With their well-established silos and ways of working, it should be no surprise that the dictionaries of Oxford and Cambridge – the grandest of these institutions – provide a firm and quite straightforward definition of ‘interdisciplinarity.’ Oxford says that interdisciplinarity is “the quality or fact of involving or drawing on two or more branches of knowledge,” and Cambridge agrees, defining it as, “the fact of involving two or more different subjects of areas of knowledge.”

It can be easy to be pulled in many different directions when you have multiple and seemingly disconnected interests. And, it can be easy to pursue each of these interests with authenticity. For example, during the first and second years of my undergrad in Anthropology, I went through approximately 7 rounds of interviews, assessments, and group projects to land an offer to intern at the investment bank, J.P. Morgan. I wasn’t faking my interests. I had a genuine interest in Anthropology, in understanding the complexity of humankind.

During the Sprint, students heard from LIS Network businesses, organisations, and individuals, spanning a broad range of sectors, industries and backgrounds. During these Lunch and Learn sessions, designed to allow for open dialogue and learning, speakers shared their personal and professional experiences. Sprint students were then able to put these shared experiences into context; using them as a starting point to develop their own ideas.

The higher education system has made it hard for exciting new entrants, with innovative degrees to enter the space. Historically, new entrants had to be validated by an existing institution for several years first. What’s more, traditional degrees don’t start with a real-world problem. So how could an existing university, providing traditional courses, validate this completely new kind of degree?

LIS is the first new provider to gain new degree awarding powers from the start in over 50 years.

We were keen to respond to some of the changes being thrust upon the world due to the current pandemic, to show how interdisciplinary approaches can help deepen our understanding of the issues. We also wanted to test how our own systems and ways of teaching might adapt in a new era of education, in which more remote learning, online collaboration etc. are becoming the new norm.

Institute of Student Employers research shows that 86% of employers do not care what a student studied at university. This is up from 77% in 2014, and 63% in the 2000s, according to a separate Open University study.

We first met Dhiresh Nathwani during an LIS Discovery Day back in September 2019. At the age of 18, Dhiresh has spent his lockdown making face shields for NHS hospitals, GP surgeries, care homes, and other places in need of PPE.

Instead of forcing students into academic silos, interdisciplinary degrees help integrate knowledge across different areas. If a traditional degree offers a student a hammer to which all problems are a nail, an interdisciplinary degree puts the problem first and allows the student to find the most appropriate tool from a range of academic disciplines.