External Review 2009 - University of Victoria · sea‐level rise, coastal zone management, remote...

External Review 2009

Volume 1 – Report and Appendices

Prepared for the Academic Program Review Committee

October 2009

Table of Contents

Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................. i

Criterion 1 – History, Development, and Expectations .......................................................................... 1

Criterion 2 – Quality of and Demand for the Academic Programs ........................................................ 7

Criterion 3 – Quality of the Student Experience and the Learning Environment ................................ 17

Criterion 4 – Quality of Student Outcomes .......................................................................................... 35

Criterion 5 – Research .......................................................................................................................... 41

Criterion 6 – Faculty and Staff Characteristics ..................................................................................... 49

Criterion 7 – Resources ........................................................................................................................ 55

Criterion 8 – Opportunity Analysis and Future Directions ................................................................... 59

Appendices:

Appendix 1 – Undergraduate Programs in Geography

Appendix 2 – Enrolments

Appendix 3 – Graduate Student Theses Since 2003

Appendix 4 – Graduate Student Publications Since 2003

Appendix 5 – Survey of Baccalaureate Graduates

Appendix 6 – 2008 National Survey of Student Engagement Results

Appendix 7 – Job Advertisements

Appendix 8 – Department Expectations for Reappointment and Tenure

Appendix 9 – Adjunct Positions in Geography

Appendix 10 – External Research Funding, 2002-09

External Review Report

Executive Summary

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Executive Summary

This document assesses the changes in the Department of Geography since our last external review in 2002. We evaluate our teaching programs and outline directions for the future. Geography is located in the Faculty of Social Sciences and has a complement of 24 faculty members and 11 staff. In 2003‐04 there were 19 faculty members and 9 staff members. The current total includes several faculty members who have no teaching responsibilities, as well as limited term faculty. Our ratio of female to male faculty members (31%) is slightly above the Canadian average in Geography (27%). In the Spring of 2008, the Department moved into new facilities in the Social Sciences and Mathematics Building.

In 2008‐09, we undertook an internal review of all aspects of the Geography program, confirming our core teaching areas as Environment and Sustainability, Geomatics, Human Geography, and Biophysical Geography, and identifying future opportunities in the areas of Coastal Studies, Climate Change Impacts and Adaptations, Sustainable Communities/Health, and Environmental Science as our main integrative themes. These areas are aligned with the University Strategic Plan areas of growth. Our goal is to achieve and maintain excellence in these areas while continuing to maintain a coherent and integrative Geography program that offers a vibrant student experience, presents opportunities for enhancing enrolment, and offers flexibility to optimize faculty deployments that reflect the demands of current‐day academic life. Our students will graduate with a greater appreciation of, and training to address, the challenges facing society and changes necessary for a more sustainable future. In terms of research, the Department has a progressive record in terms of our contribution to new knowledge development, understanding, and solutions for the current challenges facing society. As a synthesizing discipline, geography is well positioned to contribute to the University’s vision towards the “betterment of a rapidly changing global society.” Undergraduate program

• The Department offers BA, BSc, MA, MSc, and PhD degrees.

• From 2002‐03 to 2008‐09, Equivalent Enrolments Taught (EETs) in Geography increased 19.4%, from 341 to 423. This is substantially higher than that for the Faculty of Social Sciences (8.9%) and the University overall (7.6%).

• There has been an increase of total enrolments in core courses from 2,096 students in 2004‐05 to 2,456 in 2008‐09, an increase of 14.7%.

• Since 2003, the department has graduated an average of 151 students per year.

• Canadian Association of Geographers (CAG) data for 2007‐08 shows that we now have the third largest Majors program in terms of enrolment in Canada, and the largest in BC.

• UVic Geography is distinguished from many other Geography programs by our applied focus, with a large number of environment and sustainability courses that bridge the human and physical realms, and by our high concentration of geomatics courses.

• The 2008 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) shows that 85% of fourth year UVic students rated their overall educational experience as good, compared with 93% of

University of Victoria, Department of Geography, Academic Program Review, 2009

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Geography fourth year students. Of Geography graduates, 93% would definitely or probably come to UVic again if starting over, compared with 84% of UVic graduates overall. Sixty percent of Geography students said their education had been very helpful in preparing them with skills in global issues, compared to 44% for all Social Sciences graduates.

• Our 2008 curricular review led to a curriculum overhaul which provides more focus, reduces the number of courses offered, reduces the dependency on sessional instructors, emphasizes our strengths, and increases our attractiveness to students. We introduced new service courses and also reduced prerequisites for some courses to make them accessible to more students.

• Recently, Geography initiated a new standing committee on Recruitment and Retention and has many outreach activities targeted to this end. In addition, we actively support and liaise with the Society of Geography Students (SOGS), who also engage in outreach activities, as do our staff members.

Graduate program

• All our graduate degrees are research intensive and involve the collection of primary data.

