Implementation of a multi-disciplinary ethics unit Lynette B. Fernandes 1 & Nin Kirkham 2 & Anna-Marie Babey 3 & Dominique Blache 4 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 Abstract The multi-disciplinary unit Social Responsibility in Action (SRA) was developed for students with an interest in ethics who were completing undergraduate degrees in Arts, Commerce, Design or Science at an Australian research-intensive university. The academic objectives of this unit were to increase student awareness, knowledge, understanding and critical thinking skills related to various ethical issues. Lecturers from five disciplines (philosophy; animal biology; anatomy, physiology and human biology; law; pharmacology) collaborated in the design and delivery of SRA, which comprised lectures, tutorials and a research-based project. Anonymous surveys were administered at the start and end of the semester to obtain feedback on student expectations and learning experience, respectively. Data across three student cohorts showed that at the start of semester, 80% of student comments indicated a desire to expand their interest of ethical matters, 59% a desire to gain understanding and knowledge and 59% to gain critical thinking or communication skills. SRA was extremely well received by students, with 98% of respondents indicating that this multi-disciplinary ethics unit had met their expectations. Students also found that the variety of teaching styles, unit content and multi-disciplinary approach stimulated learning. Keywords Undergraduate ethics unit . Philosophy . Animal ethics . Law . Human ethics . Pharmacology Introduction Tertiary institutions worldwide offer dedicated undergraduate units in applied ethics, which are usually tailored to specific cohorts such as science (Ten Have and Gordijn 2014; Nijhof et al. 2016; Cooper 2017), business (Hatton 1996; McDonald 2004; International Journal of Ethics Education https://doi.org/10.1007/s40889-019-00073-z * Lynette B. Fernandes Lynette.Fernandes@uwa.edu.au Extended author information available on the last page of the article