CHALLENGES OF DESIGNING AN UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE FOR AN EMERGING DISCIPLINARY FIELD

The rate at which advances in the field of ICT have been created and spread is one of the hallmarks of today's society. The widespread use of ICT in all professional fields has led to the constant generation of new areas of information and knowledge. In this context, the boundaries defining the disciplines are increasingly subject to intense scrutiny and revision. This phenomenon has a key impact on higher education. This paper reviews some of the influences that these circumstances have in the design and development of the curricula of degree programs in emergent academic fields.

The issues mentioned above raise complicated questions for professors and administrators responsible for undergraduate curricula. Specifically, how should academic institutions respond to the growing use of ICT applications within the disciplines? Should they redefine traditional disciplinary areas to incorporate ICT, or should they identify new interdisciplinary spaces? These questions require in-depth analysis from an unbiased perspective. In addition, regardless of which answer is adopted, implementing the necessary changes requires a strong institutional commitment.

This paper investigates the challenges faced by five universities during the design and development of an interdisciplinary bachelor’s degree in multimedia within the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). A literature review was conducted to compare and contrast the experiences of these universities with similar cases from other universities. The literature review particularly focused on universities that created a new bachelor’s curriculum in areas such as biology, medicine, and health to meet the growing demands of ICT training. Through this literature review, the common trends and characteristics of the selected cases were identified.

The research presented in the article reveals some of the challenges that all of these universities had to face in order to design and develop a new degree in the field of ICT. Most notably: the identification of emerging professional profiles and competencies in a rapidly changing labor environment, the obstacles to establishing new disciplinary and academic areas, the training and career development of university professors, and the professional identity and progression of graduates.