Introduction
In accordance with the Royal Military College (RMC) Institutional Quality Assurance Plan (IQAP), this Final Assessment Report (FAR) provides a synthesis of the 2015 external evaluation and internal response and assessments of the Bachelor of Arts (English) programmes offered by the Department of English. This report identifies the significant strengths of the programmes, together with opportunities for programme improvement and enhancement, and sets out and prioritizes the recommendations that have been selected for implementation.
This report includes an Implementation Plan that identifies who will be responsible for approving the recommendations set out in the Final Assessment Report; who will be responsible for providing any resources entailed by those recommendations; any changes in organization, policy or governance that will be necessary to meet the recommendations and who will be responsible for acting on those recommendations; and, timelines for acting on and monitoring the implementation of those recommendations.
Overview of Programme Review Process
The Programme Self-Study report was completed in August 2015. For the programmes under review - the BA Honours, the major, and the minor in English - it contained the Degree Level Expectations (DLE) for these programmes, an analytical assessment of the programmes, course outlines, programme-related data, survey data from the Office of Quality Assurance and appendices with sample examinations and CVs of faculty members.
One arm’s-length external reviewer (Dr. Margaret Steffler, Trent University) and an internal reviewer (Dr. Gordon Wight, RMC of Canada) were selected from a list of possible reviewers and approved by the Dean of Social Sciences and Humanities. They reviewed the self-study documentation and conducted a site visit to RMC on 29 and 30 October 2015. The visit included interviews with the Dean of Social Sciences and Humanities (Interim), Vice-Principal Academic, Head of English, Chief Librarian, as well as several civilian and military members of the English faculty, and several students in the programmes. The External Review Committee (ERC) subsequently produced a report based on the Self-Study and site visit. The report was circulated to department members and discussed with members of the English faculty.
The reviewers submitted their report in 25 January 2016, in which they describe how English programmes meet the IQAP evaluation criteria and the norms of English departments elsewhere in Canada.
The Departmental report and the ERC report together provide a thorough analysis of the current situation of the Department of English. All of the actors involved have seized the opportunity to provide useful and important analysis and recommendations about the current Departmental context and the way forward.
Significant Strengths and Weaknesses of the Programme
The ERC identified a number of strengths of the English Programmes.
- Department appears to be highly motivated and passionate about its role and about its understanding of the profession of arms.
- Department appears to be cohesive, collegial, and conscientious.
- Department appears to pursue excellence in teaching, scholarship, service and administration.
- There is a high respect and confidence in the Department for the lower level of leadership, including the current department Head, Deans, and Vice-Principals.
- Both students and graduates are very satisfied with their programme.
- Students appreciate chats on Moodle, creative assignments, a passion for literature and culture, accessible faculty, open mindedness and “thinking outside the box.”
The ERC identified three of areas of concern for the English Programmes:
- Higher level administrative support,
- Development and promotion of the department,
- Curriculum and DLEs.
The Department Head, after consultation with faculty and staff in the programme, submitted a response to the Reviewers’ Report in March 2016. The Dean of Social Sciences and Humanities in consultation with the Heads (current and acting) of the Department prepared this Final Assessment Report in May 2016. Specific recommendations are discussed, and follow-up actions and timelines provided.
Summary of the Reviewers’ Recommendations with the Programme’s and Dean’s Responses
The ERC identified three overarching areas of concern or issues that require attention.
Recommendations requiring significant higher level administrative support:
1. Advocate for the re-integration of all arts degrees into acceptable degrees for the Logistics Branch.
Departmental Response: The members of the English Department unanimously agree with and support this recommendation and have added, and will continue to add, their voices to support efforts to equitably resolve this ongoing issue.
Dean’s Response: The Principal continues to advocate for minimization of unnecessary specialization at the DP1 level. Presently, all arts degrees are deemed acceptable for the Logistics Branch, an interim decision which has been extended to 2020. It is worth noting that the Intelligence, Armoured and MARS reduced over the last two years their number of acceptable degrees, excluding English and French from the list, decisions which were only recently reversed. The Dean encourages the Principal to continue advocating for a broad, liberal arts education at the DP1 level, including programs in English.
