The current world leads us to reflect on the need to develop new competencies and soft skills in our university students to find solutions to different problems. Universities have a great opportunity for interdisciplinary teaching and learning by having a great diversity of specialties within themselves. However, the application of interdisciplinary programs is still scarce. For this reason, from 2019 to 2022, the interdisciplinary methodology was applied by joining two courses of the Management and Industrial Design specialties of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. The students took on the challenge of designing a marketing plan proposal for real entrepreneurs in their community. Together they took on the following challenges: work as a team, discuss solutions for decision-making and apply effective communication among themselves. Likewise, for four months (the duration of each university cycle) undergraduate students investigated reality, proposed strategies and operations for the improvement of real companies in their locality, facing current problems of an economy in recession, social problems in a highly changing environment pre-pandemic, during the pandemic and post-pandemic COVID19.

The work methodology consisted of the teaching and learning of 80 students in each university cycle, managing to work with 160 students per year. This work was evaluated with qualitative research at the beginning, during, and at the end of each cycle, with the aim of knowing their expectations and learning results in the students. The object of study was the students of both specialties. The main objective was to know how they perceived the benefits of interdisciplinary learning. The qualitative research was carried out each academic period (cycle) in a sample of 20 students, selected by convenience, distributed equally between both specialties. Interview sessions were applied in the middle of the cycle, and at the end of the cycle. In the research carried out in the first cycle 2019-1, students perceived that the challenge and time to communicate was very high for the time they had in their workload as students, they found it frustrating. Conflicts were created when communicating, and it was difficult for them to reach consensus. In the 2019-1 cycle, the teaching and learning methodology improved and an integration activity and games were carried out between both specialties, achieving more empathy and collaborative work. The results of that cycle showed that students recognized to a greater degree the value of knowledge of the other specialty, in addition to bonds of friendship and collaborative work. In 2020, teaching was 100% virtual, so the communication challenge was greater, the stress of the pandemic caused collaborative work to shrink. Finally, in 2022, the return to face-to-face classes consolidated the interdisciplinary teaching and learning methodology. The results in 2022 are of a high assessment of benefits and identify that innovation is greater when working with different knowledge and personalities. They have also learned to complement their knowledge of strategic management with industrial design. Finally, the good results in motivation and student learning led me to win the award for Good Practices in University Teaching 2023 where it is recognized that Interdisciplinarity helped develop skills such as effective communication, active listening, collaborative work, ethics and citizenship.

Keywords: Innovation, Higher education, interdisciplinary.