Integration of SSH and STEM Competences in AAU Degree Programmes: Pilot Projects Launched
News
Published online: 20.02.2023
AAU is launching a series of pilot projects to investigate how the university can best integrate SSH and STEM competences in AAU's degree programmes.
By Pernille Sværke Lang Johansen, Rector's Office. Translated by LeeAnn Iovanni, AAU Communication
- Employers are looking for graduates who can collaborate across disciplinary areas. And the complex issues the world is facing require that we can look beyond our own disciplinary expertise and work together toward a common solution.
This was how Pro-rector Anne Marie Kanstrup put it in her opening remarks at a kick-off event for the pilot projects under the strategy project: Integration of SSH (Social Sciences and Humanities) and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Competencies in AAU Degree Programmes.
The kick-off event was held on Tuesday, 14 February at AAU INNOVATE. Around 50 heads of studies and study board chairs gathered with participants from the project's steering committee and working group to discuss the concepts the working group had developed for interdisciplinary collaboration. The concepts will be tested in pilot projects in selected degree programmes in the autumn semester of 2023. Experience from the pilot projects will be used in developing the final concepts to be implemented in AAU's Bachelor's and Master's programmes in 2024.
At the kick-off, Pro-rector Anne Marie Kanstrup and Thomas Ryberg, Director of the Institute for Advanced Study in PBL (IAS PBL), presented the concepts for interdisciplinary collaboration to participants. The meeting participants then discussed the possibilities and challenges in the concepts which are a further development of the AAU PBL model.
The concepts set the stage for the degree programmes themselves to find ways to collaborate across programmes and study boards and to organise the content of the collaboration.
- Careful consideration is important here. The project must create value and make sense for our students and prospective employers. Thus far, the project has been confined to the working group, and I’ve been looking forward to testing the concepts that the working group developed, the pro-rector said.
Towards March, it is now up to the individual degree programmes to explore the possibilities of participating in pilot projects, and in mid-March a networking event will be held for staff members from the programmes interested in participating in a pilot project. Preparation of the pilot projects will take place in spring 2023, and the programmes will be supported by the Institute for Advanced Study in PBL both in preparation and implementation.
Background on the pilot projects
In its strategy, Knowledge for the World 2022-26, AAU’s ambition is that all students at AAU be in a degree programme that, in addition to their own in-depth, discipline-specific knowledge, gives them the competences and abilities to collaborate with other disciplines to solve specific challenges based on a holistic foundation.
With this in mind, a steering committee and working group were set up for the project last year to work on developing the AAU PBL model. The working group was tasked with developing and testing different concepts for integrating SSH into STEM programmes and STEM into SSH programmes. The working group consists of heads of department and heads of studies across the faculties as well as competencies from IAS PBL and Study Service.
The project is also part of the work towards the mission-oriented university where students develop interdisciplinary competencies and collaborative competencies through their education so that they can contribute to solving complex interdisciplinary challenges in cooperation with others.
The pilot projects are evaluated on an ongoing basis.