• For Fall 2009, we have 103 graduate students compared with 81 in 2003. CAG data for 2007‐08 shows that we have the fifth largest program in Canada. In 2009, we had a record intake, which will improve on this position. A review of the graduate program was undertaken in 2009 with the aim of improving instruction and focus, and reducing the length of time to completion.

• The average supervisory load per faculty member in Geography is approximately four students; this compares with a Faculty target of 2.5 per faculty member.

• Our graduate students are prolific contributors to the scientific literature with more than 67 refereed articles produced by Masters’ level students and 63 by PhD students since 2003.

• Many of our graduate students are involved in overseas research and we support graduate students from many countries.

Research

• All faculty members maintain vibrant research programs and many command national and international reputations. Publications are in some of the highest ranked journals and most prestigious University presses.

• In 2002, an agreement between Environment Canada’s National Water Research Institute (NWRI) and the University led to the creation of the Water & Climate Impacts Research Centre (WCIRC) attached to the Department.

• Our collective research programs span a broad and diverse range of areas and contribute significantly to 5 of the 10 strategic research goals identified by the University, as follows:

i. Environmental Science and Policy. Geography is a leading unit on campus in environmental science, and much of this research is informing public policy (e.g.,

Executive Summary

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climate change impacts and adaptations research, hydrology and water resources research, assessing mountain pine beetle‐infested forests, protected areas planning).

ii. Global Change and Sustainability. Geography contributes to many aspects of global change research through environmental science investigations as well as social science contributions. Interests range from documentation and understanding of past climates through to assessment of current impacts and design of adaptation and mitigation strategies for the future.

iii. Health and society. Health research, aging‐related research, medical geography, and disaster planning have been active areas of research in Geography for more than 25 years, with a strong emphasis on the social and environmental determinants of health, health services provision, and aging research.

iv. Oceans and climate. Research includes initiatives in applied climatology, climate change impacts and adaptations, coastal biophysical systems, coastal erosion and sea‐level rise, coastal zone management, remote sensing of coastal waters, marine protected areas, marine aquaculture, and watershed hydrology.

v. Information technologies and environmental monitoring. Geomatics research is a leading and critical component in this strategic area. GI‐Science, remote sensing, and spatial analysis are being used to examine critical issues of societal importance, such as forest health, marine aquaculture development, impacts of climate change on water resources, wetland restoration and conflict resolution in the Middle East, carbon stores in the Amazon floodplain, hydrological dynamics of the largest tropical pristine wetland—the Brazilian Pantanal, modelling and predicting disease spread, wildlife habitat use, development of multi‐criteria decision support systems for coastal management, and development and application of techniques in remote sensing for forest assessment and management.

• Almost half of our faculty members have active international research programs with activities encompassing more than 15 countries.

• Three large CIDA projects (budgets exceeding $1,000,000) are currently based in the department.

• WCIRC plays a major role in international activities through the activities of Prowse and Wrona.

• Departmental researchers are also active at the local and provincial levels in Victoria and BC, with contributions ranging from urban planning and inclusive waste management through to air pollution and health studies.


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Future plans

Over the next 5 to 7 years we plan to focus on the following issues:

1. Faculty retention and renewal

• Continue to take advantage of opportunities to gain incremental faculty to strengthen our program in the core areas mentioned above, consistent with University interests in climate change, environmental science, coastal and ocean studies, and health and sustainability

• Hire an outstanding faculty member for our vacant Leading Edge Endowment Fund (LEEF) Chair in Remote Sensing

2. Undergraduate program

• Continue active review and revision of our undergraduate curriculum to enhance enrolment and ensure student interests are being met consistent with the academic integrity required for a geography degree

• Implement and develop our new Coastal Minor while exploring potential for other new Minor programs

• Continue to experiment with our summer programs to encourage student interest and increase enrolments

• Strengthen our field course offerings to meet high student demands and take advantage of enrolment opportunities

• Examine the feasibility of more online program offerings

3. Graduate program

• Maintain existing graduate student enrolments and explore ways to ensure the quality and sustainability of our graduate program. This will involve active pursuit of means to expand the program conditional upon allocation of additional faculty

• Explore the interest and feasibility of introducing theme‐designated Masters programs (e.g., Masters in Geomatics or Urban Sustainability) and increasing Co‐op option Masters enrolments

4. Research partnerships and collaboration

• Provide stronger inputs to interdisciplinary centres on campus that reflect University goals, such as PICS, PCIC, ICOR, and CAPI

• Continue to build a strong working relationship with WCIRC and ARC

• Develop further support for the community mapping initiative

• Build stronger collaborative relationships with other units on campus, such as Environmental Studies and other units in the Faculty of Social Sciences, as well as SEOS, the Office of Community‐based Research, Continuing Studies, and other units outside the Faculty, where mutual benefits can be achieved

• Explore partnerships with outside agencies that will help lever Departmental resources for greater effectiveness in research outcomes and experiential learning opportunities

5. International programs

• Continue to develop and enhance support for the University’s international programs via many existing research and teaching partnerships

Executive Summary

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Our priorities

Our most important priorities are to nurture the steps we have taken to enhance the enrolment and quality of our teaching programs and to provide opportunities for faculty to develop meaningful and successful research programs. Two specific items that will help accomplish these goals and that require University support are graduate program growth and obtaining further support for the development of community mapping within the Department.

