Transaction, competition and opposition have become imperative in higher education. In this article, I will explore where to go from here building on critical pedagogy and ideas from students-as-partners and undergraduate research. Using the course 'Environments for learning in higher education' as an empirical starting point and approaching students' work through qualitative document analysis, I will explore: (1) what students focus on when given the opportunity to design their own research questions around learning environments; and (2) how they re-imagine and frame future learning environments in the higher education. With this as a backdrop, I will discuss how a critical dialogic teaching praxis can help to think about the university as a place for collaboration between students and academics with the common purpose to co-create knowledge and meaning.