Bridging Disciplines: Interdisciplinary Study Programmes in Higher Education
Roč.16,č.1(2026)
Magdalena Šedrlová
Petra Zmrzlá
This paper aims to examine the increasing role of interdisciplinarity in contemporary higher education, with a particular focus on study programmes offered at Czech universities. In accordance with established theoretical frameworks – especially Klein’s typologies of multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, and transdisciplinarity – the conceptual, methodological, and institutional dimensions of cross-disciplinary collaboration are outlined, along with current developments within a broader international context. The research in this field so far indicates the increasing role of interdisciplinarity, which is in line with the changes that our society, technology and education have been undergoing in the recent years. With this in mind, we analysed existing interdisciplinary programmes in the Czech Republic, focusing particularly on those bridging traditionally distant fields such as engineering and natural sciences on the one hand and humanities and social sciences on the other. Our survey revealed that the least frequent combination of disciplines is when natural sciences should merge with humanities. Combining economics and humanities is only slightly less uncommon, and the same can be said about engineering and humanities. On the other hand, it is not so very exceptional to include engineering and the natural sciences which are applied in the given engineering field in a single study programme. This clearly shows that unlike the programmes connecting the “related” fields, combinations of conceptually more distant disciplines are rather rare and present a specific challenge, which may hopefully become less demanding as more information and instances of good practice are identified and shared. The results therefore reflect emerging interdisciplinary efforts even in areas where various constraints remain significant.
Curriculum innovation; Disciplinary boundaries; Higher education; Interdisciplinarity; Interdisciplinary study programmes; Multidisciplinarity; Transdisciplinarity
Magdalena Šedrlová
Vysoké učení technické v Brně, Fakulta elektrotechniky a komunikačních technologií
MAGDALENA ŠEDRLOVÁ earned a master’s degree in English language and literature and a bachelor’s degree in French language and literature from Masaryk University. She is an assistant lecturer in the Department of Foreign Languages at Brno University of Technology, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communications, where she teaches English for Electrotechnical Engineering, English for Communication Technologies, and French as a foreign language (FLE; français langue étrangère). Her main areas of interest are the didactics and methodology of ESL and FLE, backed by regular participation in international workshops and summer schools (Université Grenoble-Alpes, Alliance Française Bordeaux Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Alliance Française Marseille, Institut Mines-Télécom Albi).
Petra Zmrzlá
Vysoké učení technické v Brně, Fakulta elektrotechniky a komunikačních technologií
PETRA ZMRZLÁ is an Assistant Professor and Head of the Department of Foreign Languages at Brno University of Technology, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communications. She earned her Ph.D. in English linguistics from Masaryk University. Her doctoral dissertation, Co-referential Cohesive Chains in Research Articles, established her main research focus. Her research interests include English for Academic Purposes (EAP), English for Specific Purposes (ESP), and discourse analysis, which are also reflected in her teaching and publications, including Discourse under Investigation (2022) and Hedging and Boosting Criticism in Dissertation Thesis Reviews (2025). She currently serves as the guarantor of the study programme English for Practice in Electrical Engineering and Communication Technologies.
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