Abstract
Friends are critical for students’ academic and social integration at university. However, socio-economic disparities in the likelihood of successful friendship formation have been highlighted with a number of barriers to ‘making friends’ for working-class students identified, with attendant concerns about the impact of this on their retention and progression. Yet, the ways in which working-class students may successfully make friends at university through circumventing barriers is under-researched. This chapter offers a contribution to this gap through semi-structured interviews with 14 second and third year working-class students from three UK institutions. The participants reflected upon what had helped and hindered friendship formation. Eleven of the 14 participants had at least one friend and nine of these participants had been open to making friends when they started university. The thematic analysis highlighted: persistence, proximity to the university and shared academic identities supported forming friendships. The participants believed participating in social activities was a key mechanism for making friends but that was largely perceived to be inaccessible. Future studies should explore how degree programme design can aid in making friends for students unable to access wider university experiences.