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Le professeur est présent au cours et les étudiants y sont aussi.

Le professeur est présent au cours et les étudiants y sont aussi.
The professor is present at the lecture and the students are there too.
From Lesson 107:The pronoun of place (y)·French

Questions & Answers about Le professeur est présent au cours et les étudiants y sont aussi.

What does y replace in the second half of the sentence?
It replaces the location au cours (at the lecture). Instead of repeating the whole phrase and saying les étudiants sont au cours aussi, French uses the pronoun y to just say that they are there.
Why is y placed right before sont?
In French, the pronoun y is placed immediately before the conjugated verb. So, while in English we say 'are there', in French the word order is flipped to y sont.
Why does the sentence use au cours instead of à le cours?
Whenever the preposition à (at) meets the masculine word le (the), they combine into the single word au. You cannot use à le together in French.
Is cours plural here since it ends in an s?
No, cours is a masculine singular noun that just happens to end in an s in its base dictionary form. You can tell it is singular here because it uses the singular combined article au instead of the plural aux.

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