Which university did J.K. Rowling attend after leaving school?

J.K. Rowling attended the University of Exeter after leaving school.

She studied French and the Classics at Exeter and graduated in 1987. Her course included a year in Paris, reflecting the language training that later helped her work as a bilingual secretary and researcher before she became a full-time writer.

Rowling did not study at Oxford, Cambridge, or the University of Edinburgh. Edinburgh is strongly associated with her later life and writing career because she lived there while writing several Harry Potter books, but it was not her undergraduate university.

Her education in French and classical subjects has often been linked to the names and word origins in the wizarding books. Many spells and magical terms draw on Latin, French, Greek, or other linguistic sources, although Rowling’s writing also uses invented words and folklore from many traditions.