Today, in an age where dual-careers and study across disciplines have gained prominence, the scope for interdisciplinary studies is huge. No more are one-directional approaches adequate to tackle some of the biggest challenges the world faces and there is a need for multi-pronged approaches, often involving multiple streams of study and research. Prof. Jane Falkingham, from the University of Southampton, elaborates on how the department of Social, Human and Mathematical Sciences deals with interdisciplinary research and various developments that have taken place in the department. Excerpts from the interview.
What is the university’s intent behind building partnerships with Indian universities in education and research?
The University of Southampton is aware of India’s intentions to strengthen and expand higher education, particularly in the social sciences. We are keen on building partnerships with Indian universities in order to engage with academics from India in major multidisciplinary joint research projects addressing key global challenges.
When is the launch of the Study Abroad Programme scheduled for? What is it about?
The Studyabroad@Southampton programme has been launched for 2016 entry. It provides international undergraduate students the opportunity to visit Southampton for one of two semesters. It is based in the Faculty of Social, Human and Mathematical Sciences and offers a combination of single discipline and interdisciplinary pathways, the latter based around particular themes. For the disciplinary pathways, students can choose from three types of economics and sociology pathways, including International Social Policy as well as Geography and Politics & International Relations. Themed or interdisciplinary pathways include Population and Health, Economy and Society and Protecting the Global Environment. To apply, students must have an average mark equivalent to upper second class honours at their home university at the most recent assessment period before starting at Southampton and should have achieved an English language proficiency standard of IELTS 6.5 with a minimum of 5.5 in each element (or equivalent).
You had said that mathematicians from Southampton were also involved in gravitational waves discovery. Please elaborate on the kind of work involved and progress in this field.
Considerable progress has taken place in this field. From our university, Dr. Ian Jones, a mathematician, has spent 13 years working on the international gravitational wave detection project, providing colleagues with models for what the gravitational wave signals from small dense stars, known as neutron stars, might look like, and advising how best to search for these signals amongst other ‘noisy’ data.
What is the university’s FLAIR programme about?
The FLAIR programme is a capacity-building initiative promoted and funded by the Kerala government to provide international internships for exceptional young faculty members from the State. Over the past three years, we have received 11 interns with different academic specialisations, each for a period of one month, during which time they studied our approaches to teaching, learning and research.
How does the faculty of social, human and mathematical sciences in your university bring about an interdisciplinary approach?
The ESRC Centre for population change is an exemplar of a multidisciplinary and multi-HEI research centre. This centre brings together demographers, gerontologists, economists, sociologists, geographers, social statisticians and social policy specialists across the University of Southampton, St. Andrews, Edinburgh University and Stirling University.
What kind of employment opportunities will be available for students who complete the course, both in India and abroad?
The university has embedded the acquisition of graduate employment skills in all the courses, and, in addition, have a full extra-curricular programme offering a multitude of opportunities for skills development. We are especially proud of our social enterprise modules which allow students to develop graduate skills in the context of working on projects specifically designed to address existing social problems and challenges.
What are the issues that students investigate, in terms of social, educational and health-related issues?
Research in psychology at Southampton is organised into three primary research divisions: Neuroscience, Cognition and Human Wellbeing. If we take the latter as an example of our work, we have staff at our Centre for Applications of Health Technology(CAHP). The centre’s purpose is to promote the application of psychology to alleviate health problems in clinical and non-clinical populations. The group has many strengths and its members are international leaders in the fields of sexual health, pain, placebo, behavioural management of infection and chronic conditions. CAHP members have particular expertise and a leading national and international reputation in the development and evaluation of digital health-related behaviour change interventions for promoting health (example: through diet and physical activity) and illness management.
