The significance of disciplinary differences

Although it is evident that disciplines have their distinctive cultural characteristics, this consideration tends to be largely overlooked in research into, as well as policy-making within, higher education. The paper aims to draw attention to some of the resulting inadequacies in analysis and to explore their consequences. After offering an overview of the various disciplinary cultures, it examines different facets of academic activity at the macro, meso and micro levels and suggests that in each case the differences between disciplines are important enough to merit general recognition. The author concludes with a brief speculation on why the issue is so widely neglected.