• Classroom Interactions - students and lecturers spend a significant amount of time in lectures, tutorials, and seminars, allowing them to engage in discussions, debates, and the exchange of knowledge. While students learn and express their ideas, lecturers guide and challenge students' understanding. This can be made difficult however as students may struggle to grasp certain concepts, while lecturers face the challenge of making those concepts accessible to diverse learning styles.
• Deadlines and Assessments - both groups face deadlines—students with assignments, essays, projects, and exams, and lecturers with grading, feedback, and preparing materials. This can often lead to periods of stress, time management, as well as difficulties with work-life balance.
• Research and Academic Development - Lecturers, especially those involved in research, often share their experiences of academic inquiry with students. Some students also engage in research activities, working under the mentorship of lecturers or as part of their thesis or dissertation projects.
• Campus Life and Events - students and lecturers often participate in university events like orientations, guest lectures, conferences, or social activities. Though their roles may differ, these events foster a shared campus experience that promotes networking and community-building. Students build relationships with faculty, researchers, and industry professionals for future career prospects. Lecturers may network with colleagues, researchers, and academic institutions to collaborate to help their students potential employment, as well as advance their own careers.
• Growth and Learning - students evolve in their knowledge, critical thinking, and independence, while lecturers refine their teaching methods, deepen their expertise, or develop new teaching approaches. This can be further achieved with the cycle feedback within a University setting. Students receive feedback from lecturers on assignments, exams, and participation, whereas lecturers receive feedback from students, such as; module evaluations and classroom discussions.

The ‘Ideal’ Student (for students and lecturers)

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0309877X.2018.1504010#abstract

Key Findings:

Personal skillsets

• preparation
• engagement
• commitment

Academic skillsets

• critical
• reflective
• progressing

Expectations of students dependent on the Year / Level

Year 1 - students are beginning to work and source material independently and preparing for their assignments.

Year 2 - students would ideally have thought about their future.

Final Year - students are expected to be more engaged and prepared for their learning, especially for assignments, being more independent and requiring little input from lecturers.

Abstract

Research on the ‘ideal’ or ‘good’ student tends to be situated within compulsory schooling. Few recent studies have focused on lecturers’ conceptualisation and construction of the ‘ideal’ university student. Informed by 30 in-depth interviews with lecturers from two post-92 English universities within the social sciences, we explore how the notion of ‘ideal’ student is understood in contemporary higher education. We focus on lecturers’ expectations of undergraduate students, as well as their views of the ‘ideal’ student in different teaching and learning contexts. We identified specific personal and academic skillsets that are desirable of students, including preparation, engagement and commitment, as well as being critical, reflective and making progress. The ability to achieve high grades, interestingly, is rarely mentioned as important. Implications for policy and practice are discussed as we present a much-needed update on the current features of the ‘ideal’ university student, which can influence student experience, especially the lecturer-student relationship.