In accordance with the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) Institutional Quality Assurance Process (IQAP), the Program Chair and review group submitted the Program Self-Study report in August 2019. For the programmes 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 ERC identified several strengths of the graduate Programs in Computer Science, including that 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, close collaborative arrangements with Queen’s University, and the computing faculty has an active research record and research funding, with expertise in machine learning and simulation. Four main concerns were also raised by the ERC: the current level of teaching and service loads relative to the staffing level, that 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, and that 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 ERC Report in June 2022. The Dean of Graduate Studies, in consultation with the Dean of Science, prepared a Final Assessment Report (FAR) in August 2022. The FAR confirmed that the Department is delivering an academically rigorous program to its students and that its standards meet those of similar programs in Ontario, but that the ERC did identify areas that had room for improvement, and RMC is, or has already taken, taking steps to address the issues raised.