Which university did J.K. Rowling attend, graduating with a French and Classics degree?

J.K. Rowling attended the University of Exeter, where she graduated with a degree in French and Classics.

Rowling studied at Exeter from 1983 to 1987. She spent part of her course in Paris as an assistant teacher, an experience that connected her academic study of French with life abroad. After graduating, she worked in several jobs, including roles involving languages and administration, before beginning the Harry Potter manuscript.

The University of Exeter is in Devon, southwest England. Rowling has described her education in French and Classics as useful to her writing, particularly because classical languages and mythology helped supply names, ideas and echoes for the wizarding world.

The university is sometimes confused with Oxford or Cambridge because Rowling’s books contain an elaborate boarding-school setting and draw on British educational traditions. Hogwarts is fictional, however, and Rowling did not attend either of those two universities.