A student who was shunned by selective and private school snobs at a university Open Day purely because of his post code and humble educational background has revealed how he overcame disadvantage to study medicine.
In a powerful TikTok, Fahad Khan described in detail how he was excluded by his peers when visiting Sydney University in 2016 because he did not attend a private or selective school.
Mr Khan, 23, attended Arthur Phillip High School in Parramatta, in Sydney’s west, and admits it was a school with ‘not the best reputation’.
‘We had some things where a student shot up a police station,’ Mr Khan told Daily Mail Australia.
‘It’s a real life experience when you go there – it’s definitely not like Sydney Boys Grammar or Sydney Girls, or James Ruse.’
Of the 300 students in Mr Khan’s Year 12 group he said only about 50 sat the exam to go to university.
Mr Khan went to the University of NSW to study neuroscience and is now at the University of Western Sydney doing his medical degree
He and his two brothers and one sister were raised in a single-parent household.
‘We came from a very humble background, we lived in government housing for pretty much most of my life, we just got out of it a year or two ago,’ he said.
‘Four kids and a single mum – originally from Pakistan but all the kids were born here.’
He credits a family GP for inspiring his mother, Sahiba, to go to university.
‘Before that no one from my family went to university or barely any did so it was a bit of a jump,’ he said.
‘My GP really helped our family and we were going through a lot of hardship and she basically influenced mum to go get a university education.
‘The inspiration was to do something that people don’t believe you can do.
‘During my mum’s time the belief was that we can’t go to university but once I saw that I thought that university was an option than I thought that being a doctor was an option.’
Mr Khan grew up in a single-parent household with two brothers and one sister in western Sydney
Mr Khan offered these words of advice to those who doubted they could study at university.
‘You can definitely make your place in university if it isn’t already there for you,’ he said.
‘I felt like a fish out of water at university because most of the people from my school didn’t go on to higher education but I took every opportunity there was with both hands and ran with them.
‘Once you’ve made a space for yourself, make sure you go back and help those from a similar background to yourself.
‘If you’ve taken the elevator up then make sure you send it back down to those who need it like you did.
‘I guess just seeing that with our mum really inspired me and my siblings.’
Mr Khan’s oldest brother has a Masters degree, his other brother has a university degree and his younger sister is studying at the University of Melbourne.
Having overcome obstacles in pursuing his own dream Mr Khan now dedicates himself to helping others from similar circumstances.
A family GP inspired Mr Khan to think that he could go to university and become a doctor
While he offers paid tutoring to get people into medical courses Mr Khan says he has given away close to $10,000 worth of free tutoring to people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
He said one of those he tutored came from a single-mother household like himself and recently got into a medical course.
‘When my followers message me with some financial or other issues then I try my best to help them where I can,’ he said.
Mr Khan hopes that when fully qualified he can provide health care to disadvantaged communities.
‘I definitely want to do indigenous health because I’ve got some experience with that,’ he said.
‘I’ve always been passionate about helping disadvantaged communities and the indigenous community is one of the most disadvantaged so that’s definitely on the cards.’
Mr Zhan said since posting the clip on TikTok he has been getting private messages from others who’ve had similar experiences.
‘They said, ‘Thank you for posting that video because I thought I was strange’,’ Mr Zhan said.
‘They thought maybe the people were treating them that way because there was something inherently wrong with them.
‘But they told me ‘after I read the comments I thought this is a legitimate thing and maybe (they were being shunned) just because I am not from the dominant class and area that’s in the university’.’
Mr Zhan, who was a 17-year-old in Year 12 at the time, says during a medicine studies information session at Sydney University attendees were asked what high school they attended.
All those who went to a private and selective school, which was everybody except him, grouped to talk to the university medical students on the other side of the room.
When Mr Zhan asked to be included he was told another medical student was coming that he could hang out with, which did not happen.
Mr Khan provides free tutoring to those from disadvantaged backgrounds to help them get into university
A spokesperson for the University of Sydney said Mr Khan’s story was ‘dismaying’
‘We are deeply committed to diversity and to helping talented students realise their potential, whatever their social, cultural or financial circumstances,’ a spokesperson said.
‘We are dismayed by the experience Fahad Khan describes.
‘We work hard to ensure everyone is accepted and has equal opportunities on our campuses.
‘But we also know we need to do more to attract, support and retain students who have traditionally been under-represented and under-served in higher education.’
Mr Khan said he couldn’t say if things had improved at University of Sydney in terms of it being more widely accepting but he had heard from friends it is ‘a little bit better’.
Eventually Mr Khan went to the University of NSW, which is in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, where he completed a degree in neuroscience.
He is now in his third year of studying medicine at the University of Western Sydney.
Mr Khan said that the University of NSW was nowhere near as unwelcoming as University of Sydney but he still sometimes felt ‘like a fish out of water’ there.
He said sometimes people tried a little too hard, such as one classmate who would gush how much ‘she loved Muslims a lot because I am Muslim’.
On another occasion he learnt that he had a distinctive regional accent.
‘I was in class and someone yelled out from the other side of the room, ‘Who’s the person from western Sydney?’,’ Mr Khan said.
Mr Khan started looking around wondering who the person was and how they were identified.
‘They said (to me) ‘we can hear your Western Sydney accent’ and I said ‘is there a western Sydney accent?’,’ Mr Khan said
At first Mr Khan felt so out of place that he began messaging a friend that they should either come to his university or he transfer to Western Sydney ‘because I didn’t feel like I was at home at UNSW,’ he said.
‘Eventually I ended up finding a bunch of friends and it ended up being one of the best experiences of my life,’ Mr Khan said of his time at UNSW.
Mr Zhan wants to do healthcare in disadvantaged communities when he is fully qualified as a doctor
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