General
In accordance with the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) Institutional Quality Assurance Process (IQAP), this Final Assessment Report (FAR) provides a synthesis of the external evaluation and internal response and assessments of the graduate programmes in Civil Engineering offered by the Faculty of Engineering. This report identifies the significant strengths of the programmes, together with opportunities for improvement and enhancement, and sets out and prioritizes the recommendations that have been selected for implementation.
This report includes an Implementation Plan that identifies who will be responsible for approving the recommendations set out in the Final Assessment Report; who will be responsible for providing any resources entailed by those recommendations; any changes in organization, policy or governance that will be necessary to meet the recommendations and who will be responsible for acting on those recommendations; and timelines for acting on and monitoring the implementation of those recommendations.
Overview of the Programme Review Process
The Programme Self-Study Report was completed in 2015. For the programmes under review - the MEng, MASc, and PhD in Civil Engineering - it contained the degree level expectations for these programmes, an analytical assessment of the programmes, course outlines, programme-related data, survey data from the Office of Quality Assurance and appendices with sample examinations and CVs of faculty members.
Two arm’s-length external reviewers (Dr. Paul Van Geel, Carleton University and Dr. Sai Vanapalli, Ottawa University) were selected from a list of possible reviewers and approved by the Deans of Engineering and Graduate Studies. An internal reviewer, Dr. David Varey of RMC’s Department of History, was also selected for participation on the ERC. They reviewed the self-study documentation and conducted a site visit to RMC on 10 and 11 March, 2016. During the site visit, the ERC met with the Vice-Principal, Academic, Dr. Phil Bates, the Vice-Principal, Research, Dr. Pat Heffernan, the Acting Dean of Engineering, Dr. Billy Allan, the Head of Civil Engineering, Dr. Michel Tétreault, the Head Librarian, Ms. Sarah Toomey, as well as several members of the Civil Engineering faculty. The ERC also had the opportunity to meet with several students currently enrolled in the programmes. The ERC subsequently produced a Report based on the Self-Study and site visit. The report was circulated to department members and discussed at a departmental meeting.
The reviewers submitted their report in April, 2016. In their report, they found that the Civil Engineering Programme requirements were clear, and that the outcomes were clearly identified. The ERC identified strengths in the connection with Queen’s university as well as an advantageous position with respect to space, human resources, as well as research equipment and facilities. Despite having to absorb the impacts of work force adjustment and budgetary contraction (as did most other Programmes at RMC), programmes were assessed as being well-positioned to grow and strengthen with the anticipation of faculty and technician hires.
Issues with online journal access as well as times to completion were noted by some students and relayed by the ERC as ongoing concerns.
Significant Strengths and Areas of Concern of the Programme:
The ERC identified a number of strengths of the Civil Engineering Programmes:
- The Civil Engineering Department maintains a close connection with Queen’s University’s Civil Engineering Department, taking advantage of the RMC/Queen’s Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), as well as forging joint programming and research opportunities through the Geo-Engineering Research Centre.
- Admission requirements are consistent with graduate programmes at other Ontario universities, and the academic expectations of students enrolled in the programmes are reasonable and well established. This is a partial reflection of recent changes implemented by Civil Engineering faculty and leadership.
- The department was also noted as having an advantageous position with respect to space, human resources, research equipment and facilities to serve their graduate students.
The ERC identified a number of areas of concern for the Civil Engineering Programmes:
- Some faculty members felt that procurement, contracting and travel approval process can be cumbersome at times, and can detract from research productivity and student progress;
- Library resources, especially access to key online journals, are inadequate;
- If research outputs are to be comparable to other Canadian Universities, RMC needs to invest in financial support to research scholarship funding and greater start-up funding for new faculty;
- Unfilled technician positions are critical and should be filled; and,
- The department needs to more effectively utilize space through better planning and reducing the amount of storage.
The Programme Chair, after consultation with faculty and staff in the programmes, submitted a response to the Reviewers’ Report in November, 2016. The Dean of Graduate Studies, in consultation with the Dean of Engineering, prepared this Final Assessment Report in October, 2017. Specific recommendations are discussed, and follow-up actions and timelines provided.
Summary of the Reviewers’ Recommendations with Dean’s Responses
The ERC identified a number of areas of concern or issues that require attention. These issues are discussed in the order that they appear in the ERC Report:
- Strategic Plan. Timing is excellent for the Department to create a vision and strategic plan going forward. The plan should address the desired course offerings and the target enrollments needed to sustain those offerings. The Department should identify key strategic research areas on which to focus, build and demonstrate capacity to do excellent research.
Agreed. The Programmes require a strategic plan/vision for the department that stitches together both undergraduate and graduate teaching as well as research focus and ties in with the strategic plan for RMC. The Department should look to its stakeholders and review its programmes for relevance and alignment. The plan should address the on-going requirement to deliver rejuvenated programmes when required. The Department will be tasked to produce such a plan by the Faculty of Engineering, supported by the DGS.
