As human beings, clinging to structures and labels is basically second nature to us. It provides us with a sense of security and direction. It placates our anxiety and reassures us that some things stay the same (or so we wish to believe) even in a world that is ever-shifting.

But for educational institutes such as universities and polytechnics, sticking to traditional structures of disciplinary education in today's fast-developing digital economy might not be the best way to encourage 21st-century education.

Dividing universities by academic departments is the perfect example of a rigid structure that puts up barriers and hinders universities' progression. It affects both the educators and the students in much the same way, as they struggle to discover homes for new ideas that don't fit squarely into a disciplinary box. 

Interdisciplinary education is not a new concept, as the merit of it has been debated for decades. According to the National Council for Teachers of English in 1995, "educational experiences are more authentic and of greater value to students when the curricula reflect real life, which is multi-faceted rather than being compartmentalized into neat subject-matter packages."

So, what role does interdisciplinary education play in higher education institutions?

Generally, a university's progress or success directly correlates with its students' success in terms of academics or employability. At one point, disciplinary courses were sufficient in ensuring that students were able to harness their vocational skills and secure employment. 

Today, not so much.

Why interdisciplinary education?

No single person or discipline has everything that's needed to solve the problems of today, and the world is rife with increasingly complex ones. It is getting more and more difficult for professionals, experts, and researchers to come up with solutions to these problems without engaging the expertise of one another.

And even then, these contributions are not integrated; the outcome is merely a parallel vision of the problem from disciplinary perspectives that differ from one another.

On the other hand, interdisciplinary methods of education truly integrate different disciplines that promote multidimensionality through collaboration in the process of realizing solutions. 

Universities should continuously work to develop sustainability education, fostering critical reflection and skills that are imperative in generating modern thinking and the true practice for sustainability.

Recent years have shown a rise in the number of studies that link interdisciplinary education with the development of active methodologies, i.e., project-based learning and the case study method. This shows that interdisciplinary learning methods provide students with an authentic purpose for learning as they work to resolve the real-life problems presented to them.

Some of the learning outcomes of interdisciplinary approaches in education—such as critical thinking, ability to apply knowledge to real-world contexts, ethical thinking, good communication skills—are the same outcomes that employers and even university administrators agree students should possess once they graduate. 

Faculty members and students alike will be able to develop a better understanding of the relationship between the different perspectives across multiple disciplines. 

Dennis Weasley, an independent educational researcher, brought up interesting points in his contribution on teachthought on why interdisciplinary education is necessary. As innovation continues to take hold in many industries, the study of ethics becomes more pertinent.

This is because many questions will arise from groundbreaking technological advancements. What if these advancements endanger human labor? Will it affect the employment (or unemployment, for that matter) rate? This is where humanities disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, and sociology come into play. 

"In essence, these disciplines urge us to avoid simplistic explanations, encouraging us instead to look at how people make and seek meaning. That is, a community may reject a particular technology not because it (the community) is backward, but because the applications of the technology in question might bring them more cons than pros," he writes.

We must remember that interdisciplinary education will benefit not only students but the universities themselves. By pushing for interdisciplinarity, the institute(s) will prove that they are aware of the changes that come with the digital economy, and they are ready to take part in it. 

Making headway in the 21st-century economy

In the year 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals were adopted by all 193 United Nations Member States. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was set with the purpose of providing a blueprint for a better and sustainable future for all.

The SDGs are essential because they successfully address the global challenges that we face, including the ones pertaining to quality education. Taking into account COVID-19 and the impact it has on students today, we must look for solutions to solve not only the problems of the future but also of the past.

Before COVID-19, the overall progress towards inclusive and equitable quality education was too slow; it was predicted that over 200 million children will still be out of school by the year 2030.

COVID-19 further exacerbated the situation as schools continue to be closed down. Though this has forced students and teachers to rely on conducting classes virtually, remote learning is still out of reach for over 500 million students.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. There's a lot that needs to be done in order to create 21st-century educational experiences to produce minds that can solve problems that are plaguing our world today.

This interdisciplinary approach to education has become a key concept and should be implemented in all educational stages, as it helps enhance people's life experience and bring further advancement to sustainable development. 

In the context of higher education, adopting this approach entails integrating different disciplines together to create a cohesive, interdisciplinary understanding of a particular subject, which will enrich the educational experiences of all those involved. 

Even to this day, people continue to ask incessantly, why interdisciplinary education? The simplest answer to that question is also the best answer: because the world we live in is interdisciplinary. 

In the words of Albert Einstein, "all religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree."