diff --git a/user/classes/participants_table.php b/user/classes/participants_table.php
index 095ba8a9f59..0d9be49501c 100644
--- a/user/classes/participants_table.php
+++ b/user/classes/participants_table.php
@@ -210,8 +210,8 @@ class participants_table extends \table_sql {
         $this->define_columns($columns);
         $this->define_headers($headers);
 
-        // Make this table sorted by first name by default.
-        $this->sortable(true, 'firstname');
+        // Make this table sorted by last name by default.
+        $this->sortable(true, 'lastname');
 
         $this->no_sorting('select');
         $this->no_sorting('roles');
diff --git a/user/tests/behat/view_participants.feature b/user/tests/behat/view_participants.feature
index 9ec26e41e07..b437a858cda 100644
--- a/user/tests/behat/view_participants.feature
+++ b/user/tests/behat/view_participants.feature
@@ -130,7 +130,6 @@ Feature: View course participants
     When I log in as "teacher1x"
     And I am on "Course 1" course homepage
     And I navigate to course participants
-    And I follow "Surname"
     And I press "Select all users on this page"
     Then I should not see "Student 9x"
     And the field with xpath "//tbody//tr[1]//input[@class='usercheckbox']" matches value "1"