In accordance with the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) Institutional Quality Assurance Process (IQAP), the Program Self-Study Report was completed in August 2019 for the programs under review, the BSc in Mathematics. The Self-Study Report 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 the program. 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 to participate 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: Alain Gosselin and 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 a number of strengths of the BSc Mathematics Program including that the they were extremely impressed by the dedication of all the faculty and staff (including military and civilian) to the unique mission of the RMC, the department’s impressive efforts to address the failure rate in the first year Calculus sequence by modifying the curriculum, and all of the UG students were enthusiastic about their program, courses and professors. The ERC also identified a number of areas of concern for the BSc Mathematics Program, such as: the current level of teaching and service loads relative to the staffing level; an usually high level of courses are taught by the department to support the delivery of the Core Curriculum or other degree programs; that there was no deliberate effort to attract students other than the annual briefings to 1st Year Science students at RMC and CMR-SJ; and that the department offered too few math courses in their 4th year.
The Program Chair, after consultation with faculty and staff in the program, submitted a response to the Reviewers’ Report in June 2022. The Dean of Science prepared this Final Assessment Report in August 2022 in which specific recommendations are discussed, and follow-up actions and timelines provided. In the FAR, it was concluded that the Faculty of Science is delivering an academically rigorous program to its students and that its standards meet those of similar programs in Ontario.