Interdisciplinarity and generic doctoral pedagogy: Are they the same thing?

This paper offers a conceptual review of interdisciplinarity as it pertains to postgraduate research. Definitions of interdisciplinarity abound. Confusion often endures, as various accounts for what is and what is not interdisciplinary research seem to overlap, and defy a consistent set of parameters. Rather than seek a consensus among these and revisit its potential implications for postgraduate research, this paper considers the proposition that for practical purposes these might converge on a relatively stable set of parameters, and that these align well with what has been described as ​‘generic doctoral pedagogy’. This term first appeared in the 2014 book edited by Carter and Laurs, which investigated the relationship between the generic and the discipline-specific through the lens of postgraduate research program support initiatives. This paper revisits these questions from a program administration perspective in light of contemporary global developments in doctoral education.