In recent decades, the demand for employees with multidisciplinary higher education has increased. In recent years, the Samuel Neaman Institute has conducted studies on technological forecasting for scientific and technological human resources needs. It was concluded from our studies that to meet the emerging industries’ needs for human resources, it is necessary to expand and deepen academic multidisciplinary studies.
The aim of the study was to provide mapping and an overview of the academic multidisciplinary studies in Israel, to examine in which areas multidisciplinary training is necessary, what are the barriers, and give policy recommendations.
The methodology in this study included:
- Literature review of research on multidisciplinary academic programs in Israel and other countries.
- Mapping multidisciplinary curricula for undergraduate and graduate degrees at three universities: Technion, Tel Aviv University and Ben Gurion University.
- Research questionnaire for managers from various industries.
- Interviews with stakeholders from academia and industry.
Main research recommendations:
- Undergraduate programs should remain in a format that allows in-depth study in one or two areas and include multidisciplinary expansion of basic infrastructure in order to form a basis for work in multidisciplinary teams and expansion of studies in the future.
- Multidisciplinary topics usually need to be studied as part of employees’ Life Long Learning.
- It is recommended to expand the current study – examine and promote the shortcomings that exist in multidisciplinary training for emerging technologies.
The findings of the current study can contribute to policy makers and its recommendations can be promoted within the committees of the National Council for Civilian Research and Development.
