New in 2024

Semester One: ARTSGEN 103G: Ko Wai Tātou? Who Are We?

Who are our people and communities? What do our ideas mean for issues of equality? How do we experience belonging individually and collectively? Address these questions and consider how knowledge of place enhances your learning, the significance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and how knowledge systems frame understanding.

Semester Two: SCIGEN 102G: Contemporary Science in Aotearoa New Zealand

What does it mean to do science here and now? This course considers how knowledge of place enhances your learning, the significance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and how knowledge systems frame understanding. Students will think critically about the relationships between science and our environment, along with the ethics of science in practice.

Dive into the future of learning at Waipapa Taumata Rau the University of Auckland. Transdisciplinary learning experiences are about gaining skills that employers are looking for, as well as offering you a global edge.

From 2026, the University will be making transdisciplinary learning a key part of all undergraduate degrees, so this is your opportunity, to get ahead of your peers.

Transdisciplinary learning involves bringing together students and staff from different academic disciplines and incorporates community perspectives to address complex societal challenges.

It will equip you with the skills, mindset, and awareness of knowledge systems needed to tackle real-world issues that require diverse expertise and perspectives.

Transdisciplinary learning experiences provide an exciting opportunity for you to make connections with students studying in different disciplines and to use all of your unique ways of viewing the world to think of local responses to societal challenges.

In Semester 2, 2024 two transdisciplinary courses will be available as part of the General Education schedule.

These courses are:

TDDEM 100: Democracy in the 21st Century

This course examines the challenges to democracy in New Zealand and globally arising from high inequality, the changing information environment, and authoritarian movements. Using a transdisciplinary approach to understand the interplay of economic, legal, technological, and cultural factors, the course explores innovative ideas for ensuring democratic integrity and building more inclusive, equitable, and participatory democracies.

TDENVF 100: Our Environmental Futures: Te Taiao Tāngata

This course explores the complex relationships between environmental systems and humans. Working in teams, students examine environmental, social, economic and cultural perspectives in the real-world contexts of waitā (sea), waitī (freshwater) and whenua (land). Students will respond to environmental issues by recognising ora (wellbeing) and Ki Uta ki Tai (the interconnectedness of ecosystems) and develop a transdisciplinary mindset to tackle current and future environmental challenges.

Note, there is limited enrolment for the two transdisciplinary pilot courses in 2024, so we encourage you to enrol promptly in either that are of interest.

More transdisciplinary pilot courses will be on offer in 2025, in preparation for the introduction of a transdisciplinary learning requirement in most UG degrees in 2026.