How to be an ally for first-generation students

As lecturers, we can influence whether social background becomes an obstacle for students’ progression, says Siobhán O’Brien

Published on
April 24, 2021
Last updated
April 26, 2021
Siobhán O’Brien
A first-generation student feeling isolated by her peers. Academics must be allies for first-generation students
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Staff diversity: socio-economic background
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Reader's comments (1)

#1 Submitted by msl_csp on April 25, 2021 - 11:32am
There are lots of things that are irritating about this article, for example for nearly everyone of my age (late 50s) you were the first to go to university in your family (ditto PhD). However, I particularly take issue with the sentence "The ivory tower is so far removed from the real world that we should be grateful for the two-way transfer of knowledge between academics and students." Maybe it is because I work in Engineering that I do not feel that my subject is "far removed" from whatever the "real world" is. Many years ago, I worked for a major bank and that felt pretty far removed from the outside world.

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