Interdisciplinary education gives added value

In the period 2018–2020, Uppsala University implemented an initiative on interdisciplinary education at Bachelor’s level, offering multidisciplinary teaching teams the opportunity to apply for funding to jointly develop courses with a high degree of subject integration. The initiative concluded with a report summarising the views and experiences of the lecturers involved (UFV 2022/2144, in Swedish). The lecturers’ descriptions of the added value of interdisciplinary education are presented below.

For students

The lecturers emphasised that interdisciplinary courses broaden students’ education and give them a deeper understanding of the scholarly basis of different disciplines. This was considered not only to promote a critical approach on the part of the students but also to enhance their ability to deal with complex problems on a scholarly basis, taking different perspectives and interests into account. Moreover, an interdisciplinary approach favours the development of students’ general, transferable skills, including the ability to cooperate, communication skills, perspective adoption and systems thinking. The students’ ability to work with people from other subject areas and professions is also improved.

For lecturers

Most of the lecturers thought it had been inspiring to develop the course. Cooperation across subject boundaries had broadened their own perspectives and revealed things they had taken for granted, leading to ‘aha’ experiences. As in the case of the students, the interdisciplinary work resulted in a greater breadth of learning for the lecturers. Collegial learning took place primarily in connection with course planning and assessment, though also during the actual implementation of the course, in cases where joint teaching occurred. The lecturers described the interdisciplinary cooperation as skills-enhancing and educationally refreshing, and in some cases they reported that it contributed to their own research.