Dean Commentary: Crossing The Disciplinary Divide

Ash Soni, dean of the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University: “Today’s students want an education that is flexible, adaptable to their interests and needs, and prepares them for various career paths and a changing job market”

When we talk about what makes a university great, we often think about individual strengths: top-ranked programs, award-winning faculty, and specialized departments. While it’s natural to take pride in these distinctions, leaning in to them too hard can create a competitive mindset rather than a collaborative one. At Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, we’ve noticed how this reality limits what we’re able to offer our students and are actively working to change it. We know that what sets us apart isn’t just what happens within our own walls — it’s what we can accomplish when we step outside of them.

Take our recent partnership with the Jacobs School of Music. Together, we’re launching a new Bachelor of Science in Music Business, a unique offering that blends Kelley’s business acumen with Jacobs’ internationally-renowned music expertise. The program is more than just an innovative new degree; it’s a testament to the power of collaboration across disciplines that don’t typically cross paths. By joining forces, we’re giving students access to a broader skill set and opening up new opportunities that wouldn’t have existed if our two schools had continued to function in isolation.

This partnership highlights a critical reality about higher ed: when detached academic units operate independently, innovation becomes the exception rather than the norm. Program leaders tend to stay “in their lanes,” focused solely on their own departments—managing their resources, protecting their budgets—while opportunities for broader impact slip by. At a time when higher education is under immense pressure to do more with less, we’re losing out on the creativity and efficiency that comes with collaboration.

Even worse, we’re failing our students. When departments don’t connect, neither do the skills we’re teaching. In a world where interdisciplinary problem-solving is crucial, we’re sending graduates into the workforce unprepared for the collaborative and cross-functional roles that employers are demanding. If we want our degrees to hold value and relevance, we need to embrace a new model that reflects the realities of today’s working world.

For those of us who have spent years in higher education, the idea of breaking down silos can feel overwhelming. This challenge isn’t new; it has accompanied me throughout my four decades in the academy. But at the graduate level, we’ve proven that it’s possible to create effective interdisciplinary partnerships that yield real value for students. From our joint MBA/JD program with IU’s Maurer School of Law and our Master of Science in Healthcare Management with the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs to ourMD/MBA and DDS/MBA programs with our schools of medicine and dentistry in Indianapolis, we’ve developed a roadmap for bridging academic divides. Our nationally ranked Master of Science in Cybersecurity Risk Management — a three-way collaboration with Maurer and the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering — is another example. By drawing on the expertise of each school, we are able to offer a unique program that combines the technical, legal, and business aspects of cybersecurity risk management to address the national and state-level workforce gap in skilled cybersecurity professionals.

Up until now, our undergraduate programs hadn’t benefited from this same collaborative approach. That began to shift after an unassuming change to our leadership meeting schedule. We transitioned from monthly deans’ meetings with the provost to weekly gatherings. In doing so, we strengthened relationships, built trust, and gained valuable insights into the various programs across our institution that are helping us move forward together. As our connections deepened, we began sharing the challenges we faced, realizing how much we could offer each other in terms of solutions.

The Music Business program with Jacobs was born from these discussions and the opportunities we identified during our deans’ meetings. We recognized that as the commercial music industry continues to expand, there is a growing opportunity for students who are passionate about music but may not aspire to be performers. While similar programs exist at other universities, they often reside solely within the music school, offering limited business courses, if any, taught by faculty from the business school. Through our discussions, it became clear that by combining the strengths and national reputations of both Jacobs and Kelley, we could create a unique program that integrated high-quality instruction from both colleges.

The introduction of Music Business has opened doors for further undergraduate collaborations that can enhance our academic offerings. Such programs can stretch limited resources as well, helping with budget concerns on many campuses. Partnerships between academic units allow institutions to do more with less, efficiently using both financial and intellectual resources.

More importantly, joint programs address diverse student needs. Today’s students want an education that is flexible, adaptable to their interests and needs, and prepares them for various career paths and a changing job market. Collaborations like the one between Kelley and Jacobs, and those at the graduate level, meet those demands.

The future of higher education lies in greater collaboration across departments and schools within institutions. As the industry faces increasing pressure to innovate, to meet diverse student, market, and societal needs, and to work with ever-shrinking budgets, institutions must look beyond traditional academic silos. Unique partnerships will help colleges and universities stay relevant and nimble as workplace demands shift and student interests change—and institutions that embrace these collaborations will be stronger for it.

Ash Soni is dean of Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.