Graduate Program Growth: The Department has an appetite to continue expansion of the program and accept a greater proportion of PhD students. However, we are limited through supervisory capacity in some areas and by limitations on graduate funding. We suggest an incremental faculty position in an area of high graduate student demand, for example, water resource management, which is consistent with University priorities.

Community Mapping Initiative: Community Mapping (CM) is citizen engagement, an empowerment and educational tool, and a research methodology. Already vibrant on campus and supported by Geography and other units, this initiative has great potential in terms of community outreach, enrolments, research, and international linkages. At the moment this initiative has a groundswell of support, but requires a sufficient academic grounding and more co‐ordination and infrastructure support to make it viable in the longer term. Geography is willing to invest in further development of the CM initiative, but will need support from the University to do so.

History, Development, and Expectations

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Criterion 1: History, Development, and Expectations

1.1 History and goals

Geography was one of the inaugural departments when the University of Victoria was established in 1963. At that time, the main foci for the Department were established as resource management/ physical geography, urban development, and Pacific area studies. The graduate program was approved in 1966. An interdisciplinary program in Pacific studies was housed in the Department in 1969, later to become the Department of Pacific and Asian Studies.

Geography also played a key role in the formation of both the Environmental Studies Program and the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences (SEOS). The Environmental Studies Program (now School) emerged from outgrowth of the keen interest in resource management, with a geographer (Peter Murphy) as the first director, to be followed by other geographers, such as Bill Ross. Both coastal studies and geomatics programs were started in the early 1980s, followed by the appointments of Keller and Niemann in the mid 1980s. At this time the Department developed a Minor in geology that was later to form the core for SEOS in 1991. Geography was also one of the earliest adopters of the Co‐op Program in the 1980s, and by the 1990s was consistently placing more than 100 students per year.

The 1990s saw rapid growth in enrolments and a broadening of research and teaching interests with the addition of faculty such as Smith (geomorphology and dendrochronology) and McCann (urban and historical). By the 1994 review there were 15 regular faculty members. Throughout the 1990s, Geography implemented measures to “manage” enrolment to reduce the increasing number of waiting lists. Although the 1994 review concluded that the department was “a very accomplished one, comparable in stature to other leading departments in Canada and the US,”1 it also recommended that three new faculty be appointed to ease these pressures. This recommendation was addressed through the appointment of Costa, Cloutier‐Fisher, and Walker, and by the 2002 review there were 18.25 regular faculty members assigned to the Department. In 2002, an agreement between Environment Canada’s National Water Research Institute (NWRI) and the University led to the creation of the Water & Climate Impacts Research Centre (WCIRC) and the appointment of Prowse and Wrona. Research at WCIRC focuses on hydrologic and ecological impacts of atmospheric change and variability. Smith was appointed Chair in 2000.

The internal report for the most recent review (2002) recognized important integrative aspects of existing physical, human, and resource geography interests within the Department such as coastal studies, geomatics, and health geography. By this time, geomatics had become one of the strongest areas of the department in terms of faculty complement, undergraduate teaching, and graduate research. Coastal studies has a long history in the Department, but suffered with a lack of new hirings to replace coastal specialist Bill Ross, until the program was strengthened by the arrival of Costa and Walker. Health geography also has a long history in the Department, mainly through the pioneering work of recently retired Harry Foster, and was boosted by the newer appointments of Taylor as Vice President of Research, but attached to the Department, and Cloutier‐Fisher as a cross‐appointment with the Centre on Aging. Two enduring strengths of the Department, applied studies and international work, were also emphasized at this time.

1 Nelson, J.G., Janelle, D.G., Olson, S., and Shaw, J. (1994). Report of External Review Committee for the Department of Geography, University of Victoria, November 19‐23, 1994. P14.


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The 2002 review recommendations concluded that the Department was at a crossroads in terms of future development and needed to make choices between depth and breadth in terms of the curriculum, future research priorities, and the relationship between the curriculum and research. It also questioned the sustainability of the teaching program with a need for a more stream‐lined integrated curriculum and less reliance on sessional instructors. The lack of space was noted as a major constraint on future developments. These recommendations led to strengthening of existing areas of expertise with the addition of Canessa and Lacourse to support the coastal component, Canadian Research Chair Ostry in the health field, Nelson in geomatics, Jelinski in biogeography, and Gutberlet in urban geography. Cross was appointed as a limited term professor in 2004 and has assisted in developing the aquaculture program in the Department. The most recent appointment, Rose‐Redwood, adds strength to the urban/human geography program. However, faculty were also lost through retirement with long standing expertise in China (Lai), biogeography (Edgell), health geography (Foster), and urban (Porteous). A joint degree program in geomatics with Computer Science was also started at this time. O’Connell was hired as the Department’s first senior instructor to teach a large number of courses in the geomatics field and reduce the need for sessional instructors. Physical space concerns were addressed in the Spring of 2008 as the Department moved into the new Social Sciences and Mathematics Building with much improved facilities and appropriate space allocations for a growing department. Dearden was appointed Chair in 2008.

