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 Computer Science offered by the Faculty of Science. 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 Program Review Process:
The Program Self-Study Reports were completed in August 2019. For the programs under review – the MSc, and PhD in Computer Science – it contained the degree level expectations, an analytical assessment, course outlines, program-related data, survey data from the Office of Quality Assurance and appendices with sample examinations and CVs of faculty members of these programs. Two arm’s-length external reviewers (Dr. Roger Villemaire, Département d'informatique, UQAM, and Dr. Will Traves, Department of Mathematics, United States Naval Academy) were selected from a list of possible reviewers and approved by the Deans of Science and Graduate Studies. An internal reviewer, Dr. Ryley Beddoe, Department of Civil Engineering, was also selected for participation on the ERC. They reviewed the self-study documentation and conducted a site visit to RMC on 12 and 13 December 2019. During the site visit, the ERC met with the Vice-Principal, Academic, Dr. Phil Bates, the Associate Vice-Principal, Research, Dr. Mike Hennessy, the Dean of Science, Dr. Gregg Wade, the Department Chair, Maj David Eisenhauer, Computer Science program coordinator, Dr. François Rivest, the Head Librarian, Ms. Sarah Toomey, as well as several members of department faculty. The ERC also had the opportunity to meet with several students currently enrolled in the programs. 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 March 2020. In their report, they found that the overall quality of the programs offered is comparable to programmes at other Canadian universities.
Significant Strengths and Areas of Concern of the Program:
The ERC identified a number of strengths of the graduate Programs in Computer Science:
- Committee members indicated they were extremely impressed by the dedication of all the faculty and staff (including military and civilian) to the unique mission of the RMC;
- RMC has close collaborative arrangements with Queen’s University, which allows RMC’s graduate students to take additional courses, provides opportunities to attend seminars, and gives access to research publications on site; and
- The computing faculty has an active research record and research funding, with expertise in machine learning and simulation.
The ERC identified a number of areas of concern for the Computer Science Programme, and suggestion for program enhancements:
- A number of faculty members expressed concerns about the current level of teaching and service loads relative to the staffing level. They also reported that hiring staff to teach courses was extremely laborious and time-consuming, in part because the process and requirements for hiring are not clear and change frequently
- It is important that the faculty are given enough time to pursue research activities in order to secure enough funding to support the greatest number of graduate students and that the Department should be more transparent in how it accounts for graduate teaching going forward;
- The number of faculty is not sufficient to sustain the PG program. It is not possible for such a reduced faculty to maintain teaching effort at the undergraduate and graduate levels; and
- Graduate students do not have sufficient access to on-line scientific publications.
The Program Chair, after consultation with faculty and staff in the programs, submitted a response to the Reviewers’ Report in June 2022. The Dean of Graduate Studies, in consultation with the Dean of Science, prepared this Final Assessment Report in August 2022. 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:
Recommendation 1
The Department needs to work with senior leadership at the RMC to develop a long-term HR plan to address the department’s anticipated needs and to smooth the hiring process.
Departmental Response:
The need to hire more regular faculty is by far the most pressing problem in the department. Anything that RMC can do to help smooth the hiring process (reducing the amount of paperwork done by the department to better focus on candidates and interviews) is more than welcome
Dean’s Response: Recent experience suggests that indeterminate hiring of UTs, from the perspective of the Dean’s office (which is intimately involved in all stages of the process), runs relatively smoothly. Permission to replace retiring faculty is provided in a timely fashion, the process for competitive hiring is clear and straightforward, and the development of Letters of Offer following candidate selection is efficient. It is however acknowledged that the staffing process within the Department of National Defence is more onerous than one might find at a civilian university. There is nothing that the institution can do to change the official processes.
On the general subject of workload, RMC is currently supporting a Joint Committee reviewing workload distribution across all Faculties of the College. The findings of the committee should inform and address concerns related to teaching and service loads.
Recommendation 2
The process of engaging sessionals needs to be streamlined in order to reduce the administrative burden on the Department. One way of doing this, as well as addressing the service task burden, would be to hire more terms as opposed to casuals or part-time exclusions.
Departmental Response:
Anything that can be done to reduce the onerous tasks of recruiting, hiring and mentoring of the department’s unusually large number of term professors and sessional instructors is welcome.
