Interdisciplinary learning and research

Find out how to work across multiple academic disciplines in higher education, in order to pool expertise and develop novel skillsets and solutions to complex problems. These guides offer insight on how to break down disciplinary boundaries in university teaching and research to seek greater understanding.

Multiracial group sitting around housing plans

Navigating uncertainty with interdisciplinary teaching

The siloed approach to education – where students in technical, business, humanities and arts disciplines learn separately – is no longer adequate, writes Lisa McNair

Lisa McNair

Virginia Tech

How to balance tension in interdisciplinary teaching and learning

An interdisciplinary approach to programme development comes with inherent tensions, which need to be balanced and worked through. Here are our tips

Adam Matthews

University of Birmingham

Students work together in an outdoor setting

Give students the skills to communicate across disciplines

In sustainability education, inter- and transdisciplinary teaching alone is not enough – students need to develop the skills to learn in a cross-disciplinary way. Co-creation could be the answer.

Julia Myatt

University of Birmingham

A cheerful student waves hello on a Zoom call

What’s the crucial element for interdisciplinary teamwork? Psychological safety

Foster a sense of radical openness in your interdisciplinary online learning environment by establishing psychological safety – here’s how

Helena Robinson, Fabian Held

University of Technology Sydney, University of Sydney

Lessons from an interdisciplinary community engagement course for engineers

STEM curricula in the US don’t often expose students to perspectives on culture, history and power nor equip them with effective community engagement skills. Here, an instructor and students share lessons from designing and teaching an interdisciplinary course that sought to address that gap

Ruthie Yow

Georgia Tech’s Center for 21st Century Universities

Students sitting around a table with a teacher at the front

How to get students interested in interdisciplinary work

Providing real-world opportunities, incentives and spaces for interdisciplinary work enables undergraduate students to explore important solutions to complex issues

Sambit Dash

Manipal Academy of Higher Education

An illustration of tiny figures putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle

Universities need to move interdisciplinary professional associations to the next step

Inter- and transdisciplinary teaching is going beyond communities of practice – but it’s still too small to compete with discipline-based professional associations. Here are the questions we should be asking to move forward

Gabriele Bammer

Australian National University

Four questions to ask when bringing students from different disciplines together

With interdisciplinary teaching, we need to look at ‘how’ as well as ‘what’. Focus on these four elements of course design to create a space where integration and interdisciplinarity can flourish

Jessica Oudenampsen

Utrecht University

Students working on an interdisciplinary project

Can you teach interdisciplinarity in 10 weeks?

Interdisciplinarity is an ambitious and rewarding research process, but how realistic can we be in a 10-week module? Here is how to frame the task, structure the process and balance workloads

Simon Scott

University of Birmingham

Pathway from PhD to healthcare leadership

Beyond the classroom: from PhD preparation to leadership

A foundational pathway that nurtures future leaders in healthcare and scientific innovation produces students who are not only ready for their PhD journey but emerge as skilled professionals and researchers, write Zoltán Benyó and Attila Szijártó

Zoltán Benyó, Attila Szijártó

Semmelweis University

People sat around a table slotting cogs together

How can we assess interdisciplinarity?

Effectively assessing interdisciplinarity involves encouraging students to ask the right questions and critically evaluating the quality of the knowledge created, explains Simon Scott

Simon Scott

University of Birmingham

Tips for designing interprofessional education courses in healthcare

Adapting to and collaborating with other professionals is essential in medicine. Here’s how to nurture an interdisciplinary mindset from the very start

Hajer N. Sheikh, Umamah Rehman

Dubai Medical University

Active, flipped, micro, virtual learning: a toolbox for interdisciplinary teaching

Young engineers need interdisciplinary skills more than ever to communicate science clearly, both to inform the public and to protect shared resources such as the environment. Here are lessons from a cross-course project

Martin Morgeneyer, Esteban Zúñiga Domínguez

Université de Technologie de Compiègne

Young woman in front of brain illustration, arts and sciences

What a transdisciplinary lens brings to university teaching

Why is it important to integrate knowledge and methodologies across disciplines? Catherine Amelink has recommendations to encourage the student engagement needed to address complex, weighty problems

Catherine Amelink

Virginia Tech

Campus webinar: How to boost the public perception of higher education

Hear how universities can demonstrate the value of their research, teaching and social impact beyond academia, from senior leaders at Campus+ partner institutions in the US and Canada

Steven W. McLaughlin, Nader Jalili , Rahim Somani

Georgia Tech’s Center for 21st Century Universities, SMU Lyle School of Engineering, University of Northern British Columbia

