The Program Self-Study report was completed in June, 2015. For the programs under review it contained the 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. Two arm’s-length external reviewers (Douglas Evans, Trent University and Jean Koclas, École Polytechnique de Montréal) and an internal reviewer (Xiaohua Wu from RMC of Canada) were selected from a list of possible reviewers and approved by the Dean. They reviewed the self-study documentation and conducted a site visit to RMC on the 19th and 20th of November, 2015. The visit included interviews with the Dean of Graduate Studies and Research, Vice-Principal Academic, Dean of Science, Head of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Department, Chief Librarian, as well as several civilian and military members of the Chemistry and Chemical Department faculty, and several students in the programs. In addition, the ERC toured the Library, Slowpoke-2 Reactor, Environmental Sciences Group facilities, and various faculty and shared research laboratories. The ERC subsequently produced a report based on the Self-Study and site visit.
The ERC identified a number of strengths of the Graduate programs in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering including that the admission requirements are appropriate to the degrees being offered, the agreement between RMC and Queen’s University that allows RMC graduate students to take courses at Queen’s is positive to the learning experience of the RMC students, and availability of graduate supervision is good. The CEAB report and ERC also identified several areas of concern that influence the status and quality of the program including separate degree level expectations (DLEs) and learning objectives (LOs) were not clear for the various programmes or degree levels offered, Course requirements for the Master’s and Doctoral level programs offered by the Department of Chemistry and Chem Eng are quite high by comparison with other Ontario universities, and The assessment of students and the effectiveness of measuring learning outcomes for specific courses.
The ERC Report is largely positive. It confirms that the Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Department is delivering academically rigorous programs with an excellent spectrum of courses to its students, despite the resourcing challenges experienced by a small department attempting to run a multi-faceted graduate program. Overall, the Master’s and PhD programs are of very good quality and compare well with those of similar programs in Ontario, especially in smaller universities. The Dean of Graduate Studies, in consultation with the Dean of Science and the Head of the Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Department, is responsible for monitoring the Implementation Plan.