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This article explores the normative representations of higher education students in seven films and television series from four European countries. Drawing on the concept of the 'independent learner' as an 'ideal construction', I demonstrate how these texts offer complex and at times paradoxical representations of who gets positioned as the 'ideal' student. Popular culture texts, such as those analysed here, I argue, contribute to framing normative understandings of students. As examples of public pedagogy, these representations have significant ramifications for the popular understanding of what it means to be a student in contemporary higher education.