One in three UK university students ‘teased over accent’

Nearly a third of university students in the UK say their accent has been mocked or criticised and fear it could hold them back in their careers, according to a new study.

Those in higher education surveyed for the Sutton Trust’s Accent Bias in Britain project generally report feeling more self-conscious about a regional accent compared twith sixth-form pupils and professionals.

Anxiety was most acute among those approaching the end of their degrees as thoughts turned to the next career stage, the research finds.

Students also report feeling hesitant to speak up in lectures or tutorials because of their accent with one participant saying their Lancashire dialect had been described as “uneducated and aggressive”.

In the survey, 35 per cent of students report feeling self-conscious about their accent, higher than the 24 per cent of university applicants (largely 17-18-year-olds) and professionals in the workplace (23 per cent).

Thirty per cent of university students say they had been teased or singled out on campus due to their accent and 33 per cent say they fear it may hold them back in future. For professionals the figures were lower, at 25 per cent and 19 per cent respectively.

Such experiences are particularly prevalent among those from lower socio-economic backgrounds and certain regions. Among both university applicants and students, those originally from the north of England are more likely to be concerned that their accent could affect their ability to succeed in future. Forty-one per cent of northern students say this, compared with 19 per cent of those from the south, excluding London.

In September, a survey by the University and College Union found a majority of working class UK academics felt their background had held them back in their careers, with accents one of the factors that was said to have led to them to feeling disadvantaged.

The Sutton Trust said its report showed accents still act as a barrier to social mobility and recommended that action should be taken to diversify workplaces so that there is a range of accents within any organisation.

Sir Peter Lampl, the founder and chair of the charity, said it was “disgraceful” that people are “mocked, criticised or singled out for their accents throughout their education, work and social lives”.

Many respondents felt pressure to change their accent because of the discrimination they had faced and the researchers say this can exacerbate pressures on those who might be facing disadvantages already by adding the “social burden” of having to distance themselves from their own communities.

Asked what accents were seen as having the most prestige, received pronunciation (also known as the Queen’s English) still ranks the highest, while accents associated with industrial English cities, such as Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham, and ethnic minority accents, are the lowest ranked.

Devyani Sharma, professor of sociolinguistics at Queen Mary University London and the author of the report, said the work showed a “long-standing hierarchy of accent prestige” is still in place in Britain.

“Accent-based discrimination actively disadvantages certain groups at key junctures for social mobility, such as job interviews. This creates a negative cycle, whereby regional, working-class, and minority ethnic accents are heard less in some careers or positions of authority, reinforcing anxiety and marginalisation for those speakers,” she added.

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com