News

In May 2025, the Directors of the Doctoral Education and Academia Research (DEAR) Centre at the University of Warwick undertook an institutional visit to Denmark, engaging in rich exchanges around inclusive research cultures and presenting findings from their recent project The Heart of Research: Exploring the Aims, Nature and Values of Education Research Centres.

Copenhagen University 
The visit began with a meeting between Professor Emily F. Henderson and Professor Claire Maxwell (Claire Maxwell’s profile)Link opens in a new window, University of Copenhagen. Claire is a leading scholar in the sociology of education, with research interests in internationalisation, elite schooling, and social justice. The conversation explored current directions in inclusive research and potential collaboration.

Aarhus University – CHEF 
The DEAR team then travelled to Aarhus University for a series of meetings hosted by the Centre for Higher Education Futures (CHEF) – a research hub focused on critical, creative, and future-facing approaches to higher education. At CHEF, the team met with:
– Professor Susan Wright, anthropologist and co-founder of CHEF, whose work spans university reform, governance, and academic identities. Susan Wright’s profileLink opens in a new window 
– Dr Søren S.E. Bengtsen, Associate Professor in Educational Philosophy and Co-Director of CHEF, whose interests include doctoral education, academic development, and higher education futures. Søren Bengtsen’s profileLink opens in a new window 

CHEF Talk: The Heart of Research 
The visit culminated in a hybrid CHEF Talk titled:
“The Heart of Research? Exploring the Aims, Nature and Values of Education-Related Research Centres with a Social Justice Orientation” 

Speakers included:
– Professor Emily F. Henderson, DEAR Director
– Dr James Burford, DEAR Co-Director
– Anna Numa Hopkins, PhD researcher and DEAR Collective member

The presentation drew on DEAR’s 2024 project exploring the practices, values, and leadership of socially committed education research centres in the UK. Attendees engaged in discussions about how to structure inclusive and mission-driven research centres and shared reflections on future collaborations.

The session was chaired by Dr Søren Bengtsen and hosted at Aarhus University, with online participation via Zoom.

The visit marked the beginning of a promising partnership between CHEF and DEAR, with shared interest in leading and studying inclusive research cultures.