ABSTRACT
Anxiety that students will become too narrow is directed especially at scientists. They work longer hours, and their subjects do not so obviously lead them to think about wider questions of social or cultural values. At all three universities, scientists tended to have a higher proportion of friends reading the same subject: at Leeds and Southampton they met the staff less often socially, and their last discussion tended to be slightly less recent. The proportion of scientists at the civic universities who never met the staff socially at all is double that of non-scientists, who were correspondingly more likely to receive an occasional invitation: there is little difference in the small proportion who enjoyed a closer association. Meeting people from a wide variety of backgrounds is one of the most worthwhile experiences the university can offer, but this social diversity is also a source of conflict and anxiety.
