One of the longest-running debates in British education is over a curriculum that prioritises knowledge and one that prioritises creativity. While this argument has tended to focus on what is learned at school, it is also very relevant to higher education. Our habit of specialisation at university has - in theory - prioritised deep knowledge of specific subjects. However, the latest CBI skills survey found that there was a growing gap between what is taught at university and what is needed in the workplace. For many, our specialised higher education system is not working. 

To the supporters of specialisation, interdisciplinary education skirts around the surface of different fields without addressing them in depth. However, specialisation is not essential for achieving expertise. We believe that interdisciplinary education at university taps into a rich tradition of knowledge, and will help students to not only think creatively but also gain a depth and breadth of knowledge that has been hitherto unavailable to them. 

As joint authors of this piece, we come from two different backgrounds in education. One (Ed Fidoe) co-founded School 21 in Stratford, which emphasises oratory skills and project-based learning in its teaching. The other (Daisy Christodoulou) is a former English teacher and head of assessment of Ark Schools, and the author of Seven Myths About Education, which argues for the importance of knowledge in the curriculum. However, we are collaborating at the London Interdisciplinary School (LIS) precisely because it is important to use a problem-driven, interdisciplinary degree to deepen and broaden students’ knowledge.

Interdisciplinary education

We have spoken a lot about addressing real-world problems at LIS, like knife crime or climate change. These are intractable problems which we do not necessarily expect students to solve, but they offer a powerful vehicle for exploring multiple disciplines and methods. This opens up the possibility of combining methods like statistical analysis and ethnographic research to understand and transfer a wide range of knowledge to real-world contexts. 

Using separate subjects is a practical way of helping students to organise their knowledge, especially when they are at school. But it is not necessarily the best way of approaching education at university. Interdisciplinary education can reposition “depth” as a way of looking at problems through different lenses; the scientific, the historical, the economic, etc. 

This is how we are using interdisciplinary education as a necessary step into knowledge-rich learning. The greatest leaps in human knowledge have often been found at the intersection of different disciplines: whether it was combining chemistry and biology to crack the code of DNA or how political thought today has been immensely improved by the use of economics and psychology.

To be effective, interdisciplinary education must not be taught in a shallow, pick-and-mix way. What some academics call “deep interdisciplinarity” allows students to break down the barriers between different academic disciplines, and understand large, complex issues with lots of moving parts. This is about more than reviving the idea of the “Renaissance Man” or the polymath. Interdisciplinary education encourages truly critical reflection, helping students to learn, un-learn, and re-learn ideas and concepts in a different way. This is where the real value of studying problems and projects, rather than specific subjects, comes from.

Interdisciplinarity will not succeed in British higher education if it is not seen as a rigorous pursuit. Our most prestigious universities are ancient institutions that have taught some disciplines for centuries. The foundational importance of the liberal arts to American higher education, however, shows that interdisciplinary education has been central to western education for a long time. In light of this, the divisions between subject areas appear more artificial than many assume.

The liberal arts has a long tradition, dating back to antiquity. The core purpose of liberal arts education was to use knowledge and understandings from all academic disciplines to answer the challenges facing the world. That is as true today as it was in Ancient Greece. 

Knowledge makes interdisciplinary education possible, and in the internet age - where all knowledge is so easily accessible - consuming knowledge is an increasingly interdisciplinary pursuit. Through the interdisciplinary framework, students can accumulate knowledge from the whole academy, and use it effectively with innovative teaching. It is like bringing two vast databases together, written in different codes, and finding ways of making them understand each other.  

Today, education reform is constantly trying to produce innovative critical thinkers, but policymakers still prioritise specific subject areas over interdisciplinarity. We hope that this will change with the growing interest in interdisciplinary courses at leading universities and the establishment of the London Interdisciplinary School. Knowledge-rich creative thinking offers students a key to addressing the problems we face today. This can be best achieved through interdisciplinary training and the accumulation of knowledge from all quarters, rather than through the traditional academic silos.