In accordance with the Royal Military College (RMC) Institutional Quality Assurance Process (IQAP), the Program Self-Study Report was written in August 2023.Two arm's-length external reviewers (Dr. Medhat Shehata, PhD, Department of Civil Engineering, Toronto Metropolitan University and Dr. Onita Basu, PhD, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Carleton University) were selected from a list of possible reviewers and approved by the Deans of Graduate Studies. An internal reviewer, Dr. Billy Allan from the Faculty of Engineering Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, was also selected for participation in the ERC. They reviewed the self-study documentation and conducted an on-site visit to RMC from 12 to 13 December 2023. The reviewers submitted their final report on 8 January 2024.
In their report, the ERC stated that the Graduate Program provides excellent education and training for Civil Engineering Graduate Students. The ERC identified several strengths of the graduate programs in Civil Engineering including small class sizes, good ratio of faculty to students, available research space, and interconnectivity with Queen’s University. The ERC also identified several areas of concern such as: graduate students indicated a desire to know each other better in less formal ways; consider a first-term core course for all students to take which meets the needs of 1 Engineering Support Unit (ESU) while also creating a cohort impact for connectivity of grad students with a multi-faculty approach for teaching to connect graduate students to faculty members; and consider discussing with 1 ESU about recommendations for courses for Military Faculty to teach, with a focus on research projects of primary interest for graduate students.
The Program Chair consulted with the program's faculty and staff and submitted a response to the ERC Report on 16 May 2024. The Dean of Graduate Studies prepared a Final Assessment Report on 24 August 2024. Specific recommendations are discussed and follow-up actions with timelines are provided. The report concludes that RMC is delivering graduate programs in Civil Engineering that are consistent with other comparable institutions in Ontario and that RMC will continue to work toward program enhancement and improve student success in the graduate programs in Civil Engineering.