Interdisciplinarity and Higher Education

Academic disciplines are not fixed: they split and merge over time. Medieval grammar and rhetoric divided into modern linguistic and literary studies, while fusion produced fields from astrophysics and biochemistry to social psychology. From that historical observation, Kockelmans builds a careful case for interdisciplinarity, holding that specialisation serves research well but becomes a problem when it narrows education. The opening chapters trace the idea from Plato's Academy to the Center for Educational Research and Innovation, separating sound objections from misdirected ones.

Later chapters turn practical. They examine the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities in turn, warn against incompetent borrowing of paradigms, and address the methodological, institutional and personal strains of crossing boundaries. A closing chapter critically assesses three American experiments and surveys programmes in a dozen countries. A considered, searching read for academics, administrators and students of higher education.