Introduction
The 2011 – 2016 Action Plan of the Faculty of Engineering, hereinafter referred to as the ‘Plan’, was developed by the Faculty Executive Committee during the period May – September 2011; it was approved by the Executive Committee on September 29, 2011. The Plan builds on the outcomes of the Faculty’s 2006 – 2011 Action Plan and it is aligned with the institutional goals of the Vision 2020 strategic plan of the University of Ottawa.
The Plan identifies five (5) areas of focus and nineteen (19) specific objectives / actions for which the Faculty must make progress during the 2011 – 2016 period.
Area of focus #1:
To improve the university experience of our students and to innovate in the areas of teaching methods and of program content.
Specific objectives / actions:
- To modernize teaching laboratory facilities and equipment and to innovate in the area of laboratory engineering design teaching and learning.
- To strongly incentivize quality and innovation in teaching, such that it is considered by all to be as important as research.
- To add and enhance spaces for students, to facilitate collaboration, teamwork, peer mentoring, and improving the social atmosphere.
- To identify high failure rate undergraduate courses in order to take early corrective actions to improve student retention.
- To focus on attracting high-quality undergraduate students in all programs.
- To follow MCG's approach to implement teaching evaluations for Teaching Assistants, and to adopt CHG’s practice of requiring mandatory training for all teaching assistants.
- To add multidisciplinary project/studio/active learning courses before fourth year, starting with pilots.
Area of focus #2:
To improve the overall efficiency of the Faculty’s administrative and student support services and activities.
Specific objectives / actions:
- To share the activities of the Student Experience Officer between the Undergraduate and Graduate Office.
- To review the administrative structures and procedures for the purpose of standardizing operations in the faculty
- To review the allocation of support staff positions within the academic and service units of the Faculty for the purpose of reducing turnover and duplication of work and of increasing efficiency during peak periods.
Area of focus #3:
To improve the reputation and the perception of the Faculty by potential undergraduate students.
Specific objectives / actions:
- To improve the effectiveness of recruitment and outreach; in particular, recruiting students of the Faculty to serve as ambassadors, as well as developing more effective and appropriate promotion materials and activities for kindergarden to grade 12 students.
Area of focus #4:
To better connect the Faculty with external stakeholders in the private and public sectors in order to better support our mission of education, advancement of knowledge, and service.
Specific objectives / actions:
- To better engage external partners, such as invited guest speakers or lecturers, and part-time professors.
- To establish Advisory Boards for each of the four academic units of the Faculty.
- To design market-relevant capstone projects that are interdisciplinary in nature.
Area of focus #5:
To secure additional financial resources for the Faculty through incremental undergraduate student enrolment and retention, additional external research funding (and associated indirect costs / overhead revenues), and increased philanthropic donations in order to appropriately support our core academic activities as well as the new initiatives that we wish to pursue.
Specific objectives / actions:
- To increase the number of Teaching Associate positions in the Faculty in order to allow regular faculty members to devote more time to research and graduate supervision
- To proactively contribute towards correcting and improving the University's operating budget allocation process and criteria.
- To facilitate the development of major joint research proposals (identification of teams and themes).
Updated in 2014