In the Fall of 2008, the Department embarked upon a thorough revision of its strategic plan and curricula. A detailed SWOT analysis was undertaken to identify major opportunities for the future. The analysis confirmed our four main areas of instructional expertise—biophysical, environment and sustainability, geomatics, and human. Although we do not aim to cover all aspects of the discipline within these areas, there was strong support from both students and faculty in maintaining this comprehensive approach to the discipline. Future opportunities for focus and growth in the Department reflected the criteria outlined in the University Strategic Plan:

i) consideration of intellectual value and societal need ii) student demand iii) ability to be a national or regional leader in the area iv) collegial support among faculty v) an established or planned ability to attain a critical mass of faculty in the area

In addition, the strengths and interests of existing faculty and those at other regional institutions such as SFU, UBC, and VIU were considered.

Among the range of opportunities identified, Departmental consensus was that coastal studies, climate change impacts and adaptations, sustainable communities/health, and environmental science offered the strongest potential for the future. These areas reflect areas of research growth identified in the University Strategic Plan. Our goal is to achieve and maintain excellence in these areas while continuing to maintain a coherent and integrative geography program that offers a vibrant student experience, presents opportunities for enhancing enrolment, and offers flexibility to optimize faculty deployments that reflect the demands of current‐day academic life.

Over the next 5 years we will continue to modify and improve our curriculum to meet the evolving demands of society and our students. We believe that students graduating from our program should not only have exposure to the breadth of the discipline, but also have the opportunity to explore at least one sub‐area in greater detail. Our students will graduate with a greater appreciation of, and training to address, the challenges facing society and changes necessary for a more sustainable future.


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We have developed a range of actions, many of which are being implemented already, that will keep the Department of Geography among the leading departments of geography in Canada, and among the leading departments at the University. Additional actions for the next 5 to 7 years are discussed throughout the report and summarized in Section 8.3. In particular, we see the potential to enhance the quality and size of the graduate program and provide further support to the community mapping initiative on campus. These are the two top priorities (Section 8.5) to emerge from our self‐evaluation. 1.2 Academic programs offered

The Department offers the following degrees: BA Honours, BSc Honours, BA Major, BSC Major, BA General/Minor, BSC General/Minor, MA, MSc, and PhD. An extensive curriculum review of both undergraduate and graduate courses and degree programs was conducted by the Department in 2008. This has led to a restructuring of our programs, the creation of new courses, and removal of many courses that no longer served to support the department’s new curriculum. The review process is outlined in more detail in Section 3.1. Revised Undergraduate Courses and Programs

The new degree programs for both the BA Major and BSc Major are shown in Appendix 1. Each degree offers students a “liberal arts” education to meet the needs of those students who prefer choice and flexibility, while offering “concentrations” for students seeking guidance and direction through a more specialized degree. The concentrations within the BA Major degree include Coastal Studies, Geomatics, Development and Urban Studies, and Resource Management. The concentrations within the BSc Major include Coastal Studies, Earth Systems, Geomatics, and Resource Management. The new BA General/Minor and the BSc General/Minor are derived from the respective Major degrees but require fewer upper level Geography courses. The new BA Honours and BSc Honours require students to meet entry requirements, fulfil all of the degree requirements for one of the Major degrees, and complete and present an Honours thesis valued at 3.0 units of course work.

Concentrations are closely tied to the opportunities identified through the SWOT analysis. They also present other opportunities for students and the department by providing the foundation for developing independent Minor degrees offered through the Geography Department to students from other departments, schools, and faculties. A Minor in Coastal Studies is currently before the University curriculum committee while a Minor in Geomatics is under development. Revised Graduate Courses and Programs

The Geography graduate program is one of the largest and oldest on campus and offers research‐based (i.e., thesis or dissertation) Masters and PhD degrees. After undergoing significant staffing and resource changes over the past decade, the Department decided in Fall 2008 that a review and revision of the graduate program was in order. Coincident with the undergraduate program review, the graduate program and the entire roster of courses were reviewed iteratively between the Department and the Graduate Affairs Committee (GAC) during several meetings from Fall 2008 to Fall 2009 (see Section 3.1). The new program, described below, will come into effect in Fall 2010.

