Operationalising Multidisciplinary Research Methodologies in Higher Education Economics Curricula: A Critical Policy Analysis and Pedagogical Framework under NEP 2020

Abstract The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 mandates a structural departure from mono-disciplinary silos in Indian higher education, prioritising multidisciplinary inquiry, critical reasoning, and early research exposure. Undergraduate and postgraduate economics programs have historically prioritised deductive mathematical models while underemphasising empirical, contextual, and field-based inquiries. This paper undertakes an evidence-based critical analysis of integrating multidisciplinary research methodologies into tertiary economics pedagogy. Drawing upon official regulatory texts from the University Grants Commission (UGC), longitudinal macro-level educational data from the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE 2021–22), national labour statistics from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), and published institutional evaluation metrics, this study evaluates the structural feasibility and academic impacts of multidisciplinary research integration. The paper establishes that bridging core economic principles with geospatial tools, public health analytics, environmental assessment frameworks, and mixed-method field protocols directly mitigates the documented gap between abstract economic theory and practical policy literacy. Finally, the analysis details institutional impediments—specifically infrastructural deficits across rural-affiliated colleges and the critical shortage of research-oriented faculty development—and proposes an operational, semester-tiered pedagogical blueprint for university departments.