Governance, Design and Delivery of Interdisciplinary Higher Education

About

Utrecht University has adopted a comprehensive approach to broadening and deepening its interdisciplinary teaching & learning portfolio on all levels of education (bachelor’s, master’s, PhD and continuing education). We combine theory and experiments in the governance of interdisciplinary higher education (IHE) with educational development and teacher professionalization for IHE and with research of IHE. We provide this introduction via lectures, experiential learning and time for reflection. The aim is for participants to reflect on and improve interdisciplinary endeavors at their own institution by learning from the course’s lecturers and fellow participants.

Higher education is changing rapidly in response to the growing complexity of academic and societal challenges. One of these responses concerns interdisciplinarity. Interdisciplinary education prepares university and college students for interdisciplinary research and collaboration more broadly, for the burgeoning profession of ‘integration experts’ and enriches the study experience of students in disciplinary or specialized programmes. The urgency of these intended learning outcomes implies that interdisciplinary higher education should not be taken lightly: it must be governed, designed, delivered, evaluated and researched well. This course introduces participants to the latest insights in and tools for interdisciplinary higher education and provides ample space for exchange among participants. The goal is transfer of insights and best practices to other institutions.

The international interdisciplinary education community, of with Utrecht University is a member, has transgressed to a new phase, expanding in recent years both qualitatively in expertise and quantitatively in the number of people engaged. With updated terminology and tools, designers and educators can now work more effectively. Utrecht University’s comprehensive approach, which integrates governance for working across disciplinary boundaries, educational innovation and research of education, was widely praised at the ITD24 conference “Inter- and Transdisciplinarity Beyond Buzzwords: Educational Pathways for Sustainable Research Collaborations” (Nov. 4-8, 2024). This course aims at continuing the discussion with educational leaders, designers of and teachers in interdisciplinary higher education. We will do this based on the forthcoming book Key Texts on Interdisciplinary Higher Education, a reader edited by Iris van der Tuin and forthcoming with Bristol University Press, as well as on a toolkit for interdisciplinary teaching and learning that has been published Open Access on the platform Edusources. Two such research-informed tools are the Didactical Design Tool and the Organizational Guide, both for interdisciplinary higher education.

Course leader

Prof. dr. Iris van der Tuin

Fee info