A presentation takes place on a screen featuring an illustration of the Earth

How strategic sustainability can foster innovation

Sustainability is much more than a set of policies or practices. Here’s how it can be a transformational strategy for achieving a university’s mission

Reynaldo Rivera

Universidad Austral

A four-step process to transform everyone into a fact-checker

The 4-Check strategy can help combat misinformation in the digital age. Here’s how to use it

Stephanie Jean Tsang

Hong Kong Baptist University

Campus talks: social artist Helen Storey on working on the boundary of fashion and science

The UNHCR’s first designer-in-residence Helen Storey talks about why she has donated her creative archive to the University of the Arts London, and how the arts can help people connect with issues such as climate change and the refugee crisis

Helen Storey

University of the Arts London

A car driving on a bridge across the sea

Five actions to drive your career forward in the third space

Third spaces professionals can often find themselves excluded from traditional academic promotion or career development opportunities. Here’s how to carve your own path

Steve Briggs

University of Bedfordshire

Two science students use a microscope together

For truly practical learning, embrace an interdisciplinary approach

Bringing different fields of study together into one practical assignment, focused on a real-world problem, proved to be a game-changer in a sector shifting towards interdisciplinarity. Here's how it worked

Zulkifli Merican Aljunid Merican , Lim Jun Wei

Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP)

An explorer observes a flag flying atop a mountain made of books

Lessons from evolutionary biology to prepare students in an uncertain world

Universities are charged with developing the next generation for a future we can’t predict. Here are three lessons from evolutionary biology to make sense of a changing world – and three skills the workforce of tomorrow will need

Lakshmi Goel

Al Akhawayn University

‘If you can empower others to build connections, you can help build a thriving collaborative ecosystem’

For university administrators, part of the job is to help researchers do the cool stuff, without getting bogged down or intimidated by the forms, calendars and other paperwork, writes Marvin Washington. Here, he offers tips on how to foster interdisciplinary collaboration

Marvin Washington

University of Alberta

A group of people sit around in discussion

Supporting education-focused academics on the road less travelled

Education-focused academics must often navigate an unclear career path with limited opportunities. Danijela Serbic offers advice on how to set up an educational group to support their career development

Danijela Serbic

Royal Holloway, University of London

How can we give students the agency to deal with the climate crisis?

Climate impact needs to be the lens through which students view their studies, if we’re going to equip future generations to deal with the coming emergency. Here are the best teaching strategies to do so

Alex MacLaren

Heriot-Watt University

Campus talks: educating our way out of the climate crisis

Two academics share strategies for advancing climate action and boosting sustainability at an institutional and individual level

Liz Price , Tripp Shealy

Manchester Metropolitan University, Virginia Tech

The art of change: using creative research methods to solve the plastics crisis

Incorporating theatre, music and the visual arts as research tools complements analytical and qualitative approaches to environmental challenges – and goes beyond public engagement into local and global policymaking

Cressida Bowyer

The University of Portsmouth

Embedding the SDGs into curricula via an interdisciplinary approach

Incorporating the SDGs into teaching involves facilitating project collaboration among students from different disciplines. Here are examples of how this can work in practice

Sambit Dash, Guruprasad Rao, Preetham Kumar

Manipal Academy of Higher Education

Hands high-five in front of a leafy tree

Bridging the SDG awareness gap

Universities have a critical role to play in increasing awareness of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Here’s how to do it

James Miller, Andrew Hursthouse

University of the West of Scotland

Two hands fit jigsaw puzzle pieces together

How to achieve interdisciplinary research? Focus on the people

Restructuring research domains around four communities allowed academics to find their natural home, writes Andrew Linn. Here’s how to do it

Andrew Linn

University of Westminster

A five-step framework to integrate sustainability into higher education

To integrate the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals into curricula, students need to be truly engaged. The five-step SCORE framework could be the answer

Mariam Shadan, Yusra Idrees

Dubai Medical University

Beyond borders: how to make online global collaborative learning work

As higher education strives to ‘reset’ in the age of AI to become more flexible, interdisciplinary, open, focused on real-world learning and with authentic assessment, curriculum-embedded OGCL is a key path to future-ready graduates

Julie Lindsay

The University of Southern Queensland

Leveraging international collaborations to tackle global health challenges

Global health challenges such as cancer demand collective efforts that transcend national boundaries. Eli Vlaisavljevich shares how he leverages international collaborations to produce groundbreaking biomedical work

Eli Vlaisavljevich

Virginia Tech

Teaming up with students to design sustainability education

Involving students as co-creators and mentors in sustainability courses can help address differences in their understanding as well as issues such as eco-anxiety

