Financial Privilege: Academia’s Worst Kept Secret
Academia is limited to a privileged few, and there needs to be a more significant push to create a space for those lacking such privilege. The means test is a critical part of the university admissions process but, regardless of the support systems fashioned by some institutions, many students from low-income backgrounds fall at the first financial hurdle. Universities, or more specifically the makeup of the university; its staff and students, need to acknowledge that this is a systematic failure that they are all too complicit within.
Some students are unable to wage a space in the academic world as it becomes a commodity that is afforded by a few. This embrace of commodification favours those with an element of financial privilege. However, the growing marketisation of academic institut...
