I spent last night in the company of quite a large number of postgraduate students from the University of Queensland. I went to UQ myself for four years and have two degrees from the place, so I am fairly familiar with its numerous claims to being an 'elite' institution as far as Australian higher education goes. A number of students (1,555 at the time of writing this), have even joined a Facebook group creatively titled: I go to UQ therefore I am better than you. Ok so Facebook groups are tongue in cheek in and no one actually believes that, right? At least not anyone with half a brain? Unfortunately, there seems to be a fairly aggressive and cancerous assumption growing among UQ students that because they go there they are, in fact, a better type of person. Most of the UQ postgrad students I met last night, on establishing that I was not currently a UQ student and did not have a job I could give them, behaved almost without exception incredibly rudely. This included point blank telling me they were no longer interested in speaking to me and trying to freeze me out of conversations with 'important' people. Not only is this behaviour incredibly immature, it is also incredibly stupid when you are trying to impress potential employers and network with peers who in 5 years time you might end up working for! It led me to wonder how many of these people had actually worked in an actual job with actual people. If they had, they would surely realise that no one cares that you went to UQ and it certainly doesn't make you better than anyone else!
I suppose it should not surprise me, given that UQ has a reputation for treating most people, including generous benefactors, incredibly shabbily. For those who are not familiar, read The Mayne Inheritance by Rosamond Siemon.
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