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 programs under review – MSc, and PhD in Mathematics – 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 for these programs. Two arm’s-length external reviewers (Dr. Franco Saliola, Département de mathématiques, 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. James McKay, Department of Political Science, 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, Mathematics program coordinators: Dr. Alain Gosselin and Dr. Charles Paquette, 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 Department of Management, including the dedication of all the faculty and staff (including military and civilian) to the unique mission of the RMC, the limited number of graduate courses available at RMC, due to the small size of the graduate program, is offset by the ability of RMC students to enroll in suitable graduate courses at Queen’s University, and attrition rates in both programs are comparable to national averages. Three main concerns were also raised by the ERC: the current level of teaching and service loads relative to the staffing level, neither program has a set structure aside from requiring a reasonable number of graduate courses, and Library holdings are not sufficient for graduate students.
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. In the FAR, it was concluded that the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science 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.