ID073 The Keele Question: Knowledge, Place and Society

The Idea

Many universities teach disciplines, but few help students understand where those disciplines originate. Knowledge is often presented as technical and universal rather than shaped by real-world problems, industries, communities and environments. Students therefore specialise early without appreciating how expertise develops or operates beyond the classroom. 

I propose a compulsory first-year interdisciplinary module for all undergraduates: The Keele Question: Knowledge, Place and Society. 

The course would explore how fields of knowledge emerge from historical challenges, using Staffordshire and the wider region alongside global examples. Veterinary science connects to the county's agriculture, materials science to the Potteries, literature to regional cultural production, politics and economics to local industrial organisation, health sciences to community medicine, engineering to manufacturing systems etc. 

The module would be designed to complement rather than compete with disciplinary curricula. It would provide a common intellectual framework while allowing each School to demonstrate how its own discipline has evolved and continues to respond to contemporary societal challenges. This flexibility would enable professional programmes to align the module with accreditation requirements and graduate competencies rather than treating it as additional content. 

Students would encounter shared concepts such as evidence, systems, innovation, uncertainty, ethics, professionalism, communication and civic responsibility through common lectures and discipline-linked seminars. The module would provide a common institutional framework through which these graduate attributes could be explored, while allowing Schools to tailor examples to the requirements of individual disciplines and, where appropriate, Professional, Statutory and Regulatory Bodies (PSRBs). In doing so, students would come to understand that disciplines are interconnected and socially embedded, strengthening rather than weakening confidence in expertise. 

The module would work most effectively in the first year, where it can establish genuine habits of interdisciplinary and reflective thinking that students continue to develop through community engagement, placements and disciplinary study in later years. The module could also revive and modernise the idea of a shared intellectual induction into university life. In previous years, university-wide lectures from senior leadership helped establish a common sense of purpose among first-year students. The Keele Question could extend this tradition through high-profile opening lectures and public-facing events that explain not only what students will study, but why their discipline matters in the wider world. 

The aim is a distinctive Keele graduate: a subject specialist who understands how knowledge works in society and can collaborate across professions and communicate beyond their field.

Why This Idea Should Be Considered

This proposal turns interdisciplinarity into a visible and defining feature of a Keele education. It strengthens employability by developing judgement, adaptability and communication; skills valued by employers and resistant to automation. It also supports civic engagement by connecting teaching to regional history and partnerships. Rather than adding content, the module clarifies it, giving students a deeper understanding of their own subject and others. The result is a recognisable graduate identity and a clear external message: Keele teaches not only knowledge, but how knowledge operates in the real world. 

The proposal also offers a distinctive recruitment narrative. At a time when many universities make similar claims about interdisciplinarity and employability, Keele could offer every applicant a genuinely different educational experience from day one. Rather than asking students simply to choose a subject, Keele would invite them to understand the origins and impact of that subject, creating a clearer sense of academic identity from the outset.

How We Would Implement This Idea

The module would use a scalable structure: shared lectures delivered centrally, supported by programme-level seminars within Schools. Existing staff expertise, together with local archives, employers, cultural organisations and community partners, would provide authentic case studies. Delivery could begin through a pilot before wider rollout. 

To minimise costs, the core lecture programme would be coordinated centrally, with contributions from academic colleagues across the University, reducing duplication while showcasing the breadth of Keele's expertise. Schools would then contextualise the common themes through discipline-specific seminars, ensuring local ownership and relevance. The proposal is intended to reconfigure rather than expand the curriculum, creating a shared first-year experience through coordinated delivery and interdisciplinary collaboration rather than significant additional teaching. 

Assessment would be proportionate and developmental, using reflective or applied tasks linked directly to students' own disciplines. The emphasis would be on intellectual curiosity and critical reflection rather than extensive written coursework, allowing meaningful engagement without creating disproportionate marking burdens. 

What Success Would Look Like

Success would mean every Keele student shares a substantive intellectual experience across disciplines in their first year. Students can explain not only what their subject explores but why it exists and how it applies in different contexts. Employers recognise Keele graduates as adaptable collaborators able to interpret expertise for wider audiences. The module becomes a distinctive feature referenced in recruitment, partnerships and graduate outcomes, strengthening both student identity and the University’s civic mission. 

Success would also be evident if prospective students increasingly identified The Keele Question as a defining reason for choosing Keele. Like the Foundation Year once distinguished the University, this module could become a signature feature of the Keele student experience, recognised by applicants, employers and alumni alike.