2. Improve the French language profile of the department through additional language training.
Departmental Response: Several members of the department have applied for additional French language training, but restricted resources at the College appear to limit this possibility. There is a perception in the department that the selection process for those approved for French language training lacks transparency and that only those faculty targeted for future administrative positions are granted training. English faculty who desire further French language training will continue to advocate for this training.
Dean’s Response: The Vice Principal Academic, in consultation with Deans’ Council, is working on a plan to determine who qualifies for the limited second language training resources that RMC can offer and to increase those resources. The Dean of Social Sciences and Humanities will continue to advocate for second language training.
3. Vigilantly maintain a department culture that supports Academic Freedom and Self Governance, and advocate for these values with the upper administration.
Departmental Response: The members of the English Department unanimously agree with and support this recommendation and have done, and will do, all that is possible through the means available to defend Academic Freedom and to promote Self Governance at the College. A recent motion at Faculty Board by a member of the department addressed both issues and was met with strong faculty support for proposed timely and imperative changes to legislative documents and governance procedures.
Dean’s Response: The Commandant, Principal, the Vice Principal Academic, and the Deans all endorse the values of Academic Freedom and Self Governance and their concomitant inherent responsibilities. Academic Freedom is protected in the Collective Agreement, and we are a university that governs through committees, such as Faculty Board and Faculty Council. The Dean of Social Sciences and Humanities commits to continuing to advocate for and endorse these principles.
4. Actively continue to pursue internal and external funding for research and continue to advocate for accessible and equitable internal opportunities for research and conference travel.
Departmental Response: Faculty are encouraged to apply for external funding for research projects and conference travel and have also been quite successful in securing adequate external and internal funding. Four members of the department have held SSHRC grants and two full-time faculty are currently conducting research funded by SSHRC. In 2014-15, five faculty secured internal funding totaling $24,500 with two sizeable SSHRC awards also active, along with a visiting scholar award of $7,500. The department also fared well in securing sizeable internal CDARP and STRN grants in 2015-16.
Dean’s Response: The Dean of Social Sciences and Humanities commends the Department of English for its active research profile and its success in garnering national grants, alongside CDARP and STRN. The Dean will continue to support the department’s pursuit of funding, both externally and internally.
5. Advocate for processes to streamline travel approvals.
Departmental Response: While adequate funding for research and conferencing is a constant concern, a byzantine system of form-filling and multiple levels of travel approval at the College remain a considerable impediment to “accessible and equitable” research and conference opportunities for English Department faculty. The recent advent of block approval for conferences on a month-by-month basis at the College has gone some distance to streamlining this process. Still, delays in “signing off” on even bulk approvals create tensions and increased costs for faculty pursuing opportunities to both conduct and disseminate their research.
Dean’s Response: Since the on-site visit, forms have been refined and streamlined to an extent. The Principal and the VP Academic have also successfully argued that conference travel is a part of a UT’s job according to the Collective Agreement, and therefore elaborate justifications should not be necessary as part of the paperwork, thus streamlining that part of the paperwork. We continue to look for efficiencies and ways to streamline where possible.
6. Follow up on recent positive and promising developments for the reinstatement of the inclusion of upper level English courses in DCS.
Departmental Response: Follow up to this item has been immediate: two upper-level English courses are slated to be offered through DCS in AY 2016-17: one in the fall (ENE 375) and one in the winter (ENE 309).
Dean’s Response: With the new structure of distance courses and their relationship to their home department, this issue is largely resolved.
7. Fill a perceived expertise gap in the area of medieval/renaissance studies at the next available opportunity such as the retirement of an incumbent faculty member.
Departmental Response: It is the intention of the department to do so.
Dean’s Response: It is the intention of the Dean to support the department in this.
8. Work to ensure the best practices in the hiring of sessional staff.
Departmental Response: Last May, the department developed a matrix for use in sessional hirings that incorporates established HR criteria and assigns numerical scores across a range of skills and experiences that include scholarly expertise, publications, teaching experience, and relevant interdisciplinary/multiple-subject areas of specialization. This matrix proved practicable in decision-making for sessional hirings in 2015, and will be refined and used in upcoming sessional hirings. This year, the department has benefitted from the streamlining of the Term hiring process through bulk staffing requests and a standing Arts inventory that facilitates posting notices of job opportunities in a timely and efficient manner. More work needs to be done to ensure competitive part-time exclusion and personal services contracts.
