Sophie Rose Jenkins, a former comparative literature and classical studies student at the University of St Andrews, said she would not return to the university this academic year because of her experiences of classism on campus.

Jenkins wrote on LinkedIn that working-class students had been made to feel ashamed of their home lives at university. She said that, having arrived at a university ranked first in the UK at the time from her background, she believed she was doing everything right.

Her post, published two weeks before the source report, has resonated with hundreds of others. Online comments have reflected class tensions at the Scottish university between students from lower-income families and wealthier US undergraduates.