Anne Le Goff , Yacine Baouch , Frédéric Huet , Pierre Feissel

Université de Technologie de Compiègne

Using Sustainable Development Goals to foster innovation

The SDGs offer both a universal framework and a way to incorporate global perspectives into curricula. Here are strategies for integrating their outward-focused, innovative mindset into everyday learning

Tripp Shealy

Virginia Tech

An illustration of business people sat on a growing plant

Three ways to embed career development learning more deeply in your curriculum

Embedding career development learning into curricular learning can be invaluable for students. Here’s how to integrate it more meaningfully

Anna Branford , Julian Lee

RMIT University

A group of students converse over a table

Interdisciplinarity makes us greater than the sum of our parts

The real world is complicated. Let’s give our students the tools to take it on with interdisciplinary education

Jillian Terry

The London School of Economics and Political Science

Female lab technicians carrying out experiments

Developing interdisciplinary courses for tomorrow’s scholars

Many universities are developing new interdisciplinary degree programmes to prepare students for working across sectors on complex issues. But how can we engage faculty in this whole-institution approach?

Anne Preston, Katherine Fletcher

UCL

Why peer-to-peer conferences benefit doctoral students and their institutions

Solid research skills aside, PhD students need to master the art of collaboration and communicating their ideas. A student-led conference can offer that support

Heli Wang

Singapore Management University

illustration of hand and five stars, reputation concept

Five strategies to cultivate university reputation

The reputational crisis of many universities is a crisis of identity, writes Santiago Fernández-Gubieda. Here, he explains that reputation starts within the organisation, and offers five actions to foster public trust in universities

Santiago Fernández-Gubieda

University of Navarra

Centralise laboratory management for better teaching and research

Creating a single department to oversee laboratory operations can streamline your processes and cut costs. Here’s how to do it

Mohd Fatimie Irzaq Khamis

Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP)

A group of people working round an office table

How to create a start-up dynamic in academia

Innovation hubs have sparked ideas, fostered partnerships and raised funding for the software industry. Let’s use the same model to create groundbreaking educational programmes

Deborah Sepich

Colorado State University Global

Woman inteviewing man, looking thoughtful

Oral history for all: a research method that crosses disciplinary boundaries

Oral history’s potential to capture lesser-known perspectives and fill knowledge gaps deserves appreciation beyond the humanities

Sien van der Plank, Lareb Dean , Padmini Broomfield

University of Southampton

How Mozart and the arts can help students feel less awkward

Music and dance give the post-Covid cohort low-stress opportunities to face each other in potentially antagonising – even agonising – set-ups. Here’s how a multisensory curriculum helps students combat feelings of isolation and impostor syndrome

Brigid Cohen , Wendy Anne Lee, Rosemary Quinn, Mimi Yin

New York University

Campus webinar: The evolution and innovation of interdisciplinarity

Join three experts from Campus+ partner institutions in Australia as they discuss interdisciplinarity, how to implement it in teaching and research and why it’s important for the future

Kyle Jenkins, Louise Kuchel, Rohan Walker

The University of Queensland , The University of Southern Queensland , The University of Newcastle, Australia

Seven structural changes to help bring Indigenous perspectives into curricula

Impermanence of resources, priorities and personnel makes curriculum reform a challenge. Here, Kirstie Smith and Simon Young offer strategies based on their experience in a regional law school

Kirstie Smith , Simon Young

The University of Southern Queensland

Practical strategies for overcoming challenges in interdisciplinary project-based learning

Overcome project-based learning challenges with strategies aimed at empowering students to develop interdisciplinary skill sets

Na Li, Eng Gee Lim, Mark Leach

Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

Advice on developing and managing successful interdisciplinary research teams

How to successfully develop and run interdisciplinary research teams

John Domingue explains how to foster a culture of openness and support that encourages and helps staff teams to pursue interdisciplinary research projects

John Domingue

The Open University

Advice on embedding proper interdisciplinarity into university teaching

What is interdisciplinarity in teaching and how can we make it work?

Loy Hui Chieh explains what true interdisciplinarity is and how to successfully embed it into university courses

Loy Hui Chieh

National University of Singapore

Adapt, evolve, elevate: ChatGPT is calling for interdisciplinary action

Our response to ChatGPT and its successors should be one that encourages open, interdisciplinary discourse and supports research investigating AI from every angle

Leanne Ramer

Simon Fraser University

Interdisciplinary vs multidisciplinary and convergence research

Global challenges demand collaboration across disciplines. This resource explores the associated advantages and challenges

Sajan Daniel George

Manipal Academy of Higher Education

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