The Department Head works hard to ensure that sessionals receive a fair employment contract, and the department works hard to ensure that sessionals are fully integrated and fully valued members of the department. Our sessional instructors participate fully in departmental discussions and activities, they serve on departmental and College committees (if their contracts remunerate them for service), their input is sought on all departmental matters, and their teaching and research is equally supported and promoted by the department.
Dean’s Response: The Vice Principal Academic’s office has established smooth support services to enable departments to hire sessionals which has been very helpful for the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities. This past year, the English Department spearheaded a bulk staffing request for the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities that was supported by the VP Academic’s office, which enabled a more timely and effective hiring process for sabbatical replacements. The Dean, the VPA, and the Head work closely together to ensure fair hiring practices, and the Dean commits to continue to do so.
Recommendations for the Development and Promotion of the department.
9. Actively pursue opportunities for faculty supervision of graduate students at Queen’s University.
Departmental Response: Two full-time faculty have recently been granted adjunct status at Queen’s and two other full-time faculty have held ongoing adjunct positions. These appointments were sought with the intention of pursuing opportunities for joint supervision of graduate students—a growing concern in the Department of English at Queen’s where such supervision is reportedly inadequate. Several faculty have been involved with graduate supervision: Dr Streight with a PhD student at Queen’s, Drs Belyea, Hurley, Lukits, and Robinson with students pursuing a War Studies MA. The department actively encourages these opportunities both for the professional enrichment that results for faculty supervisors as well as the necessity of graduate mentorship as a condition for securing external research funding such as SSHRC grants.
Dean’s Response: The Dean encourages faculty members to seek adjunct positions at Queen’s or other institutions where they might co-supervise graduate students and to seek engagement with students in the War Studies programme.
10. Brand and promote English widely throughout RMCC and the higher administration as a programme that successfully develops requisite communication and critical thinking skills as well as the qualities inspired by a liberal arts education, which are recognized as essential components of future officers.
Departmental Response: The members of the English Department are grateful for the succinctly defined educational and professional benefits to Officer Cadets of our degree program as expressed in this recommendation in the Report. At every opportunity we endeavour at the College to promote the value of our degree program and to highlight the many ways in which it contributes to the formation of well-educated, culturally informed and engaged officers. A recent tour of the department by the Commandant and the Principal went some distance toward instilling in the College upper administration the essential contributions to the core objectives of the ROTP program of our faculty and the core skills (LOs) developed through the study of literature.
Dean’s Response: The Dean agrees.
11. Explore opportunities for the promotion of an English degree for future officers through creative recruitment of the diversity of students considering applying to RMCC and in the first-year cadet population.
Departmental Response: For the past 4-5 years at least, a member of the English Department has been among the cohort of staff, faculty, and students who promote the College and seek to recruit students at the annual fall Ontario Universities’ Fair held at the Toronto Convention Centre, where CF recruitment staff are also in attendance. In the winter term, the department holds an annual recruitment session (with “creative” elements) for 1st and 2nd year Arts students in which we describe our course offerings and the benefits of our degree program and seek to recruit English majors and encourage students alternatively to pursue English minors. Upper-year English students, and occasionally graduates of our program, add their voices to those of the faculty on these occasions. The benefits of these events have not been quantifiably measured, but these promotional activities appear anecdotally to have some positive effect on recruitment into our courses and degree program. One recently proposed “creative” measure to aid in recruitment is to post student testimonials on the English Department website, including an embedded video akin to a TED talk presented by one of our accomplished recent graduates. The department is pursuing this proposal.
Dean’s Response: Given that “recruitment” is outside of the purview of what the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities can do within the structure of the Department of National Defense, it is clear that the English Department is actively pursuing ways to attract students to its programmes. The Dean supports continuing these creative endeavours.
12. Consider developing opportunities for faculty and students in the field of Digital Humanities.
Departmental Response: Several of the faculty are involved in Digital Humanities (DH) projects, including editing online journals and most notably Dr. Robinson’s SSHRC-funded project on Lucy Maud Montgomery and war, which features a website offering extensive online resources and extends to Facebook posts and scholarly tweets. One faculty member is developing an online archive. Several faculty have used blogging and Moodle-based assignments to enhance their pedagogy and to encourage student-to-student online interaction. Students and faculty together are currently developing an online/print journal of creative writing and visual art, Arch/L’Arc. There is considerable interest in and support for DH initiatives in the department.
