Working class academics, when did you first discover ‘academic’ was an actual job that you could potentially do? For me it was during 3rd year undergrad. Based on a lightbulb moment conversation with the person who encouraged me to apply for funding & do postgraduate studies.
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The OP is from the North of UK. There is very little in the UK you can do within your own life to truly "change" class. You can change your accent, I guess, but people will always know and treat you differently at some point.
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As a scientist, I think I only know socially one working class UK academic (met him during my PhD). And it's nice he has a permanent job, I am so proud of him. Class mobility in the UK is abysmal because of many things, including how we define it.
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The biggest thing I've noticed is the expectation that most people can just spend another 6 months or a year finishing off their PhD whilst not being paid and be fine financially
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My blood boils.
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I think class is a hard one to talk about; my Dad was a joiner - but am I still working class now? How relevant is it anyway relative to salary which I think has more of an impact on opportunities than a stricter definition of class these days.
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Of course. I think it's harder to talk about because of stigma. My dad was a working class boy who even though passed the 11 plus didn't get to go to grammar school because his parents didn't value education and moved from Sheffield to Bradford and didn't correctly enroll him.
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He married a Cypriot whose parents were second generation American Cypriots from New York who moved back to Cyprus and my parents also moved to Cyprus. Thus my dad can be seen to have escaped the class hierarchy in the UK.
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I'm his daughter who has been living in the UK for 13 years and I'm sick of it all. I am hoping to move back to Cyprus soon, hopefully before 2021. All the time I've been here in the UK upper middle class men from pub schools have told me "you're Cypriot, that means no class".
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I'm a Brit working at the University of Sussex, UK. (Schooled in a secondary modern in Skelmersdale, a new town in the north of England.) Most people think me right posh now. I live my life as an outlier :-)https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/36749/why-did-sceptical-become-skeptical-in-the-us …
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Haha. I'm so proud of you. Also sorry! Twitter is so hard.

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No need for apologies (but thank you anyway). Not sure about pride, either. I had a lot of help and support, not least from a government who cared about their citizens and society, as well as from academics who cared more about their students than their tick boxes. Good times.
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Shame that government has been replaced with sociopathic wankers.
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