In accordance with the Royal Military College (RMC) Institutional Quality Assurance Process (IQAP), the Program Self-Study Report was written in September 2023.Two arm's-length external reviewers (Dr. S. Andrew Gadsden, Ph.D., McMaster University and Dr. Afzal Suleman, Ph.D., University of Victoria) were selected from a list of possible reviewers and approved by the Deans of Graduate Studies. An internal reviewer, Dr. Geoffrey Pond from the Faculty of Humanities Social Science Department of Management, was also selected for participation in the ERC. They reviewed the self-study documentation and conducted an on-site visit to RMC from November 27 to 28, 2023. The reviewers submitted their final report on January 8, 2024.
In their report, the ERC stated that the graduate programs in Mechanical Engineering at RMC are strong overall in terms of the breadth and depth of courses offered. The ERC identified a number of strengths of the programs under review including the quality of faculty members, the availability of excellent experimental and computational infrastructure, and the proximity/alignment of the teaching and research programs with Queen’s University. The ERC also identified several areas of concern such as: the Department should develop a strategy to recruit national and international graduate students and make the process seamless and efficient; the long processing time to recruit international students presents a disadvantage to RMC compared to other universities in Ontario and Canada more broadly; the Department should develop a co-op program in collaboration with other Universities, and DND may increase interest in the undergraduate students at RMC; and the Department should develop dual degree programs with other NATO and partners-for-peace military academies in the USA and Europe to create a more dynamic and international campus environment.
After consulting with program faculty and staff, the program chair submitted their responses to the ERC Report in February 2024. The Dean of Graduate Studies prepared this Final Assessment Report in March 2024. Specific recommendations are discussed and follow-up actions with timelines are provided. The report concludes that RMC is delivering programs in mechancial engineering consistent with other comparable institutions in Ontario and that RMC will continue to work toward program enhancement and improve student success in the graduate programs in Mechanical Engineering.