Dean’s Response: The Dean agrees that hiring of Term UTs/Sessional instructors can be fraught with frustrations, including very long lead times (incompatible with identification of suitable individuals to fill positions), burdensome paperwork, etc. Recent changes to the responsibilities of the Faculty of Science CR-04 Claim Clerk, adding assistance with departmental staffing administration and an increase in the number of people working in Faculty Services, should help to alleviate these pressures.
Recommendation 3
The department should be more transparent in how it accounts for graduate teaching going forward.
Departmental Response:
This is a very desirable goal. Moreover, graduate courses need constant updates and thus are demanding, in terms of preparation. It would require a clear enunciation from the college administration stating when the department could award credit for graduate teaching. Nevertheless, the department should still communicate to its members on how credits towards graduate courses are applied.
Dean’s Response: The UT Collective Agreement is clear that graduate teaching is teaching, and if it forms part of a UT’s assignment by the Department Head then it must be credited as teaching load. Nevertheless, the Department must find a path forward that allows it to develop and maintain the graduate programme while working within its means. For example, in other departments in the Faculty of Science, a graduate course taught by a UT to their own student is usually not considered part of their assignment.
Recommendation 4
The number of Faculty teaching graduate programmes in computer science needs to be increased.
Departmental Response:
As of June 2022, MCS has now hired two additional CS professors, bringing the total back to five. This has therefore been addressed.
Dean’s Response: The Dean concurs that additional hiring to buttress the CS program is a priority, and worked with the Dept Head to hire two new CS faculty in 2022. These recent hires go far in addressing this shortfall.
Additionally, assigning military faculty with a Computer Science background to the department would be of great benefit.
Recommendation 5
The department should find a way to simplify access for RMC students to Queen’s resources for on-line scientific publications.
Departmental Response:
The library committee is aware of this. Note that Queen’s library is open to the public (you may need a visitor card). A survey has been sent to MCS in 2020, and it seems that no major journal is missing from the RMC library (or through the EBSCO database), as claimed otherwise in the ERC report.
Dean’s Response: While access to electronic journals through RMC’s library continues to be an issue for some departments, the Department’s response reassures the Dean that access to appropriate electronic journals is not an issue for Computer Science. Clearly, relying on Queen’s University does not represent a viable long-term strategy.
Recommendation 6
The department should consider a different breakdown of teaching duties of military students at the start of their programme, to speed up their initial research progress.
Departmental Response:
Most of our military students are military faculty. The teaching load for military faculty is specified by the college as a whole. A change in this policy would need to be made at a university wide level.
Dean’s Response: Military graduate students studying full-time do not have teaching duties. As pointed out in the departmental response, military faculty often choose to pursue graduate programs part-time. Such studies are necessarily secondary to their duties as military faculty.
Implementation Plan
| Recommendation | Proposed Follow-up | Responsibility for Leading Follow-up | Timeline for Addressing Recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. The Department needs to work with senior leadership at the RMC to develop a long-term HR plan to address the department’s anticipated needs and to smooth the hiring process. | A 5-year Departmental Business Plan is being developed and discussed with leadership. | Dept Head | Dec 2022 |
| 2. The process of engaging sessionals needs to be streamlined in order to reduce the administrative burden on the Department. | Faculty claims clerk will be trained to assist with sessional and TA hiring administration. | Dean of Science | May 2023 |
| 3. The department should be more transparent in how it accounts for graduate teaching going forward. | Develop department policy on graduate teaching. | Dept Head | Dec 2022 |
| 4. The number of Faculty teaching graduate programs in computer science needs to be increased. | Recruit and hire additional CS UTs (achieved), develop a strategy for training/recruitment of CS milfacs. | Dept Head | May 2023 |
| 5. The department should find a way to simplify access for RMC students to Queen’s resources for on-line scientific publications. | As discussed, access to all required Computer Science library resources appears to be satisfied. | N/A | N/A |
| 6. The department should consider a different breakdown of teaching duties of military students at the start of their program, to speed up their initial research progress. | Full-time military graduate students do not have teaching duties. | N/A | N/A |
Conclusion:
The ERC Report provided positive feedback on the outcomes of the graduate programs in computer science. It confirmed that the Department is delivering an academically rigorous program to its students and that its standards meet those of similar programs in Ontario. However, the ERC did identify areas that had room for improvement, and RMC is, or has already taken, taking steps to address the issues raised.
The Dean of Graduate Studies, in consultation with the Dean of Science, is responsible for monitoring the Implementation Plan.