Definition of Academic Discipline

“An academic discipline is a field or branch of learning affiliated with an academic department within a university, formulated for the advancement of research and scholarship and the professional training of researchers, academics, and specialists.”

-         Zongyi Deng

“An academic Discipline or field of study is a branch of knowledge that is taught and researched as a part of higher education.”

-         Anthony Biglan

                                                                     

Meaning and concept of Academic Discipline

            The term academic discipline originates from the Latin words ‘discipulus’ which means ‘pupil’ and ‘disciplina’ which means ‘teaching’. Related to it, there is also the word ‘disciple’ as it is in the ‘disciple of Lord Budha’. The lexicon will give a whole range of quite different meaning of the term; from training to submission to an authority or to the control and self- control of behavior. The term discipline as a verb means training someone to follow a rigorous set of instructions and also imposing and enforcing obedience.

The term academic (scientific) discipline can be defined as the academic studies that focus on a self-imposed limited field of knowledge. It is the subject that one teaches and researches as part of higher education is the academic discipline of that person

It can also be defined as form of specific and rigorous scientific training that will turn out practitioners who have been disciplined by their discipline (subject) for their own good.

An academic discipline or academic field is a branch of knowledge. It incorporates expertise, people, projects, communities, challenges, studies, inquiry, and research areas that are strongly associated with a given scholastic subject area or college department. For example, the branches of science are commonly referred to as the scientific disciplines, eg. Physics, mathematics, and biology.

            Individuals associated with academic discipline are commonly referred to as or specialists. Others, who may have studied liberal arts or systems theory rather than concentrating in  specific academic discipline, are classified as generalist.