The IQAP program review process was conducted in concert with the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board’s. The Program Self-Study report, finalized in September 2018, consisted of the CEAB-mandated self-study components plus an IQAP supplement which addressed elements of the IQAP process not covered by the CEAB’s requirements. In combination this included the CEAB graduate attributes and IQAP degree-level expectations for these programs, an analytical assessment of the programs, course outlines, program-related data, survey data from the Office of Quality Assurance and appendices with sample examinations and CVs of faculty members. The CEAB Program Visitor, selected by CEAB and approved by the Dean of Engineering (Dr. Dean McNeill, PEng) acted in the role of external reviewer. He was aided in this by the other members of the CEAB visit team who looked at issues of interest across all of RMC’s undergraduate Engineering programs and whose observations formed part of the CEAB visit report on the program. The internal reviewer (Dr Imed Zaguia) was selected by the Dean from a list of possible reviewers. The internal reviewer and CEAB team reviewed the self-study documentation and conducted a site visit to RMC on 4–6 November 2018. In the remainder of this document, the CEAB visit team and the internal reviewer are collectively referred to as the External Review Committee (ERC).
The CEAB report and ERC identified a number of strengths of the Bachelor of Computer Engineering program including excellent collegiality of the faculty members, good laboratory resources, highly regarded technical staff, and a beneficial capstone design course. The CEAB report and ERC also identified several areas of concern that influence the status and quality of the program including effort needs to be made to reduce the number of students admitted who have a low probability of success, a change in [the introductory computing course] from Matlab to Python, and improvement in student attitude regarding Arts courses.
The External Review Committee, consisting of the CEAB visit team and the internal reviewer, provided a thorough and fair review of the Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Engineering program. Activities are underway to address the ERC report’s recommendations. CEAB-specific recommendations are also being addressed in the context of ongoing CEAB accreditation activities.