Adding humanities and social sciences to technical universities curriculum is a very complicated and urgent problem in Russia. We are still under the delusion that humanities and social sciences should be taught to liberal, language and fine arts students only. This is not true. Humanities and social sciences implemented properly into technical universities curriculum can teach many of the skills (i.e. critical thinking, creativity, self-assertion, etc.) required for success in a wide variety of careers.

Modern society needs a closer co-ordination between humanitarian and technical education to develop well-rounded individuals with general knowledge of a wide range of subjects and with mastery of a range of transferable skills. The role of an engineer in modern society is changing. Today engineers represent not only technical but also social and political progress. Engineering science and practice can actually transform development of society and, as a result, responsibilities of an engineer to the society are significantly increasing. Unfortunately, most technical universities do not manage to incorporate humanities and social sciences into their curriculum as the number of hours taught is limited.

One of the possible solution of the issue is to achieve a balance between STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) and HSS (Humanities and Social Sciences) using blended learning. Such a balance will help students to become ‘global citizens’, with the capacity to pursue lifelong learning and become valuable members of their communities.