It’s been clear for a long time that the way we traditionally think about skills and expertise is out of step with our fast-changing and volatile world. This issue runs through the education system in many countries and also influences how employers attract and upskill talent.So, what are the innovative approaches that could solve this problem?

My guest on this episode is Fco-founder and CEO of the LIS: The London Interdisciplinary School (LIS). LIS has been described as the most radical new university to open in decades. It offers degrees that use an interdisciplinary approach to solving some of the complex problems that business and society face. There are interesting lessons for employers here around the concept of interactional expertise.

On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Tom Vander Ark is joined by Professor Carl Gombrich, the Dean at the London Interdisciplinary School (LIS), to discuss his transition from University College London (UCL) to LIS, motivated by a desire for educational innovation.

Throughout the conversation, Dr. Gombrich shared his experience of fostering interdisciplinary education at UCL and his subsequent decision to establish a new institution dedicated to this approach. He explained that traditional educational structures often inhibit interdisciplinary learning, as they are organized around distinct disciplines that do not reflect the interconnected nature of real-world problems.

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On today’s episode of the Illumination by Modern Campus podcast, podcast host Shauna Cox was joined by Carl Gombrich to discuss the current state of higher ed in the UK and the re-imagination required to meet the needs of today’s learners.

In this episode, we are joined by Professor Carl Gombrich, Dean of London Interdisciplinary School. Carl is the Lead Academic at LIS and oversees curriculum design, teaching, and learning. He was previously a Professorial Teaching Fellow of Interdisciplinary Education at UCL and is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Before moving into higher education leadership, Carl studied and taught maths, physics and philosophy. He has also studied and taught music and was a professional opera singer for a while, having trained at the National Opera Studio in the UK, where he was the Royal Opera House scholar.

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It's not acceptable for a CEO to simply say, 'Well, I don't do marketing,' says Ed Fidoe. That's why he is leading at a groundbreaking university aimed at cultivating well-rounded leaders.

Fidoe is one of the minds behind the UK's first new university with degree-granting powers since the 1960s—the London Interdisciplinary School (LIS).

He argues that specialising alone will fall short in a world grappling with intricate challenges like climate change and AI; instead, one must embrace interdisciplinary studies.

My Wildest Prediction is a podcast series from Euronews Business where we dare to imagine the future with business and tech visionaries. In this sixth episode, Tom Goodwin talks with Ed Fidoe, founder and CEO of The London Interdisciplinary School (LIS), about the future of education.

What multidisciplinary studies look like

In addressing complex current issues such as inequality, AI, or climate change, finding solutions requires considering multiple factors: science, technology, politics, culture, geography, sociology, etc.

However, choosing a degree to tackle them means committing to a singular approach due to the way studies are structured.

"Part of the reason that we now organised the way we do is because of the physical requirement of libraries and the need to physically organise knowledge in a way in which you can navigate it," Fidoe says. "So if you're going to do a degree, you're going to learn a section of the corridor in a library".

But that is not how the real world works, he claims.

Founded in 2017, LIS proposes a radical shift away from this traditional model, focusing on a multidisciplinary curriculum.

For instance, a first-year LIS undergraduate engages in three modules: problems, qualitative methods, and quantitative methods.

"We think that leaders as well as young people need to be able to understand the complex problems that the world faces now and these complex problems are necessarily interdisciplinary", says Fidoe.

"You're not just going to tackle them with a knowledge of just chemistry or just economics", he adds.

Are the interdisciplinary students actually getting hired?

The first cohort of LIS graduates is set to emerge this summer. Fidoe says it will mark "a thrilling milestone" as it will be a first-time test to assess the employability of their interdisciplinary students.

"Some of our undergraduates are already landing jobs, and interestingly, one has secured a position at Goldman Sachs, which wasn't exactly what I anticipated," explains Fidoe."I thought organisations like Goldman Sachs might say, 'That sounds rubbish; you're not from a top-five university, so you're not in.'"

Fidoe anticipates a transformative shift in the job market, acknowledging the increasing value of individuals adept at approaching complex problems from diverse perspectives.

"Imagine having individuals around the cabinet table or in corporate boardrooms who comprehend not only the science and math but also the human, political, and legal aspects of the significant challenges we face," Fidoe concludes.

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LIS is building a new university based on interdisciplinarity and tackling complex real-world problems. Instead of specialising in a single subject area, our students learn through a problem-based interdisciplinary approach, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences (BASc).

