In the year 2000 a new interdisciplinary M.Sc. Engineering Programme started at Uppsala University, Sweden. The programme, named Systems in Technology and Society, combines science and technology with studies in humanities and social science. Of the 4.5 year long programme (all MSc Engineering education in Sweden are 4.5 years), one third (a total of 1.5 year, spread over the first 4 years) of the curricula consists of courses in humanities and social science. The courses are based in different disciplines such as economic history, social and economic geography, business studies, political science, philosophy, history and history of ideas and science. The courses are integrated with each other, in order to stimulate a deeper knowledge within the interdisciplinary academic field of Science and Technology Studies (STS).
The students of this new programme are more active in discussing the relevance of different content, in order to understand why they should study this. We see this as a result of the training in critical analysis and reflection that they obtain in the courses within humanities and social science.