Designing an Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Knowledge Management

Designing an interdisciplinary graduate program in knowledge management requires a good understanding of knowledge processes and the ability to differentiate between information management and knowledge management. Given the complexity of knowledge and the nature of its existence, there is a need for graduate programs to go beyond information management and include in the curriculum disciplines that deal with social, cultural, and economic issues such as communication, cognitive science, and business.An understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of knowledge management is necessary for a more balanced and practical approach to the development of a knowledge management curriculum. In this article, the design and development of an interdisciplinary graduate program in knowledge management at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore is reported. The initiation of the program was influenced by the strong demand from the public sector in Singapore for knowledge management professionals. It was developed in close association with the information studies program at Nanyang Technological University. In the first year, the program attracted 230 applicants, of which 45 were selected—22 students came from the public sector and 23 students came from the private sector