The Brookes boy

I    study publishing here, which is quite a mixed, skills-based course. I applied to this after Eton; it’s a strong basis for going into marketing or advertising. Our workload involves about thirteen to fourteen hours of lectures and seminars a week, which are very interactive and geared towards group-based work. Other than lectures, we have about three personal reports as well as two presentations to do a term. Most people here work very hard; certainly most people I know here are very, very motivated. The publishing course at Brookes is very well respected, and the business school is also very, very popular. Most people I’ve talked to in the city reckon that Brookes is one of the best new universities, and I’ve met a lot of alumni who have all got very successful jobs. I don’t think that Brookes is marketed more towards upper-middle class students: I’d say 60% of our student population haven’t paid for their education. Brookes does have a reputation for Sloanes and husband shopping, but it’s a reputation that I think is ill-deserved, assumed through most people coming up and seeing people with blonde hair. True, there are quite a number of them to see, but I’d say last time I was up in Newcastle that kind of population was a lot more dense.We’re big drinkers as much as any other university. There are quite a lot of large nights out – we go out to clubs three or four times a week, Brookes’ favourites being Escape, The Bridge and Clementines. I’ve heard a couple of wild drunken stories about breaking into Oxford colleges, although for the record it wasn’t me! But let me just say that four or five of the colleges have walls that are very easy to scale. As to which ones, I couldn’t possibly comment. You can sense a different vibe between Brookes and Oxford nights. Brookes students seem more enthusiastic and chatty. This could be because the people there have more things in common and possibly less to prove, but admittedly that’s merely speculation. Do Oxford students have superiority issues? I think that’s something you have to judge on an individual basis. I don’t think you can ever make a generalisation about Oxford students – certainly my friends at Oxford aren’t like that at all. Concerning how we feel about them, there are absolutely no hard feelings whatsoever; everyone I know at Brookes has at least two friends at Oxford anyway. To us, Oxford University is just the place down the road. I think there is actually a lot more animosity from Oxford towards Brookes students than the other way around. To be honest, most people have chosen to go here as their first choice, so have no hard feelings about anything. We’re supposed to be the fittest university in Britain. From personal experience I’d say that’s true, although the types are actually a lot more varied than just the blonde hair and short skirts. Well, a lot of people I know, to be fair, have blonde hair and wear short skirts. Indeed, that’s the stereotype that may be applied to Brookes girls, accompanied by signet-ring wearing, shirt-and-jean wearing, long-haired boys. Degree of superficiality? I’d say no more than any other university. It’s very much a case of “you can’t judge a book by its cover”. People are generally very quick to judge short skirts and bleached blonde hair, but I think there’s a lot more to the look then that. I mean, maybe you’ll have this girl who will wake up tomorrow and think “I’d like to dye my hair blonde” – I don’t know, I don’t know why I’d dye my hair blonde. But I think to take a look at that phenomenon and think they’re all clones would be a gross underestimation.ARCHIVE: 1st week MT 2005