University of Kentucky implements Transdisciplinary Educational Approaches to Advance Kentucky to focus on student success

The University of Kentucky has implemented a new initiative to put its students first. The Transdisciplinary Educational Approaches to Advance Kentucky, or TEK will build upon the school’s efforts to further the advancement of Kentucky’s workforce.

The efforts of TEK are collaborative and include community members, alumni, faculty, staff, and students to support the success of the University of Kentucky’s students. TEK will serve as the school’s Quality Enhancement Plan, or QEP, which is part of the school’s reaffirmation of accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, which is the organization that accredits the University of Kentucky as a higher education institution.

The University of Kentucky being accredited as a place of learning means that the school is meeting the needed standards of excellence for administrative processes, ethical practices, and academic rigor set forth by the SACSCOC. In order for the University of Kentucky to receive federal funds such as financial assistance in support of sponsored research projects and other scholarly activities, it must be accredited. It also must be accredited to receive financial aid funding for students and their families. The university has to reaffirm its accreditation every ten years.

Recently, a committee of reviewers from the SACSCOC visited the University of Kentucky’s campus to investigate whether the school still meets the standards of the higher education community, as well as to evaluate the school’s QEP. The QEP team at the university talked about how TEK demonstrates the school’s commitment to its students.

The University’s Provost Robert S. DiPaola was quoted ahead of the visit in an article by the University of Kentucky News about the school’s commitment to its students, saying, “At the University of Kentucky, we are focused on addressing society’s most complex problems through research, education, service and care. Often, the most profound solutions are found at the intersection of disciplines, when talented individuals collaborate through a transdisciplinary approach. This idea is at the heart of our QEP. We aim to bring experts together, collaboratively, to help our students today and Kentucky’s workforce tomorrow.” 

The inspiration behind TEK came from the notion that researchers tend to work between and collaboratively with different fields and disciplines when looking to solve large problems. Such multidisciplinary approaches cause people to come together as a result of a lot of preplanning. However, a transdisciplinary approach to research tends to work even better. 

Transdisciplinary approaches to research means that researchers from multiple disciplines come together early in the process by identifying the key questions being addressed and finding new approaches that address the questions. Therefore, people of different experiences, knowledge bases, and backgrounds, can bring their own unique and informed perspective to these problems. The transdisciplinary approach allows for more collaborative experiences, and embraces a range of expertise across the campus, including students as well as faculty and staff. It also includes experts such as community members and alumni in every phase of the process.

The university is applying this transdisciplinary approach to focus on student learning, linking to the community, and leveraging campus expertise. TEK will allow students to work with experts from several different disciplines throughout the institution, and the community as a whole, to work on finding solutions to some of Kentucky’s biggest problems while simultaneously gaining skills necessary for finding employment after graduation. 

During the 2021-2022 academic year, a leadership team from the university conducted a listening tour across the campus in search of potential ideas for a QEP. The team sourced over 200 ideas, and then analyzed how those ideas fit in with the school’s strategic plan. The team presented five potential topics to President Eli Capilouto. The president then shared those ideas with the campus community and asked for input via meetings, and a community survey. Based on all of the information gathered, TEK was selected as the best way to move forward toward the school’s efforts to make students as successful as possible. 

DiPaola spoke on the plans moving forward, saying, “When we help students learn and think about the world in transdisciplinary ways, we prepare them for lives of meaning and purpose — the idea at the center of everything we do at UK.”

More information about TEK can be found on the school's website, as well as more information about the University of Kentucky in general.