Two articles dealing with different dimensions of student learning are discussed for their contemporary relevance. The first, "Culturally mixed groups on international campuses: An opportunity for intercultural learning" by Simone Volet and Grace Ang (1998), examines the factors that encourage students to gravitate towards co-nationals rather than to mix with students from diverse backgrounds. The second, "What the student does: Teaching for enhanced learning" by John Biggs (1999), examines how best to design learning in the university curriculum. In discussing the respective merits of these articles, the author offers a basis on which the arguments in each can be progressed. In the case of Volet and Ang, the author suggests that a problematising of what is meant by cultural difference invites a deeper reading of difference that exceeds the kind of typification provided by Hofstede in relation to national culture. In the case of Biggs' curriculum design strategy of constructive alignment, the author draws attention to its strengths while pressing for more sociocultural research into pedagogic relations. The turn the author urges is towards more analysis of the formal and informal interaction orders in university education.