Program review and redevelopment: The revised Geography graduate program recognized the need for focus on key research areas while maintaining exposure to overarching geographical theories and concepts. The program accomplishes this via a tiered approach to course work


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(Table 1.1). Tier 1 is the required core cohort course (GEOG 500, 3.0 credits over two semesters). Tier 2 provides a series of methods courses (GEOG 518, 523, or 524, 1.5 credits each)2 that explore various research techniques and develop analytical skills. Tier 3 allows students to focus on research developments in key thematic areas via advanced seminar courses (GEOG 536, 537, 538, 539, 1.5 credits each).3 At Tier 4, students can build expertise by exploring special topics (GEOG 591) and/or directed studies (GEOG 590) courses.4

Table 1.1 Revised structure of the Geography graduate program with course descriptions and

credit requirements as indicated (note: Tier 2 through 4 courses are each worth 1.5 credits and GEOG 500 is a two semester, 3.0 credit course required for all students)

Tier Course description Required

credits Notes/exceptions

1 500: Geographical Research Approaches & Design 3.0 MA/MSc, PhD: required

2 518: Advanced Spatial Analysis

523: Advanced Qualitative Methods

524: Advanced Quantitative Methods

1.5 MA/MSc: required, or other on approval

3 536: Advanced Seminar in Human Geography

537: Advanced Seminar in Physical Geography

538: Advanced Seminar in Geomatics

539: Advanced Seminar in Resource Management

1.5 MA/MSc: required PhD: strongly encouraged

4 590: Directed Studies

591: Selected topics in Geography

1.5 MA/MSc: Other course outside the Department on approval

Total minimum credits required: 7.5 for MA/MSc 4.5 for PhD

Under the existing program, Masters students are required to complete 6 units of course work and submit a research thesis. The new program requires students to take a minimum of 7.5 units (due to the increased credit value for GEOG 500), but sees no increase in actual course load. Advisory committees may recommend additional coursework at their discretion. The PhD program will require 4.5 units of course work (up from 3.0), but again, with no increase in course load. Under the new program, PhD students are required to take the GEOG 500 cohort course with Masters students, and enrolment in one of the 530s advanced seminars is strongly encouraged.

2 MA/MSc students must obtain 1.5 credits from the methods series, although methods‐specific courses outside of the Department may be substituted on advice of the advisory committee and with permission from the GAC/Grad Advisor.

3 MA/MSc students are required to take one of these seminar series courses and PhD students are strongly encouraged to take 1.5 units from this series.

4 MA/MSc students are required to take 1.5 units from this level, or another approved by their advisory committee and with permission from the GAC/Grad Program Chair.


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The Department has discussed offering shorter, 1‐year, course‐based Masters degrees as favoured by some other departments in the Faculty. This would increase student enrolments, but would require a greater suite of course offerings and additional staffing. It was decided that our enrolments are already among the highest in the Faculty and that such an offering, under current resourcing, would be to the detriment of the quality of our graduate teaching and research offerings. However, we have made obtaining further support for the graduate program one of our top priorities.

Quality of and Demand for the Academic Programs

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Criterion 2: Quality of and Demand for the Academic Programs

2.1 Enrolment patterns

For the period 2002‐03 to 2008‐09, Equivalent Enrolments Taught (EETs) in Geography have increased 19.4% from 341 to 423 (Table 2.1). This is a substantially higher increase than that for the Faculty of Social Sciences (8.9%) and the University (7.6%). In the Geography Department between 2002‐03 and 2008‐09 there was a 24.6% increase in enrolments in lower level courses, while enrolment in upper level courses increased by 15.7%.

We do not have data on EETs for those who ultimately declare geography as a Major compared to those who seek credit in Geography, as students are not required to declare their major until very shortly prior to degree granting. Table 2.1 Social Sciences undergraduate trends in EETs, 2002‐09

(Source: UVic Institutional Planning and Analysis)

