ABOUT THIS UNIT OUTLINE This unit outline introduces you to the components of Developing Research and Analytical Skills unit of Open Universities Australia. It details what you can expect of the unit and what the University, the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science and your tutors will expect of you when you submit work for assessment. The unit outline also provides you with an introduction to Griffith University and the type of intellectual work it seeks to promote. ABOUT GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY Griffith University was established in the early 1970s with a distinctive philosophy. It is organised along different lines from traditional subject-oriented universities, with a view to providing an education which is more directly relevant to contemporary social conditions, and therefore more useful to students both for their personal understanding of their social and physical environments and for their future career prospects. This is known as an interdisciplinary approach to education. Traditional universities are often organised into departments, each of which teaches one subject or ‘discipline’. Study at Griffith University, on the other hand, is organised around contemporary ‘problem areas’, which require for their understanding and resolution the collaborative contributions of people working across different disciplines and different mixes of knowledges and skills. At Griffith, consequently, there are no departments organised around traditional ‘subjects’. Instead, groups of staff with different intellectual and disciplinary backgrounds design and teach broad- ranging interdisciplinary programs designed to provide students with appropriate knowledges and skills. This ‘Griffith Philosophy’ informs this Open Universities Australia unit. In some ways, this sort of work is more intellectually demanding than traditional ‘subjects’, each of which occupies itself with carefully compartmentalised and limited fields of enquiry (French literature, British history, economics). The interdisciplinary approach is more intellectually exciting, and more closely corresponds to the real conditions outside the University to which these fields of enquiry relate. If you are interested in discovering more about Griffith University and the range of programs it offers in its six campuses and colleges, then search: https://www.griffith.edu.au/study