Dean’s Response: The Dean supports faculty members developing their own strengths in Digital Humanities and incorporating it into their teaching and research; however, the department should be cautious about developing a field or specialization in DH as there are no new resources for a faculty member to cover this field.
Recommendations related to Curriculum and DLEs.
13. Apply a greater degree of explicit consistency of requirements and assessment in the multiple sections of ENE 100/110 and 210 courses.
Departmental Response: In an extended department meeting on 7 December 2015, full-time and sessional faculty deliberated at length on the specifics of creating uniform literary elements and LOs in the fall and winter terms across the multiple sections of our ENE 100/110 and 210 courses. In the 7 December meeting, faculty defined and notionally agreed to proposed genre divisions between the fall and winter halves of these courses, as well as agreed to a common set of graduated critical writing skills and assignments in each course level. These harmonized LOs and genre divisions across our multi-sectioned courses will be inaugurated in the respective professors’ 2016-17 syllabi. A follow-up workshop in May 2016 will address LO and assignment design in our 100/110/210 classes.
Dean’s Response: The Dean supports the Department’s work to develop consistency in requirements and assessments.
14. Establish and pursue a methodology to more thoroughly assess and report student achievement of individual Degree Level Expectations (DLEs).
Departmental Response: At its 8 February 2016 meeting, the department discussed this proposal. Members generally found this proposal posed practical problems, but nonetheless suggested a few ways this recommended assessment might be done. It was left to the Acting Head to develop a matrix listing the DLEs for the English program at RMC and to devise a way of determining and eventually indexing the achievement levels of individual students as they progress through English majors and honours programs.
Dean’s Response: The Dean supports this recommendation and will encourage the English Department to develop DLEs, perhaps by researching other faculties at RMC or English Departments at other universities.
Implementation Plan
| Recommendation | Proposed Follow-up and Resource Implications | Responsibility for Leading Follow-up | Timeline for Addressing Recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advocate for the re-integration of all arts degrees into acceptable degrees for the Logistics Branch | Principal continue to advocate against unnecessary specialization at DP1 | Principal | Ongoing |
| Improve the French language profile of the department through additional language training. | Establish a plan to deliver French training provided by RMC | VPA | 2017 |
| Advocate for processes to streamline travel approvals | The Commandant has established a Red Tape Committee, and the Principal’s office continues to work at streamlining the approvals | Principal, VPR and VPA | Reviewed on an annual basis |
| Fill a perceived expertise gap in the area of medieval/ renaissance studies at the next available opportunity such as the retirement of an incumbent faculty member | Ensure that the next hire fills this gap. | Head, English, with the Dean of Social Sciences and Humanities | |
| Work to ensure the best practices in the hiring of sessional staff. | Work with the Faculty Services | Head, English, with the Dean of Social Sciences and Humanities | Ongoing |
| Actively pursue opportunities for faculty supervision of graduate students | Encourage faculty members to engage with War Studies students and opportunities and to seek adjunct status at universities with graduate programmes | Head, English, with the Dean of Social Sciences and Humanities | Ongoing |
| Apply a greater degree of explicit consistency of requirements and assessment in the multiple sections of ENE 100/110 and 210 courses | Departmental workshops to develop standards | Head with the rest of the Department | January 2017 |
| Establish and pursue a methodology to more thoroughly assess and report student achievement of individual Degree Level Expectations (DLEs). | Determine best practice for assessment of student outcomes and links to DLEs. | VPA, Dir QA and Deans | 2017 |
Conclusion
The ERC Report underlines the students’ passion for the programme and “its relevance for their future careers as officers.” The Report also highlighted the collegiality and strong leadership in the department, as well as the very active commitment to service of the department members. Finally, the Report emphasized the “robust and varied” research activity of this small department.
The Dean of Social Sciences and Humanities, in consultation with the Department Head, is responsible for monitoring the Implementation Plan. The other recommendations have either already been considered or implemented, or involve College-level action.