Rille Raaper, Durham University
Contemporary student experiences of higher education are mediated by technology where intersections between in-person and digital experiences continue to evolve in new manners as technology develops. Research (e.g. Burgess and Green 2018; Bynner and Heinz 2021) has shown that digital technologies help students to sustain friendships but also contribute to developing new peer groups, interests and identities. Our own research, funded by Durham’s Institute of Advanced Study, has further demonstrated that students turn to social media platforms such as TikTok, YouTube and Instagram to gain peer support with their university studies (Raaper et al. 2025). Such support may range from receiving guidance on university choices and admission processes to assessment advice and information on successful transitions into and out of higher education. Behind this shift to social media-based support is what we call the rise of the new type of student – the student influencer.
It is widely known that Gen Z students grew up with technology, and that their generally tech-savvy nature is likely to shape their engagement with education. Furthermore, in many marketised higher education systems, there are growing concerns for traditional campus-based support systems becoming strained, pushing students to find alternative forms of support. Our work argues that student influencers – students who produce educational content on social media platforms – have emerged as technically skilled but unexpected providers of academic and emotional support for their peers. In the UK context, for example, one could assume that student frustration simmers as tuition fees and student loan debt climb, and that students expect more support and richer resources (Raaper 2024). We also know that universities struggle to reconcile these demands with their shrinking real-term budgets. It is therefore unsurprising that we now have a group of students who have taken matters into their own hands and produce #studytalk to provide personalised support on young people’s university choices as well as study tips once they are in higher education.
Drawing on digital analysis and thirteen in-depth interviews with UK-based #studytalk creators, our findings show that student influencers tend to be academically high-achieving students which helps them build legitimacy and large student followings. Furthermore, the influencers with domestic student status tend to target other home students with content related to providing advice on university admissions, assessment expectations and graduate jobs and these match with what most young people are concerned with when planning entry to or exit from higher education. Student influencers from international backgrounds, however, focused on providing university-level study tips to other international students. This was explained in relation to helping international students adjust to the academic expectations and study cultures in the UK. Such differentiated positioning is unsurprising as the social media industry centres on authenticity, and student influencers, like any other influencers, are skilful at identifying their own distinctive brand in the wider market.
Similarly to other social media influencers, our interviewees worked with brands to advertise products for reputable retail companies and banks, earning an income of £1,000 (US$1,220) to £2,000 (US$2,440) for a short TikTok video. What is notable, however, the student influencers were skilful in negotiating ethical boundaries within the influencer market, e.g. which brands to say ‘no’ to and how to avoid doing harm in the prevalent toxic study cultures. Such high levels of reflexivity may have related to the fact that our interviewees were all academically high achievers with successful graduate jobs in mind.
Overall, our findings show that there is now an emerging group of students on social media – student influencers – who exploit the gaps in marketised higher education but also fill these by offering a new type of student-centred support via the #studytalk medium. Taking this work forward, it would be essential to evaluate the impact of such peer support to students who consume it. This would help the higher education community to understand the extent to which peer-to-peer support on social media aligns with or contradicts the formal university support and academic practice.
Read more:
Raaper, R. (2025, January 15). Student influencers fill gaps in university support services. University World News.
Raaper, R., Hardey, M., & Aad, S. (2024). #Studytalk in marketised higher education: student influencers as emerging support providers. Studies in Higher Education, 1–13.
References
Burgess, J., & Green, J. (2018). YouTube: Online video and participatory culture. John Wiley & Sons.
Bynner, J., & Heinz, W. (2021). Youth prospects in the digital society: Identities and inequalities in an unravelling Europe. Policy Press.
Raaper, Rille. 2024. Student identity and political agency. Activism, representation and consumer rights. Oxon: Routledge.