Dept 02/03 03/04 04/05 05/06 06/07 07/08 08/09 Total % Change

ANTH Lower 134 135 133 124 129 129 125 909 ‐7.2

Upper 193 195 165 171 143 155 153 1,175 ‐26.1

Total 327 330 298 295 272 283 278 2,083 ‐17.6

ECON Lower 237 255 295 328 298 304 352 2,069 32.7

Upper 221 257 293 304 265 266 249 1,855 11.2

Total 459 512 588 363 562 570 601 3,655 23.6

ENVI Lower — — 37 39 53 59 62 250 32.4

Upper 133 115 100 100 90 93 104 735 ‐27.9

Total 133 115 137 137 129 152 166 969 24.8

GEOG Lower 141 133 139 159 186 191 187 1,136 24.6

Upper 199 210 199 199 214 223 236 1,480 15.7

Total 341 343 338 351 399 414 423 2,609 19.4

POLI Lower 124 118 118 123 131 121 133 868 6.8

Upper 185 189 193 213 232 239 237 1,488 21.9

Total 309 307 312 336 363 360 370 2,357 16.5

PSYC Lower 339 355 366 363 408 280 364 2,475 6.9

Upper 386 430 481 469 480 451 420 3,117 8.1

Total 725 785 846 481 469 831 784 4,921 7.5

SOCI Lower 152 147 140 132 157 149 160 1,037 5.0

Upper 207 194 199 185 166 175 155 1,281 ‐33.5

Total 360 341 339 317 323 324 315 2,319 ‐14.3

Faculty Lower 1,128 1,143 1,229 1,267 1,361 1,333 1,383 8,844 18.4

Upper 1,508 1,591 1,631 1,624 1,602 1,601 1,509 11,066 0.1

Total 2,635 2,735 2,860 2,890 2,963 2,935 2,892 19,910 8.9

UVic Lower 5,824 5,917 6,125 6,510 6,731 6,555 6,760 44,422 13.8

Upper 6,896 7,079 7,094 7,144 7,167 6,990 7,007 49,377 1.6

Total 12,720 12,997 13,219 13,634 13,897 13,544 13,767 93,778 7.6


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Generating summer EETS has been a problem for Geography. Discussions with our students in the course of the review indicated that Geography students continue to see the summer period as an opportunity to be out where the geography is, in the landscape and working jobs, and not in class. We are attempting to address this challenge through mounting more of our field courses in the summer period. This will address student demands for more experiential opportunities, and we hope it will also reduce conflicts between field courses and regular courses when they are held in the Fall and Spring sessions. In order to make these adjustments and to dedicate regular faculty to the field courses, we have been given permission to hire a full time senior instructor. The SI will allow flexibility by teaching some of the courses regular faculty would normally teach in the Fall and Spring sessions and that must be offered to maintain the healthy enrolment trends outlined above. 2.2 EETS per full time equivalent (FTE) faculty

For the past 7 years, Geography’s average faculty : EET ratio has been 20.6, and has not changed appreciably over this period, as compared to 24.6 for the Faculty during the same period (Table 2.2). Several factors account for this ratio. To begin with, the University’s Office of Institutional Planning and Analysis (OIPA) determines a department’s Defined Teaching Capacity (DTC), which is used in the calculation of EETs. According to their accounting procedures, an individual may hold a faculty position in a department, yet not teach, as is the case of the current Dean or the previous VP Research in Geography. Similarly, research Chairs have reduced teaching loads at the departmental level, however for accounting purposes by the OIPA this is not factored into their calculations.

The following factors affect Geography’s EETs.

1. Research faculty members have low course loads. Lacourse, Ostry, and Cloutier‐Fisher all have teaching loads that are half of the regular load (i.e., two courses vs. four). Prowse’s 0.25 appointment only involves a one course commitment.

2. Administrative faculty members are considered as contributors to the Departmental DTC by Institutional Analysis. Taylor was VP‐Research for the bulk of the 7 year reporting period and his position was assigned four courses toward the DTC. Dawson, Director of the Learning and Teaching Centre, was appointed as a senior instructor with eight courses. Neither taught in the Department during this period.

3. One faculty member (Porteous) spent most of the reporting period on long‐term disability.

All departments may have exceptions to their FTE complement, but Geography appears to be particularly rich in this regard.

According to our DTC since 2002‐03, below are courses not replaced (i.e., they were part of the DTC). Had they been replaced, Geography believes its ratio of faculty : EETS would more closely approximate the Faculty average.

2002‐03 4 courses not replaced 2006‐07 7 courses not replaced 2003‐04 7 courses not replaced 2007‐08 8 courses not replaced 2004‐05 9 courses not replaced 2008‐09 7 courses not replaced 2005‐06 7 courses not replaced

The final consideration for interpreting our faculty : EET ratio is that our first year courses are restricted in the number of students that can register as these courses have lab sections so we are limited by the number of TAs available for lab instruction. In the past this has been a serious constraint, however the availability of enrolment management funds has reduced this limitation.


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Table 2.2 Number of faculty and faculty : EET ratio, 2002‐03 to 2008‐09

