What are the negative stereotypes of students and are they legit?

We’ve all heard the slurs: "we’re paying your taxes," and "you students have it easy". If you’ve ever ventured out of Jesmond to a foreign land such as…Gosforth, there are often groups of working men throwing about some choice insults about how we students are living the easy life – sitting around watching daytime television without a care in the world.

But are the stereotypes justified?

I mean, why wouldn’t they hate us? We fill up their bars, ransack their coffee shops and trash their vintage clothes shops. You can hear the poor Southerners (those from anywhere south of Gateshead) outside Waitrose, polluting the Northern dialect with phrases such as 'mum' and 'bread roll' (it’s called a bun, or if its from Greggs, a stottie, okay?)

Oh and we completely ruin social media. Non-student Nathan Calvert notes that we're "ALWAYS on Twitter." The lad's got a point, it seems that every time you log in these days there’s some random Newcastle Uni lad called Toby who is just DESPERATE to share all of his aesthetic travelling photos from his 'gap yaaaaaar.'

This photo definitely came with some kind of poetic caption

And we complain about money ALL the time, yet 90% of us are rocking an expensive Fjallraven or Supreme bag, own a MacBook, and are forever bopping about wearing the most expensive brands.

Then there's the constant drinking. Newcastle College student Freya told The Tab: "students are either completely broke or on a night out…sometimes both." And she's not wrong. Every weekend thousands of us flock to Bigg Market just to blow our student loans on over-priced booze.

To be honest, I’d hate me too…

(I'm so sorry about that shirt)

But are all students really THIS annoying? Or is the stereotype outdated, and not an accurate representation of us university goers?

Okay, yes, so a lot of us do sit around and watch Jeremy Kyle at least three times a week. And yes, we spend a lot of our money on booze. But don't we deserve at least a few cheap trebs, considering the crippling financial oblivion that awaits us once we graduate?

Thumbs up if you're a rah

These days with bursaries and other schemes helping families with a lower income send their kids to university, it is unfair to label every student as "posh" just because they want to take their education further. The Guardian did a study in 2010 about those of us who attend North East universities (the better unis), and found that students coming from families with a manual occupational background is desperately low. Although these numbers are rising, this might be why some people feel alienated by students.

So, lads and lasses, here's the gist of it. I reckon our Northern universities need to embrace different backgrounds, whether you come from the depths of North Tyneside or the upper-class, pass-the-port-to-the-left-hand-side suburbs of Kensington. Otherwise, I fear that us humble students are forever in danger of being branded as, rather elegantly, nothing but a bunch of "posh twats."

Photography credits: Aaron Shaquille Carlton (Swingers)