Where did J.K. Rowling study for her undergraduate degree?

J.K. Rowling studied for her undergraduate degree at the University of Exeter.

She attended Exeter from 1983 and graduated in 1987 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in French and Classics. Her French studies included time in Paris, an experience that later helped inform some details in her public biography and interests.

Before university, Rowling had attended Wyedean School and College in Gloucestershire. After graduating from Exeter, she worked in several jobs, including roles connected with research and bilingual administration, before beginning the manuscript that became Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

Readers sometimes confuse Exeter with Oxford or Cambridge because Rowling’s books are strongly associated with old academic buildings and British school traditions. Hogwarts, however, is fictional, and Rowling did not attend either Oxford or Cambridge.