ANTH ECON ENVI GEOG POLI PSYC SOSC FAC UNIV 2002‐03 Faculty 11.00 22.0 4.8 18.3 12.5 25.0 16.0 109.60 635.0

EETs:Faculty 31.50 23.0 24.9 21.8 26.0 31.7 24.6 26.21 20.0

2003‐04 # Faculty 13.00 22.0 4.8 19.3 15.5 26.0 15.0 115.50 652.0

EETs:Faculty 26.60 25.9 25.4 21.3 20.9 32.7 25.3 25.44 19.9

2004‐05 # Faculty 13.75 22.0 4.8 20.3 16.0 28.0 16.0 120.75 709.5

EETs:Faculty 22.80 29.3 30.1 20.2 21.2 32.8 23.5 25.70 18.6

2005‐06 #Faculty 15.00 21.0 5.8 20.3 16.0 29.8 16.0 123.90 730.0

EETs:Faculty 21.00 32.1 23.4 20.8 23.0 30.3 22.0 24.66 18.7

2006‐07 #Faculty 15.00 24.0 5.8 23.3 17.0 31.0 18.0 134.10 740.5

EETs:Faculty 17.80 25.0 29.2 20.1 23.6 22.3 23.8 23.11 18.8

2007‐08 #Faculty 15.00 24.0 6.8 23.3 18.0 32.0 18.0 137.10

EETs:Faculty 20.70 25.2 25.5 20.9 22.3 28.0 20.3 23.27

2008‐09 #Faculty 14.00 24.0 7.8 24.3 18.0 32.5 18.0 138.50

EETs:Faculty 21.20 26.2 26.9 20.2 23.8 26.0 19.7 23.43

(Source: UVic Institutional Planning and Analysis) 2.3 Enrolment in core courses

For courses labelled as “core courses” there is an increase in total enrolments, with 2,096 students in 2004‐05 rising to 2,456 for the 2008‐09 period, an increase of 14.7%. The largest enrolments, not surprisingly, are in the first and second year offerings. There is variation among the thematic groups, with the most significant increases in our second year offerings. We see this as a particularly good sign as it suggests we are retaining an increasing number of first year students.

From a thematic perspective, the resources/environment area attracts the largest number of students on an average annual basis (Table 2.3). Table 2.3 Enrolments in core courses by year and teaching area 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Average

1st Year 805 752 900 920 840 862 1,011 870

2nd Year 476 470 464 801 881 847 806 678

Geomatics 268 269 307 277 332 377 367 314

Comprehensive 354 319 386 577 593 673 559 494

Physical (Earth Systems) 450 421 367 385 443 429 470 424

Human 279 322 268 302 314 321 416 317

Resource (Environment) 499 490 505 390 373 395 421 439


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2.4 Pattern of enrolment compared with other programs

In 2008‐09, the Department had 399 undergraduate Majors enrolled, 64 MA/MSc, and 26 PhD students. However, we use 2007‐08 numbers for comparison with other Geography programs, as this is the latest year for which we have comparative data. As of 2007‐08, there were 383 undergraduate Majors enrolled, 57 MA/MSc, and 28 PhD students. A national comparison by The Canadian Association of Geographers (Appendix 2) showed that, in terms of the number of undergraduate enrollees, the Department ranked third in the country (Table 2.4). In terms of MA/MSc graduates in 2007‐08 we ranked fourth. Finally, in terms of PhD graduates we ranked tenth, and fifth overall in the size of our graduate program. With some 30 incoming graduate students in 2009, including 9 PhDs, it is highly likely that our ranking will improve in both the MA/MSc and PhD categories. The Department has a similar enrolment profile to UBC’s geography department, which has 27 full time faculty members. UBC has fewer undergraduates but a similar number of graduate students. In sum, these statistics point to the Department being significantly above average relative to other Canadian universities in terms of both undergraduate and graduate enrolment.

Table 2.4 Geography enrolment in academic year 2007‐08 for selected Canadian universities

University Undergraduate Majors MA/MSc Graduates PhD Graduates

Toronto 817 110 71

York 598 34 31

Victoria 382 57 28

UBC 348 26 69

Calgary 211 82 29

Manitoba 118 60 30

Waterloo 74 56 39

(Source: Canadian Association of Geographers) National trends in Geography graduates from 1987 to 2007 are shown in Figure 2.1. The number of graduate students in Geography at UVic has grown from about 22 in 1987 to about 82 in 2007 (a 372% increase). Since 2003, our last external review, UVic Geography undergraduate enrolment has grown from about 300 students to roughly 425 by 2007 (24%). In terms of graduates of our program since the period of our last review, Geography has increased from 58 to 82 (29%).


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Figure 2.1 Geography enrolment trends nationally and at UVic, 1987‐2007 (Source: Canadian Association of Geographers)

Regional comparisons for western Canada (BC and Alberta) in undergraduate enrolment for 1987‐2007 are shown in Figure 2.2. The general trend is strong, ranging from about 1,000 students in 1987 to about 3,300 by 2004, before stabilizing at approximately 2,300 students. UVic’s Geography pattern follows much the same general pattern (not surprising as we are a major player in this dynamic); however, we did not experience the same decline in 2004.

Figure 2.2 Geography enrolment trends in western Canada and at UVic, 1987‐2007

(Source: Canadian Association of Geographers)


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Comparisons can also be made with Geography departments at UBC and SFU (Figure 2.3). While both UVic and UBC show increasing enrolments, UVic has shown a greater overall increase. SFU’s enrolment appears to have declined considerably since the peaks in the early 1990s. As of 2007, the graph shows that the three main providers for Geography enrolments in the province are essentially equal, with the three universities currently at about 400 undergraduate enrolments per year. Figure 2.3 Comparative geography enrolments at UVic, SFU, and UBC, 1987‐2007

(Source: Canadian Association of Geographers)

2.5 New programs elsewhere and the distinctive features of UVic Geography

About 2 years ago, Malaspina College in Nanaimo became Vancouver Island University (VIU) with degree granting status. VIU offers a BSc with a Minor in geography and a BA Major in geography with two areas of specialization, natural resource management and urban growth management. VIU also offers a post‐graduate Advanced Diploma in GIS Applications. These areas are also core to our program. In some ways, it is reaffirming that the newest geography degree‐granting program has also selected these areas as being the main opportunities in the future. However, besides our long history in these areas we also offer a much broader range of courses, as well as the opportunity to interact with faculty members who are internationally recognized researchers and the authors of widely used text books. Our faculty members emphasize the integration of research and teaching in their activities, and will continue to do so as a distinguishing factor from VIU in the future.

