abstract
- Interdisciplinary collaboration is an essential part of higher education and the development of professional and transversal competencies of individuals. The new technological trends associated with hyperconnectivity and collaborative learning demand more efficient strategies as a solution for a more comprehensive education. This study analyzes the perception of a group of students exposed to interdisciplinary collaboration with training partners, who provide challenges to be solved by teams where students from different disciplines and managers from different areas of the company collaborate. This research involves a mixed methodology, applied to a sample of 36 university students from three different careers. The analysis focused on three main components: the response to the applied instrument, the observations of the academic tutor, and the observations by the training partner. The results of the study reveal that (a) most students value the need for interdisciplinary participation and its characteristics, (b) the academic tutor highlights the benefits of student work in solving challenges with the training partner and the interaction between peers and business areas, and (c) the training partner observes the evolution of the student as they become more involved in the objectives of the challenge in an interdisciplinary manner, considering the collaboration of all those involved regardless of their professional profile. This study is intended to be useful for academic communities in linking with training partners by encouraging interdisciplinary competencies for the professional development of students. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.