Daisy Mitchell talks to John’s alumni Nigel Hollington about his time at John’s as a first generation scholar.
At the start of summer term I had the opportunity to meet and chat to Nigel Hollington over zoom about the incredible experience he had at St John’s college. In 1974, Nigel applied for St Chad’s college after being given the palatinate purple Durham information booklet by a teacher at his school in South London. However, after turning up in beautiful, green Durham for his interview, Nigel was told that he would be better suited at St John’s. They gave them a phone call, got him another interview, and soon after he received an offer! This was the start of Nigel’s incredible journey at university and, if it wasn’t for that one inspirational teacher in his secondary school, Nigel would never have considered university an option and his story would be entirely different.
Although Nigel loved his time in Durham it was not all plain sailing. He opened up to me about the financial difficulties he faced in his second year and the realisation that he could not afford to stay in Durham and finish his degree. Unfortunately for Nigel things were very different in the seventies: there was no financial aid and the government grants were very different. Each term Nigel received, or his father would have received, money from the government to help with university fees. However, after paying for rent and tuition, Nigel was left with only £10 a month. Although this was worth more in the seventies than it is today, Nigel told me that it was not enough to pay for his train fares from Durham to London or for the books he needed for his course, so by the middle of his second year he realised his only option was to drop out.
Now, this information intrigued me. Before meeting with Nigel I knew that he was a successful teacher and had graduated from university with a PGCE in 1978. So, my question to him was how did he turn his financial struggles around and fund the rest of his degree? Nigel began by explaining that when he was at St John’s all of the first years shared a room and second years could either move out, which was quite rare, or move into a single room. Due to being low on money, Nigel told me that he asked a friend of his from school, who had delayed attending university for a year, whether he would like to share a room with him as it was more affordable. He told me that this was significant because it meant he was sharing a room with a friend he knew very well and was close with. After realising his lack of money and understanding that he would have to leave Durham, Nigel told me about one day when he returned to his room to find a note on his bed. The note explained that a sum of money had been raised and transferred directly to his bank account in order for him to finish his degree. Nigel explained that he didn’t know who it was from but that all of his friends had raised over £100 to help him with his fees. His amazingly generous friends had dipped into their own pockets to enable Nigel to stay on in Durham and complete his studies, changing the course of his life. Nigel told me that his friend has never admitted to giving him that note and raising the money, but that he has strong suspicions of who it was.
As a first generation scholar Nigel was unable to ask his parents for financial support, not because they were unkind, but because they did not have the money to lend and they did not understand his attending university. Nigel discussed his family background with me, explaining that his father was of the generation who were at school in the 1930s, didn’t have his parents at home, and lived with his aunt. At age 16 he joined up as a boy soldier in the war, as did Nigel’s uncles. So here was Nigel, aged 20, living what his dad thought was a very fine life at university, at which age his father had been fighting in the war for three years. Due to this, Nigel explained how his dad found it very difficult to understand why he should give money to his son when he should be at work, not studying. This is a common experience of a first generation scholar. They often come from backgrounds where university is misunderstood and their families do not know why they should have to give from their own pockets when their children should be earning money themselves. Unlike today where there is a lot of support both financially and academically for first generation scholars, Nigel had no assistance available from the university so without the generosity of his friends, he would never have completed his degree.
His amazingly generous friends had dipped into their own pockets to enable Nigel to stay on in Durham and complete his studies, changing the course of his life.
I wanted to gauge what St John’s was like for Nigel when he attended so I asked him about his experience and what some of his favourite memories are. Nigel was delighted and told me about his involvement with the rowing club and how he helped to start the first women’s rowing team at the college. As John’s had only recently become a mixed college, he initiated the women’s sports team in encouragement that other sports would do the same. He told me that he helped coach the women’s team because he loved the sport and wanted to help as much as he could. Nigel also told me about the John’s spirit that was so alive when he attended the college. With only 163 people in total at John’s, Nigel told me how he pretty much knew everyone so it was easy to maintain a strong ethos, something that is more difficult now most of the second and third years live out. One of the highlights that he shared with me was that in his free time he would either have coffee in his friends’ rooms or spend time in the television room where they would watch ‘Match of the Day’ or ‘Doctor Who’. He told me that they didn’t stay in their rooms in their free time because they didn’t have their own entertainment like we do now. I mean, what would you be doing if you couldn’t watch Netflix?
Another key memory Nigel shared with me was his journey back and forth to Durham from his home in south London. On his first journey up to Durham Nigel told me how his mum took him to Victoria bus station and his dad said one thing to him: “Don’t bring your washing home.” Every other time he travelled to or from Durham, Nigel hitchhiked. He told me that when he was coming home he would walk out to the M1, six miles from John’s (a walk that took him an hour), and stand beside the road with his college scarf and a sign that read ‘Durham’ on one side and ‘London’ on the other. The stories Nigel told me about his journeys were incredible! Sometimes he got picked up by lorry drivers, sometimes private cars, even a fancy sports car on one occasion! I asked how his family felt about his hitchhiking journeys to which he replied, “they were pretty horrified.” He explained that they were not necessarily scared for him because it was a more normal thing back then, but they knew that people who hitchhiked were either in the army or people who had nothing better to do. He said that thinking back now he finds it funny. He told me that this kind of travelling wasn’t an issue for him and he never expected his parents to take him back and forth. Luckily he didn’t have a lot of luggage, only one holdall bag with some clothes, a couple of mugs, a pencil, and a notepad in it – he certainly travelled lighter than I do!
Nigel and I spoke about his career since leaving university, the impact being at St John’s has had on his life, and the advice he has for current and future students on the college, whether they be first generation scholars or not. In part two of this article I detail these conversations and the amazing adoration Nigel has for John’s since reconnecting with the college about ten years ago.
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