New in 2025

Dive into the future of learning at Waipapa Taumata Rau the University of Auckland. Transdisciplinary learning experiences are about gaining skills that employers are looking for, as well as offering you a global edge.

From 2026, the University will be making transdisciplinary learning a key part of all undergraduate degrees, so this is your opportunity, to get ahead of your peers.

Transdisciplinary learning involves bringing together students and staff from different academic disciplines and incorporates community perspectives to address complex societal challenges.

It will equip you with the skills, mindset, and awareness of knowledge systems needed to tackle real-world issues that require diverse expertise and perspectives.

Transdisciplinary learning experiences provide an exciting opportunity for you to make connections with students studying in different disciplines and to use all of your unique ways of viewing the world to think of local responses to societal challenges.

Six Transdisciplinary Futures courses will be available as part of the General Education schedule in 2025.

These courses are:

TDAIS 100: Artificial Intelligence and Society

Explores the impacts of Artificial Intelligence on society. Working in teams, students will investigate how Artificial Intelligence systems work and their impacts on the legal, social, ethical, and indigenous systems. Using the health sector as an example, students will use a transdisciplinary approach to propose solutions for developing Artificial Intelligence systems that are equitable for all groups in society. 

TDDEM 100: Democracy in the 21st Century

This course examines the challenges to democracy in New Zealand and globally arising from high inequality, the changing information environment, and authoritarian movements. Using a transdisciplinary approach to understand the interplay of economic, legal, technological, and cultural factors, the course explores innovative ideas for ensuring democratic integrity and building more inclusive, equitable, and participatory democracies.

TDENVF 100: Our Environmental Futures: Te Taiao Tāngata

This course explores the complex relationships between environmental systems and humans. Working in teams, students examine environmental, social, economic and cultural perspectives in the real-world contexts of waitā (sea), waitī (freshwater) and whenua (land). Students will respond to environmental issues by recognising ora (wellbeing) and Ki Uta ki Tai (the interconnectedness of ecosystems) and develop a transdisciplinary mindset to tackle current and future environmental challenges.

TDFOOD 100: The Future of Food 

Explores the global food system with a focus on sustainability, health, sovereignty, culture, science and technology, particularly within Aotearoa, New Zealand. Students will work in teams to analyse future trends and propose innovative solutions, using a transdisciplinary approach to envision and design sustainable food systems and practices that respect diverse cultural perspectives.

TDMIGR 100: Migration Futures 

Explores systems, patterns and experiences of international migration, globally and in Aotearoa New Zealand. Transdisciplinary and critical understandings of migration are developed to examine governance, economics and politics; health, well-being and identity; climate change; and social justice in diverse societies. Addresses the workings of migration policy, the experiences and stories of migrants and the cultural spaces of migrant communities. 

TDMOANA 100: Tagata Moana, Tangata Whenua: Hawaiki Futures 

Explores Māori and Pacific futurities, the futures that are designed and embodied in the present in response to over a century of colonialism and the ravages of global capitalism. Working together, students will engage with current circumstances and envision beyond them, focusing on sustainable communities and environments, physical and cultural well-being, and social justice and equity. 

More Transdisciplinary Futures courses will be on offer in 2026.