Do you remember that teacher at school who changed the game for you? They believed in you, and you responded by acing their class. I bet you also remember the teacher who made you feel bad for asking a question they thought was stupid. They put you down or told you that you were not any good at a particular subject area. Maybe you decided education was not for you because of that experience. Or perhaps someone recognised your potential, and their belief in you changed how you saw yourself and your future.
This extends into higher education. Yes, the overall learner experience matters. But who actually shapes it day to day—who do learners spend time with, work alongside, and build relationships with potentially over years of study?
When I was looking at where to study, it was not a institutional marketing campaign or slogan that influenced my decision. In fact, I can barely remember any of them. It was not a ranking, a campus, or equipment. I chose who I wanted to learn alongside.
When ideas are connected, curiosity is encouraged, and relevance is made clear, a subject you never expected to enjoy can become engaging and meaningful. Equally, you can easily lose interest in a subject you once loved if it is taught without care, your questions are shut down, or you are made to feel you do not belong. The subject itself does not change—what changes is your relationship to it, shaped by those teaching it.
Teachers are often our first professional mentors. They shape how we view learning, our confidence, and our sense of what is possible.
In higher education, I wanted to be part of a community of practice I respected and admired. I wanted to be supported and challenged in a safe environment. I wanted to learn alongside people who were passionate about their discipline, recognised within it, and deeply invested in the success of their learners as future practitioners.
That dynamic does not fade as learners progress. Tutors and mentors in higher education help learners enter a community of practice—one that begins during study and continues into working life. When I decided to undertake a PhD, I chose supervisors based on the experiences of past PhD candidates who had achieved their goals under their supervision.
This is one of the clearest examples of how education is experienced through people. Whether at school, as undergraduates, apprentices, or doctoral candidates, relationships remain central. Environments, systems, and resources contribute to the experience, but it is the day-to-day human interactions that determine whether learners feel supported, challenged, inspired, and successful.
If learner experience is at the heart of educational decision-making, then the people who teach, mentor, and support learners everyday are not a secondary consideration. They are the experience.