- Time–to-Completion. The Department, in conjunction with Graduate Studies, should develop, implement and enforce processes to encourage continual progress towards specified programme milestones, including progress reports and enforcing existing rules within the calendar.
Agreed. Graduate Studies implemented a school-wide program of student monitoring and feedback in the fall of 2017. This program addresses the challenges raised above. Departments will need to monitor progress to ensure students who are at risk of delayed completion are supported to complete their programme on time wherever possible. Progress reports will be reviewed by the DGSR.
- Workload Balance. In developing a strategic plan, some discussion should be focussed on workload balance to allow some flexibility for faculty to excel in their area of preference in contributing to the overall vision of the Department. Faculty members who do not participate in some minimum level of research activity should accept additional teaching and/or administrative load.
Workload balancing between the assignment of UG and GS courses to faculty members is currently possible within resources at the discretion of the Department Head. Workload balancing between the obligations of research, teaching, and service is an expectation of the Department Head, in conjunction with the Faculty Dean, and in accordance with the collective agreement and best practices for HR development.
- Resources are Critical. It is critical to fill the two faculty positions currently advertised in the Department and to provide proper mentorship to these new hires in light of the slightly different funding opportunities at RMC. It is critical to fill both the Geotechnical and Instrumentation technician positions in support of teaching and research.
Both faculty positions have been filled on an indeterminate basis (effective Academic year 2016/17) and mentorship and support efforts are underway to assist them in their transition to a productive research programme. The geotechnical technician position has been filled on an indeterminate basis (also effective Academic year 2016/17). There remain HR challenges in filling the Instrumentation Technician position. It is recognized that this position is important to the effective operations within the Department.
- Streamlining Processes. It is clear that every effort should be made to streamline procurement, contracting and travel approval processes. Far too many levels of approval are required to process relatively small claims.
Approval processes are held to the highest level under Treasury Board (TB) and Department of National Defence (DND) policies which can result in long lead times and uninformed oversight to approvals. To address this challenge, RMC worked with DND to change the policy on conference travel, the result being that conference approval is no longer required, just the travel approval is needed, significantly reducing the time and effort associated with attending a conference. For procurement and contracting, researchers need to plan purchases with reasonable lead times to ensure their programmes are not affected. This challenge is well understood by the university.
- IQAP Process. A greater level of commitment and review is needed to support the IQAP process at all levels.
Concur.
- Library resources are inadequate.
RMC has requested increased funding from higher levels in DND for several years. Last year, the Library received $300K of additional funding, which went towards electronic journal archives from the publishers Sage (17 new titles) and Taylor & Francis (43 titles). The library is currently working to identify gaps in coverage beyond the normal Library budget, and will request additional funding as necessary. The College has been very supportive with funds for the Library generally. More ebooks and other electronic content are in the future as well, including e-audiobooks and ebooks for students who may have visual or learning disabilities.
Implementation Plan
| Recommendation | Proposed Follow-Up | Responsibility for Leading Follow-Up | Timeline for Addresing Recemmendation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Strategic Plan | Write a strategic plan for the Department including all programmes. | Department Head | First draft to be provided by 1 September 2018. |
| 2. Time to completion | Implement a robust student progress reporting process across the Graduate School. | DGS | Completed. Will required ongoing monitoring and adjustment. |
| 3. Workload balance | Ongoing implementation of existing authorities in accordance with best practice. | Department Head, Dean of Engineering | Ongoing |
| 4. Resources are critical |
a. Fill two of three faculty positions (AY 2016/17) b. Hire Geotechnical Technician position. c. Follow-on HR effort to hire an Instrumentation Technician. |
Department Head, Dean of Engineering and VPA. |
a. Hire two UTs by Spring 2017 (Completed). b. Hire Geotechnical Technician by spring 2017 (Completed). c. Spring 2019 |
| 5. Streamling processes | Efforts are underway to shorten the approvals process at the top end through greater delegations. | Principal | Ongoing. Approvals and administration required for conference travel were greatly simplified in February 2018. |
| 6. IQAP Process | Terms of Reference for the Department’s GS Representative will be modified to given enhance duties for tracking student progress as well as implementation of the full range of IQAP oriented duties. | Department Head | To be completed prior to start of Academic 2018/19 academic year. |
| 7. Inadqequate library resources | Funding for additional electronic journals has already resulted in 60 new titles. Other titles are being identified. | VPA and Chief Librarian | Ongoing. |
Conclusion
The ERC Report provides positive feedback on the outcomes of the various graduate programmes in Civil Engineering. It confirms that Civil Engineering is delivering an academically rigorous program to its students and that its standards meet those of similar programmes in Ontario. However, the ERC also identified some areas requiring improvement, and some dangers to the future health of the programmes. RMC is already taking steps to address the issues raised, such as filling vacant faculty positions, the monitoring of student progress, and the development of a Departmental Strategic Plan. RMC will continue to work toward more streamlined administrative approval processes for the programmes.
The Dean of Graduate Studies, in consultation with Dean of Engineering and the Head of the Department of Civil Engineering, is responsible for monitoring the Implementation Plan. The other recommendations have either already been considered or implemented.