The effects of humour on mature students' experience of/in higher education

The focus of this study is on mature students in a UK university, returning to higher education after a gap of many years, and the experiences and perceptions this demographic has of humour in Higher Education (HE). This interpretivist phenomenological study uses semi-structured interviews with mature students in a UK university and identifies areas the students focus on when discussing their perceptions of humour in higher education. Through the detailed analysis of the data collected, six themes were selected by the researcher as it appears that students clearly deem them important to their educational journey in HE. Primary focus of the students is on the enjoyable and fun teaching style, followed by the relaxed learning environment conducive to feelings of safety. Both of these enable the learning and understanding of the content (cognition) and encourage engagement with the tutor and the peer group. According to the results obtained through the semi-structured interviews, the students make it clear that they want:”more humour” and “more fun”. Previous experiences of education (referred to as “traumas” by the participants) are revisited and students report their belief that they would have achieved much better GCSE results if humour was used in the classroom. Furthermore, the use of humour within the lectures in their current undertaking on the undergraduate level, is cited as a reason for potential progression beyond the current course of study, and onto the postgraduate level.