The complex challenges facing society and its ecosystem demand solutions that rely on expert and sophisticated interdisciplinary research and communication. Many universities have seen the rewards of research teams crossing disciplinary divides to address such challenges. How can an interdisciplinary mindset be developed in the graduates and postgraduates who will move not only into research, but also industry, business and policy? Various common themes emerge in curriculum design but the fundamental question remains of what are the affordances that promote learning and teaching which navigate interdisciplinary ways of knowing/approaches to addressing societal and planetary challenges. How do we foster such skills in students when the faculties from which their teachers are drawn are inherently disciplinary? The answer most likely already exists in the rich tapestry of strategies, theory and curricula that are emerging in education and which might themselves challenge the traditional disciplinary boundaries that have shaped both education and research at university.

The aim of the Research Topic is to capture not only research but a cross section of the design strategies and reflections that are driving forward interdisciplinary education in the university. From the established liberal arts and natural sciences programmes that have forged an interdisciplinary path for a number of years through to the era of grand challenges of climate crisis and global inequality, we aim to capture insights, analyses and reflections from a range of actors who are shaping this rapidly developing landscape of curriculum design.

We want to invite authors who are at the forefront of designing interdisciplinary curricula reflecting on what has been achieved thus far or strategising for the future of university interdisciplinary education to contribute articles. A working definition of interdisciplinarity is where two or more broad subject areas that have traditionally been separately taught have been intentionally brought together to test or develop a new perspective on knowledge.

We are interested in:

• primary research articles on interdisciplinarity at all organisational levels: from teaching sessions to institutional initiatives

• reviews of interdisciplinary literature that are approached with a defined methodological stance

• perspective pieces that frame a new philosophy or approach to interdisciplinarity in the context of a scholarship

• by invitation - short opinion pieces on interdisciplinarity may be gathered together as a multi-author article.

The above list is indicative and the editors welcome ideas for innovative formats for contributions.

Are you interested in contributing a manuscript to this Research Topic?

Interdisciplinarity in University Education