Solutions to the world’s most complex and interconnected problems won’t come from a single specialism or subject. We need to bring together experts and knowledge from across the arts, sciences and humanities.

In a world faced by increasingly complex challenges, it’s never been more important to find new ways of learning. We need young people who are more versatile, more entrepreneurial, and more resilient than ever before. But the current education system is siloed, and students are forced down a singular academic path, pushing them to specialise in one subject area. At LIS, we think there’s a straightforward case for an interdisciplinary curriculum: problems are interdisciplinary, so our curriculum should be too.

The London Interdisciplinary School place a premium on teaching rather than research. They have brought together a diverse and outstanding group of academics, entrepreneurs, and educationalists. The LIS team includes philosophers, epidemiologists, artists, journalists, behavioural scientists, and mathematicians, as well as entrepreneurs and professionals.

Website

www.lis.ac.uk

Social Media Information

Instagram: @weare_lis

Twitter/X: @weareLIS

TikTok: @we_are_lis

Resources Mentioned

David Goggins

Chris Williamson

Andrew Huberman

Show Sponsor – National Association for Primary Education (NAPE)

https://nape.org.uk/

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Today, I’m joined by Ed Fidoe, and we're talking about Interdisciplinary Education for the Modern Leader. Ed is the founder and CEO of the London Interdisciplinary School. In this role, he is leading a revolution in higher education with an interdisciplinary curriculum focused on tackling complex global issues such as inequality, sustainability, ethics, and AI. Prior to founding this school, Ed was involved with other educational startups and had a tenure with McKinsey & Co. I’m excited to have him on the show to talk about Interdisciplinary Education for the Modern Leader.

Ed Fidoe is the Chief Executive of the London Interdisciplinary School (LIS), and is leading the charge for education innovation, determined to equip students with the knowledge they need to tackle global challenges and complex problems. Ed is exploring the future of education, and how AI can help with adaptive learning and meeting people where they are. An inspiring story of ambition and drive, Ed's work is sure to revolutionize education as we know it.

This week we meet Ed Fidoe who in his twenties decided to create a school that had an entirely different approach to education, hence he established School21, where children did things differently, and developed skills and attributes that went beyond what was tested in exams, including speaking skills, craftmanship, grit and spark.

Opening in September 2021, the London Interdisciplinary School radically challenges a lot of assumptions within higher ed. As the first new university (with degree awarding powers) in Britain since the 1960s, its curriculum is designed around solving real-world problems. With faculty from Oxford and Harvard, Co-founder and CEO Ed Fidoe discusses the need to teach skills employers want and their attempt to dismantle the traditional system - or at least offer an alternative to it.

Show notes:

More about LIS:

https://www.londoninterdisciplinaryschool.org/

Importance of studying everything:

https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/long-reads/london-interdisciplinary-school-omniscience-study-b1800801.html

Teaching the skills employers want:

https://qz.com/1781574/the-london-interdisciplinary-school-takes-a-new-real-world-approach/

More about School21:

https://www.school21.org.uk/

Favourite book about learning: ‘Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge’ by Edward O. Wilson,

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55981.Consilience

Favourite book not about learning: ‘The Years of Lyndon Johnson’ by Robert Caro,

https://www.robertcaro.com/the-books/

Ed Fidoe, the co-founder of School 21, and the co-founder and CEO of the London Interdisciplinary School, the first new university to launch in the UK in 40 years. In this episode, we talk about the future of learning, and why the challenges of our current times require us to have radically different models of learning and education.

To learn more about Ed and his journey, visit: http://palmamichel.com/explorersmind34/

Resources Mentioned In The Show:

• https://www.school21.org.uk/
• https://www.londoninterdisciplinaryschool.org/
• Living Fearlessly With Change And Uncertainty Course On RoundGlass
• Palma’s course on Expert Academy
• Palma Michel - The Authority Guide to Mindful Leadership
• www.palmamichel.com
• palma@palmamichel.com

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In Start-up Schools 3 we meet Oli de Botton, Ed Fidoe and Peter Hyman the founders of School 21, a pioneering 4 - 18 school in east London. We will explore why they wanted to open a new school, why they went for an all-through school and explore their conviction that a re-balancing of education is required.

