Interdisciplinarity for the Best of Both Worlds: Social Work and Data Analytics

As a double major in Social Work and Data Analytics at the NUS College of Humanities and Sciences (CHS), Kiev Lye Ka Ee (Year 1) is convinced he is pursuing one of the most interesting and unconventional discipline combinations available.

The CHS curriculum has given Kiev the opportunity to explore two vastly different disciplines and helped him relate the two so that he can set to think towards developing innovative solutions to tackle real-world issues. “Taking two different disciplines actually helps” to enhance the skills and critical thinking abilities acquired in their study, he says.

Kiev  expects that as a future social worker, he will need to work with many clients and therefore manage large volumes of data, and as such, having the ability to work with and analyse “data from a social work lens and vice versa” will be a boost to his efficiency on the job.

“A better understanding of how different trends are arising in our society — that can definitely improve our practice,” says Kiev, adding, “Seeing as how a large sector of our society is moving towards a lot of data-driven practices, it would be good to equip myself with skills in data analytics to increase my career mobility in future.

Watch this video interview below to hear from Kiev himself about his interdisciplinary choice.