise the power and agency that individuals have and the benefit that promoting soft skills can provide. Whether it is through engaging with a society like the 93% Club, finding a place to both built employment skills and knowledge but also a community of like-minded people who care about creating equal opportunities. Or, as Danielle has done, finding something that excites students and makes them want to engage with life and education. Being able to value our backgrounds without being completely defined by them to engage with education in a positive way is one key to getting there, but it will involve a change in the way we value intelligence, the skills we promote, and recognition of where elite institutions prioritise their elitism over inclusivity.
Illustration: Bethany Morton
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