Roadmap of Humanities and Social Sciences in STEM Higher Education

The linkage of higher education, particularly the STEM subjects, with the industries to meet the market cycle of demand and supply consequently witnessed an apparent decline in the importance of liberal subjects. However, it would not be correct to say that the students trained in the alienation of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) subjects are of the desired quality due to a compromise in their personality development, sceptic nature, ethics, and soft skills, which are considered to be equally important to be deemed fit for a flourishing market and the society. The chapters in this volume have elaborated this argument from various vantage points, using theoretical and empirical evidence. This concluding chapter offers suggestions for mainstreaming HSS into STEM courses through the four-fold approach of Innovation, Diversification, Expansion and Assessment, conceptualised into an IDEA framework. The notion of the HSS department taking a tertiary place in a STEM higher education institution needs a serious overhaul through its expansion like other independent departments in the STEM field. Concurrently, there is a need to diversify the courses offered by the HSS department in STEM higher education institutions. Academic collaborations between the STEM and HSS faculty, including but not limited to providing interdisciplinary courses, could not only fill in the void between the departments but also be the way forward.