INDECS: Potentials of interdisciplinary degree courses in engineering, information technology, natural and socio-economics sciences in a changing society

• Forschungsstelle: EU FRP
• Projektnummer: 01.0058
• Projekttitel Englisch: INDECS: Potentials of interdisciplinary degree courses in engineering, information technology, natural and socio-economics sciences in a changing society

Schlüsselwörter (Englisch)

Higher education; natural sciences; interdisciplinarity; knowledge-based society; women

Alternative Projektnummern (Englisch)

EU project number: HPWS-CT-2001-00005

Forschungsprogramme (Englisch)

EU-programme: 5. Frame Research Programme - 4.4 Life sciences for developing countries

Kurzbeschreibung (Englisch)

See abstract

Partner und Internationale Organisationen (Englisch)

Coordinator: Bergische Universität (D)

Abstract (Englisch)

INDECS is an acronym for 'Potentials of Interdisciplinary Degree Courses in Engineering, Information Technology, Natural and Socio-Economic Sciences in a Changing Society', a proposal submitted to Framework V on 7 December 2000. The proposal addresses (i) the potential of interdisciplinarity in higher education to attract more students to study SET (science, engineering and technology), and (ii) the potential of interdisciplinarity to play a role in the retention of women students and their progression to the labour market, as well as the acceptance of graduates from such degree courses in the work spheres. Elements for a methodology tool-box for future cross-cultural equivalent comparative and empirical research are identified. By means of information gathering, discussions and expert interviews, a set of good-practice and suitable policy issues are identified to form recommendations.
The Swiss contribution (University of Berne) analyses current trends in Switzerland and isolates the needs for changes both in learning and teaching and at institutional level for Science in the 21st century University. Interdisciplinarity is defined as a synthesis-oriented co-operation of different disciplines and thus always relates to individual academic disciplines. Yet, interdisciplinary co-operation - when it is institutionalised - inherently leads to further specialisation and new disciplines. This tendency of interdisciplinarity as a 'discipline-generator' may be avoided as illustrated by the Interdisciplinary Centre for General Ecology (IKAÖ) at Berne University, Switzerland. An implicit assumption of the project is that interdisciplinarity in the natural sciences may help to increase the number of women in the field and guarantee good chances for graduates on the labour market. Investigations in Environmental Sciences in Switzerland indicate that this may not be the case and isolate communication skills, project management and teamwork as key qualifications to employers. While interdisciplinarity in academia may attract new people including women, the retention of promising brains will require changes in Higher Education, which will have to occur at all institutional levels and in all areas of learning, teaching and research.

Datenbankreferenzen (Englisch)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 01.0058