The Edinburgh Tab: As the English upper-class intended

The Edinburgh Tab is under hot press as social media rallies together to criticise the so-called-inclusive Student paper. The paper is supposedly meant to represent the four universities in Edinburgh: The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Napier, Heriot-Watt, and Queen Margaret, yet it seems to dismiss all but the Russel Group, similarly to how they dismiss their own Scottish students, and brutally so at that.

In a recent TikTok post by The Tab, one user commented how there were no Scottish people in sight to which The Tab replied with ‘As god intended’. The comment has sparked outrage with many people calling this out for what it really is: classism. This isn’t the only piece of evidence to indicate the deep-rooted classism in Edinburgh. One video saw a Scottish girl go up to be interviewed and once the interviewer found out she was Scottish she said ‘Oh sorry never mind actually’. Whether or not this is funny to the people running The Tab is irrelevant, as Scottish students are not finding the humour within this. What they are finding is the continuation of deep-rooted classism within Edinburgh which is making Scottish people feel like outsiders and aliens in their own homes.

The degrading of Scottish students at a Scottish university is straining the cultural relationship students should have with their university city, especially for those coming from working-class backgrounds who may already feel unwelcome at such a prestigious university. The University claims to be inclusive but when you see TikTok’s being made featuring pretty much no Scottish students and primarily southern English students it starts to create a little angst. The lack of diversity, representation, and depiction of Scottish students in media coverage in general is just merely highlighting the underlying struggle that Scottish students are facing, with many further claiming that English fee-paying students are being prioritised as a way for the university to make more money.

Moreover, this is all being solidified by the preservation of anti-Scottish rhetoric and messages, which is being very much boosted by The Tab but also the BBC who also made the same mistake of not interviewing Scottish students, ironically, on this very issue. Not one single Scottish accent was heard in that video yet later it was revealed that one Scottish Edinburgh University student had been a part of the video explaining her take on elitism at the university and yet, low and behold, she was cut from the video. But at least The Tab had a little bit of a giggle, right?