This article proposes a novel theorisation of higher education classroom spaces by bringing Arendt's concept of the space of appearance into relation with Guillemin and Gillam's notion of ethically important moments. The main arguments are first, that a focus on ethically important moments within the higher education space of appearance enables a finer-grained account of student and lecturer becomings through small-scale pedagogic interventions; and second, that a focus on the classroom as a higher education space of appearance provides for a more nuanced appreciation of the collaborative, political and educative practices that occur within it. The article focuses on three instances of ethically important moments as a means to illuminate how higher education spaces of appearance may become ethical spaces for educative praxis in ways which contest pessimistic discourses regarding the deformation of teaching and learning relations in increasingly marketised conditions.