In this episode, we’re joined by Ed Fidoe, Chief Executive at the London Interdisciplinary School. LIS is a brand-new university with its own degree-awarding powers. It’s launching in September 2021 and has attracted academics from prestigious universities including Oxford, Harvard, UCL and LSE.

They have developed the UK's first interdisciplinary degree. Focusing on interdisciplinary problems and methods, rather than specialising in one subject. Ed talks about their focus on extraordinary teaching, teaching design, their alternative admissions process and how they planned a brand new university.

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The London Interdisciplinary School is a new university aiming to give students the knowledge and skills needed to address social and global problems in an increasingly complex world.  We spoke to Chief Executive Ed Fidoe to get his take on why interdisciplinary thinking matters, its relevance to recovery and the importance of developing the future skill sets businesses need.

Ed Fidoe is co-founder and President of the London Interdisciplinary School. LIS will provide a fully interdisciplinary undergraduate degree, with students studying complex problems rather than specific subjects. Students will graduate with a BASc in Interdisciplinary Problems and Methods. LIS also runs professional/leadership programmes.

In 2012, with Peter Hyman and Oli de Botton, Ed co-founded School 21, an innovative 4 – 18 school in Stratford, East London, designed for children from all starting points and backgrounds (achieved Outstanding Ofsted in 2014).

Ed has advised leaders at Cambridge University, the London School of Economics along with some of the UK’s most exciting schools that are exploring new ways of teaching students. He has also worked with organisations specialised in working directly with disadvantaged students such as ARK Schools and Teach First.

Ed was also the co-founder of EDSPACE, a co-working space for innovative education companies. Prior to founding School 21, Ed worked at McKinsey & Co and ran a theatre production company.

How do you design a university? What does the future of education look like? We live in the Age of Entanglement of knowledge where all academic disciplines complement each other to shape the people who solve the biggest problems of our society. Carl Gombrich, one of the creators of the London Interdisciplinary School and former UCL professor, joins us to discuss the future of education.

Rupert talks to education powerhouse, Ed Fidoe, about what is possible when you treat education as a blank piece of paper. Having set up a production company and spent time at Mckinsey, Ed helped cofound School 21, a new type of school for 4-18 years olds designed to rebalance the role of student, teacher and community to allow students to provide real value to the world today. Having successfully set up School 21, Ed has ratcheted up the ambition and decided to set up the London Interdisciplinary School (LIS), a new University designed around teaching interdisciplinary curricula, taking the very best of each to help solve some of the world’s fundamental problems including malaria, childhood obesity, palm oil supply chains and knife crime.

There is other stuff of course – he has advised leaders at Cambridge University, and the London School of Economics and worked with organisations specialised in working directly with disadvantaged students such as ARK Schools and Teach First.

What's in this episode?

Hello, listeners from Digifest!

This week I'm in conversation with Ed Fidoe of the London Interdisciplinary School on launching a new style of degree University set up to tackle "humanity’s most complex problems". We also a throwback to an old recording from Innovate Edtech with a Governor and edtech entrepreneur, a teacher and a dyslexic learning technology advisor in conversation about what makes great learner experience design. Big shout out to Cool Initiatives for sponsoring this episode.

People

• Sophie Bailey is the Founder and Presenter of The Edtech Podcast | Twitter: @podcastedtech
• Ed Fidoe of the London Interdisciplinary School | Twitter: @weareLIS
• David Fudge, Art and Design Teacher, School21 (at time of recording) | Twitter: @school21_uk
• Tim Moore from the Harris Federation and We Are Human | Twitter: @timdmoore
• Sophie Deen from Detective Dot | Twitter: @detectivedot
• Enrico Riva from the British Dyslexia Association | Twitter: @BDAdyslexia
• Show Notes and References
• Check out https://theedtechpodcast.com/edtechpodcast for the full show notes and references. Plus, news, events and other bits and bobs.

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Universities are both pillars of tradition and bastions of innovation, but how are they coping with this tension in an era of extraordinary change?

Gombrich is Programme Director of the interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences BASc degree at University College London, which he has led through its development and launch. He has been active in promoting a number of teaching and learning innovations and his interests include notions of expertise, the history of education and the future of work.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at

https://www.ted.com/tedx

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Hereford Cathedral School Headmaster Dr Michael Gray talks to Professor Carl Gombrich, Academic Lead and Head of Learning at the London Interdisciplinary School, about the increasing relevance of interdisciplinary education in preparing young people for a world that is changing at an exponential rate.