I have a small group of friends in my lectures. We met at a welcome event for our course – I remember being surrounded by students who all seemed so similar and like they all fit in the environment so well. Dressed in smart casual, sipping glasses of prosecco and making conversation with each other, I felt quite at contrast with my neon blue dyed hair, oversized band shirt and piercings (I don’t even drink prosecco!). So, when I made eye contact with a couple of people who looked just as awkward and out of place as me, I wandered straight over. We laughed about how excessively fancy this all felt, and although we attempted to talk to other people throughout the night, we stayed together for the rest of the event.
We’re in second year now, and recently I’ve been looking back on the past year, and it’s made me think – what difference has having friends on my course made to how much I engaged with my work? I personally feel that both lectures and independent study sessions were a lot more appealing when I was surrounded by people who I enjoy being around, particularly as I am neurodivergent and often require body-doubling (doing something in close proximity to someone) to get work done. When I talked to my friends about this, they felt the same:
“If I hadn’t met you guys, I’d probably be sat at home and not going to most of my lectures – it gives me more of a reason to be here” – Friend A
“You guys are the reason I wanted to come back after the summer” – Friend B
“I like being able to engage with my academics in casual discussions in informal environments, such as the pub, it makes me feel what I’ve learnt in the classroom is heard” – Friend C
This sentiment is consistent with that of many research papers, such as ‘Friendship supported learning – the role of friendships in first‑year’ (Picton, Kahu and Nelson, 2017), where interviewed students describe how having friends makes them feel more comfortable to sit in and engage with lectures, as well as engaging with independent work, such as discussing the content with peers and group study sessions. Another study, ‘Who goes where? The importance of peer groups on attainment and the student use of the lecture theatre teaching space’ (Smith, Hoare and Lacey, 2018), found that found that peer groups in lectures often form on basis of similar culture and language, suggesting that these factors are important for engagement.
But it’s not just fellow course mates who play a role in academic engagement; the lecturers and tutors themselves can be just as important. For me, I know that I’m much more motivated to go to class and pay attention if said class is that of one of my favourite lecturers. For me and my friends, there was one lecturer in particular whose lectures we enjoyed greatly, especially as we felt we could relate to them as a group of queer people, and we all tried really hard in their unit because we wanted to do well for them.
“The conversations I had with (lecturer) felt great, especially as we are both queer people from Africa. My plan at the start of uni was to never mention who I am and where I from. I would never have expected a lecturer to have their pronouns and where they’re from on the lecture slides. I definitely attended a lot more lectures because of that honesty” – friend A
“As an international student, it feels less taboo to be able to express queerness. If it benefits the conversation or debate, I feel like I could mention my queerness in relation to it.” – Friend B
An article by fellow BILT collegue, Fiona Hartley, talks about how it’s not Mentimeters, Kahoots and quizzes that deeply engages students, but the personal element of the lecturer. This is backed up by the study referenced in the article, which suggests that ‘how engaging, knowledgeable and accessible the lecturer is’ are the biggest factors affecting student engagement (Quinlan, 2019). I would strongly recommend you read the article here: https://bilt.online/building-relationships-in-large-cohorts/
This is also relevant when it comes to the lecturer’s identity. A paper by Jean-Christophe Sakdavong talks about how when there is alignment between instructor and learner identities, students’ attachment to learning and schooling is stronger (Sakdavong and Ville, 2025). Another study demonstrated that identity did influence comfort, sense of safety, and perceived risk around speaking in class, with one student saying “It is hard being the only Black person in some classes… I sometimes feel like I have to watch my words because some people think I speak for all Muslims or all Blacks … maybe that is why many minorities feel like they’d rather not participate.” (Crystena Parker-Shandal, 2023).
Overall, it seems my friends and I are not alone when it comes to having a sense of belonging in class, and how this impacts our engagement. Feeling like the odd one out in lectures and seminars can make it harder to find the motivation to turn up or engage with the work and conversations, particularly in SPAIS (sociology, politics and international studies) courses where people’s identities and experiences are often the topic of debate and analysis. But for me and my friends, having formed connections with each other, as well as with lecturers and seminar tutors, have made us feel we can talk about and utilise these experiences in our learning.
I think there is a necessary discussion to be had on how diversity, both among students and teachers, can promote active learning at university.
References
Crystena Parker-Shandal (2023). Participation in Higher Education Classroom Discussions: How Students’ Identities Influence Perspective Taking and Engagement. Teaching Learning Inquirey, 11. https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.11.19.
Digitally Enhanced Education Webinars (2022). Kathleen Quinlan: Returning to the lecture hall? trigger students’ interest in large group settings. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l4O3PxVHbs [Accessed 22 Oct. 2025].
Hartley, F. (2024). Building relationships in large cohorts. [online] Bristol Institute for Learning and Teaching Blog. Available at: https://bilt.online/building-relationships-in-large-cohorts/ [Accessed 22 Oct. 2025].
Picton, C., Kahu, E. and Nelson, K. (2017). Friendship supported learning -the role of friendships in first-year students’ university experiences. [online] Available at: https://unistars.org/papers/STARS2017/08A.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com.
Quinlan, K.M. (2019). What triggers students’ interest during higher education lectures? personal and situational variables associated with situational interest. Studies in Higher Education, 44(10), pp.1781–1792. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2019.1665325.
Sakdavong, J.-C. and Ville, R. (2025). The Impact of Racial Congruence Between Instructor and Learner on Memorization Outcomes in a Virtual Reality Environment. Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Computer Supported Education, [online] pp.917–922. https://doi.org/10.5220/0013199100003932.
Smith, D.P., Hoare, A. and Lacey, M.M. (2018). Who goes where? The importance of peer groups on attainment and the student use of the lecture theatre teaching space. FEBS Open Bio, [online] 8(9), pp.1368–1378. https://doi.org/10.1002/2211-5463.12494.
