The evolution of interdisciplinary learning

Interdisciplinary learning has emerged as a vital approach to addressing both the complexity of modern world challenges and the need to equip students with versatile skills for the future. Encouraging students to work across multidisciplinary teams and synthesize information from various fields of study enables complex problem-solving, teamwork, creativity and innovation – four skills that higher education and industry leaders say are vital for the future changemaker’s toolkit. “There is not a single challenge today that is mono-disciplinary,” said Jason Blackstock, CEO and Founder of How to Change the World. “They are all highly intercultural, interdisciplinary and we cannot be the expert in everything.” Speaking at the QS Higher Ed Summit: Europe 2024, he added: “The world is a lab right now and we have to prepare people to go into it with the mentality, resilience and motivation to keep experimenting.”

Industry demands: why interdisciplinary skills matter

Interdisciplinary learning was a key theme across the QS Higher Ed Summit: Europe 2024, as many higher education leaders spoke about the importance of interconnectedness in the face of complex multidisciplinary challenges and providing students with the internships and work experiences to understand how teamwork plays a key role in problem-solving.

Martín Serrano, QS Director of Employability and Co-Founder of QS 1Mentor, said: “Work experience and internship opportunities are often the first time that students realize the interdisciplinary nature of work. A student from a finance background suddenly sees they have to work closely with the marketing team or the HR team, and so providing experiences for students to practice interdisciplinary working takes down those barriers of learning.”

Across the global higher education sector, discussions are beginning to shape the prioritisation of interdisciplinary teaching and learning, and a strengthening of experiential learning by moving beyond disciplinary silos.

Student perspectives on collaboration

Today’s youth are more siloed than previous generations due to online echo chambers and algorithms, making them more likely to build communities based on shared interests and less likely to be exposed to diverse perspectives and experiences. However, they are keen to get involved in solving multidisciplinary problems, illustrating a growing gap to be addressed.

Mack Marshall, Wonkhe SU’s Community and Policy Officer, and Jim Dickinson, Associate Editor at Wonkhe, looked to incoming student union leaders’ manifestos to better understand the challenges facing the wider student body.

Student union leaders’ manifestos highlight key areas of concern for students, by including intentions to make change within the areas students care about most. Manifestos from student leaders in the UK suggest that students want ‘more opportunities to come together outside of their immediate characteristics or course groups,’ with one manifesto including a motive to re-introduce a collaborative platform which allowed students from across the university to find others for interdisciplinary projects.

Read the full article on QS Insights Magazine.