Lara Aref

• Aref, Lara; Wittek, Anne Line & Stensaker, Bjørn (2026). The paradox of supervision - A study of students’ agentic opportunities. International Journal of Educational Research. ISSN 0883-0355. 141, p. 1–11. doi: 10.1016/j.ijer.2026.103130. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The current study offers a framework for analysing systematic efforts to foster graduate student agency. The framework identifies key agentic opportunities during students’ research process. Based on qualitative interviews with graduate thesis supervisors in three very different cultural, social and institutional contexts, findings show considerable shared normative assumptions and taken-for-granted practices related to the supervision process as embedded in a research logic—despite attempts to structure and professionalise supervision as an educational process. A key feature in our data were the many opportunities that existed for students’ agency, the high level of flexibility shown by supervisors in the process and their willingness to be adaptive to student needs. In the discussion, a paradox related to supervision is identified, addressing how the qualities associated with developing student agency are inevitably linked to the quality risks of a less efficient and streamlined supervision process.

• Aref, Lara & Stensaker, Bjørn (2025). How is student-centred learning translated within the European Higher Education Area? Studies in Higher Education. ISSN 0307-5079. doi: 10.1080/03075079.2025.2605101. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  One of the key aims of the Bologna Process has been to stimulate the convergence of European higher education systems through agreed-upon standards and the comparability of key characteristics and dimensions. Since 2015, student-centred learning (SCL) has become more prominently launched as a key feature of the Bologna Process and as a concept aimed at further enhancing convergence between systems and institutions in Europe. However, as the concept can be interpreted in various ways, the ambition of this article is to investigate whether SCL has evolved as a concept able to align diverse European higher education systems and institutions. Based on a scoping literature review(2015–2024) covering all countries that are members of the European Higher Education Area, we find that SCL has become an important frame and point of reference for new teaching and learning designs in classroom settings. However, new teaching designs often maintain traditional roles between teachers and students. As such, SCL can be said to stimulate symbolic convergence, although there are few indications that it contributes to driving more radical transformations of teaching and learning processes in higher education.

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