With growing demands for more relevant and applied outcomes in higher education, there is an increasing need for closer collaboration, not only between universities, businesses, and communities, but also across faculties within institutions themselves. Without both, meaningful change will remain out of reach.

Over the past decade, the steady growth of apprenticeships, particularly degree apprenticeships, has introduced a new dynamic into UK higher education.

Driven by government policy and funding changes, including the work of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) and regulatory oversight from the Office for Students (OfS), the landscape is shifting. But beyond policy, something deeper is happening.

Students are increasingly questioning the purpose and value of a university education. Employers are placing greater emphasis on applied capability – the mixture of knowledge, attitudes and skills. And institutions are being asked more directly than ever to demonstrate outcomes.

This is a challenge to our universities and raises an important question:

Can a higher education system built around narrowly defined disciplines continue to prepare students for a world that operates increasingly across them?

Over the past 18 months, during many IFD conversations with university leaders, a consistent theme emerges. Cross-faculty collaboration is increasingly recognised as important yet sits outside the core curriculum. It sometimes appears in innovation weeks, enterprise challenges, or special projects. Valuable initiatives, without question. But they are often periodic, contained, difficult to organise and sustain, and without community context or impact.

Meanwhile, the core curriculum remains largely structured around old disciplines, delivered within long-established faculty boundaries. It reflects how universities have evolved shaped by funding models, governance, and narrow research frameworks.

And for a long time, this model has worked.  But the environments students are now entering are increasingly different.

Problem resolution at work is rarely contained within a single discipline. Multi-disciplinary teams at both the problem definition and resolution stages are increasingly common.  Learning the attitudes and skills to handle these are now essential. Teams are expected to bring together different perspectives, navigate ambiguity, and collaborate across functions.

In a recent article (Jan 2026, Times Higher Education) launching the Universities UK “Future Universities” programme, the point was made directly: UK universities must evolve to deliver the brighter future people want.

It’s an observation surfacing with increasing frequency, and one many institutions are having to find a way to grapple.

The Universities UK ‘Future Universities’ programme is warmly welcomed. More direct discussions with employers and community groups can only be a good thing. But this approach is not new or unique to universities. Both secondary and further education are going through similar cycles of reform, aiming to better align education with the needs of the economy.

The Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs), introduced in 2021, took a similar approach – engaging employers to identify skills needs and shaping provision accordingly.

On the surface, this makes sense. But in practice, the reality is more complex. These initiatives and conversations cannot be one-off. They must be continuous, building meaningful, working relationships between education and the environments it serves.

Because ultimately, education is trying to align to a moving target.

So what needs to change?

If the challenge is that the world is interdisciplinary, fast-moving, and applied, then the response cannot sit solely in periodic collaboration or redesigned modules. It requires a shift in how learning is structured.

One of the clearest signals of what this can look like already exists: learning that is embedded in real-world contexts. Degree apprenticeships offer one example. Learners operate within organisations, apply knowledge in practice, and naturally work across functions. Interdisciplinary thinking is based on action-learning and not something that needs to be added, it is a natural consequence of the model.

But this principle can go further.

The opportunity is not simply to increase collaboration within universities, but to more intentionally connect, or couple universities with the outside world, bringing real challenges, live problems, and evolving ideas directly into the learning experience. Not as guest lectures or one-off projects, but as a core part of the curriculum.

In practice, this could mean:

• Students working on live industry or community challenges as part of their core studies
• Employers and civic organisations shaping problems, not just advising on content
• Multi-disciplinary student teams collaborating as the norm, not the exception

In this model, disciplines do not disappear. They are applied.  Learning becomes less about navigating subjects in isolation, and more about understanding how knowledge connects in practice.

Looking forward

The question is no longer whether universities should collaborate more. It is whether collaboration with employers, industry, and communities can move from the margins into the mainstream of how learning is designed and delivered.

This is not about adding more. It is about connecting what already exists in more meaningful ways. Done well, this creates something powerful: graduates who not only understand their discipline, but can apply it confidently, collaboratively, and in context.

The conversation is already underway.  The opportunity now is to shape it with intent.

The Institute for Futures Development (IFD) was established to help connect universities, businesses, and communities through real-world challenges that turn learning into practice. If you would like to join our quest, or find out more, please contact us at community@ifd.global