THEME: Collaborative Learning Among Students – Challenges and Solutions

Background and Purpose

Employers of humanities graduates emphasize collaboration skills as one of the most important requirements for candidates and consider it a key Danish competitive advantage. They call for universities to strengthen students’ ability to work together through initiatives such as compulsory study groups and group projects. The purpose of this study is therefore to explore students’ own experiences with peer collaboration in order to develop proposals that promote collaborative learning in university teaching.

Key Findings

The project, based on a survey of humanities bachelor’s degree students and master’s degree students (123 respondents and over 500 detailed comments) as well as 10 qualitative interviews, reveals that:

• Negative experiences dominate: A majority of students report challenges with collaboration. Two-thirds prefer working alone, as they want to be in control of the academic content and coordination challenges make collaboration difficult.
• One-third prefer working together: These students highlight that collaboration fosters motivation, strengthens understanding, and provides opportunities for academic exchange.
• Students have unrealistic expectations:
  • They perceive collaboration at university as different from workplace collaboration, particularly regarding responsibility, consequences, and conflict management. Conflicts among peers are seen as more personal and often remain unresolved, whereas workplace conflicts are considered easier to handle due to more professional and distant relationships.
  • They overestimate their own collaboration skills—most believe that difficulties lie with others in the group. In fact, 95% claim they are fully prepared to engage in professional collaboration after graduation (a perception employers strongly disagree with).

Recommendations for Improving Collaborative Learning at University

To meet demands from employers and students’ perception that university differs from the workplace, Flemming Smedegaard and Maria Mejnborg Lidsmoes propose introducing compulsory group examinations and assessment of collaboration skills.

This would require students to receive teaching in team building and conflict management along with active facilitation of their group work. A concrete initiative could be annual GRUS (group development dialogues) for students as a clear signal that collaboration is prioritised.

In the TAL2025 conference publication, to be released in spring 2026, Flemming Smedegaard og Maria Mejnborg Lidsmoes will elaborate on their findings and the three theoretical frameworks that inspired their work: Etienne Wenger’s theory of communities of practice, Michael West’s theory of teamwork, and Peter Senge’s concept of team learning from his theory of the learning organization.