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New-Style Higher Education: Disciplinarity, Interdisciplinarity and Transdisciplinarity in the EHEA Qualifications Framework

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Based on the observation that the Bologna process and inter-university competition pave the way for new study programs that often combine or transcend traditional academic disciplines, this paper investigates the position that the “Framework for qualifications of the European Higher Education Area” (QF EHEA) takes in relation to disciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary modes of organizing higher education and research. A framework for understanding and identifying disciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches is developed and applied in an analysis of the QF EHEA document. It is concluded that the document reflects ideas characteristic of transdisciplinary approaches to knowledge production and higher education.

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  1. Department of Culture and Global Studies, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Kirsten Jæger

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  1. Kirsten Jæger
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Jæger, K. New-Style Higher Education: Disciplinarity, Interdisciplinarity and Transdisciplinarity in the EHEA Qualifications Framework. High Educ Policy 34, 155–174 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41307-018-00126-w

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