Geography at UVic is distinguished from departments at UBC and SFU (and many other geography departments) by our higher concentration on bridging courses between the human and physical sides of the discipline in the area of environment and resource management and in our major strength in geomatics. For example, at the first year level we mount a major bridging course (101A) focused on environment and sustainability that provides a springboard to higher level courses and enjoys high enrolment and retention rates. In concert with the University’s focus on oceans, we have also developed a new coastal concentration and proposed minor that builds linkages between the physical and human aspects of the sub‐discipline as well as resource management and geomatics courses. There is no equivalent offering elsewhere in Canada. At the graduate level,


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environment and resources is not even mentioned as a field of study at UBC, yet it hosts the largest number of students in the graduate program at UVic.

We also have considerable strength in geomatics, with six faculty members having main interests in this field. We offer 13 courses in geomatics and an innovative joint degree with Computer Science. UVic is the only BC university that offers spatial statistics within a Geography department. UBC offers only six courses in GIS, spatial analysis, and remote sensing. Among these six there are only three courses in GIS and just one in remote sensing. SFU offers a larger suite of courses in geomatics and a “Certificate Program in Spatial Information Systems,” but no Major as do we. SFU’s BSc in GIScience is offered through the Faculty of Applied Sciences rather than through geography. 2.6 Viability of field of study

Geography at UVic has experienced significant growth since our last external review, an obvious testament to our ongoing viability. Furthermore, it is apparent that many of the challenges faced by society and being addressed by Geography, such as urban sustainability, global climate change, biodiversity conservation, conflicts over scarce resources, and health, are only going to increase in the future. The applied nature of our program suggests that we will continue to make strong contributions in these and other areas of importance both in terms of teaching and research.

Despite our success, we have invested heavily over the last year in re‐visioning and curriculum reform with particular emphasis on ensuring alignment between student interest/demand and program offerings. Changes include:

• Introduction of the new coastal concentration and minor • Formalization of concentrations in Geomatics, Development and Urban Studies,

Resource Management, and Earth Systems • Development of new service courses of broad appeal • Removal of unnecessary prerequisites • Renaming courses to more accurately reflect content and broaden student appeal • Developing new field courses to support experiential learning • Adding new physical geography courses at the second year level

A similar review was undertaken of the graduate program, resulting in a more streamlined course structure. For example, salient components from the long running GEOG 522 (Geographical Enquiry) covering various philosophies and approaches in geographical research are being incorporated into a more comprehensive core GEOG 500 course that will involve all incoming students (including PhD) in applied skills development, geographical research approaches/theories, and formal research proposal design.

We maintain close contact with our undergraduate and graduate bodies and have student representatives on both the undergraduate and graduate committees, which helps us to ensure alignment between student interests and Departmental offerings. 2.7 Student profile

We do not have direct information on students entering the program, partly because UVic students do not have to declare their major until the latter parts of their program. We do know, however that like the University and Faculty, about 1/3 of our undergraduates hail from Victoria (Table 2.5). Only 11% of our students come from elsewhere on the Island which, while above the Faculty and University averages, may be the best potential pool of new recruits.


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Table 2.5 Geographic origin of undergraduates who received a Bachelor’s Degree from 2003‐061 2003‐04 2004‐05 2005‐06 Victoria 36.1 34.9 31.5 Vancouver Island 11.0 8.1 9.0 Vancouver Mainland 17.0 17.4 16.9 Other BC 13.8 10.9 13.9 Other Province 9.0 8.8 11.0 Other Country 3.6 8.5 5.1 1 Most recent available data

(Source: UVic Institutional Planning and Analysis) Typical students are young adults (18‐23 years of age), and the majority are female. The Faculty of Social Sciences is concerned about the gender imbalance with significantly fewer males than females (Table 2.6). We see a similar pattern in Geography, with more recent statistics showing an increasing imbalance (56:44); however, as a Department it is not clear how we might programmatically assist in achieving a more even ratio, other than examine whether there are unperceived barriers in our program to greater male participation. Table 2.6 Profile of “successful” students by department (includes students who received a

Bachelor’s Degree from 2003‐04 to 2005‐06) ANTH ECON GEOG POLI PSYC SOCI FAC UNIV Total number of students 286 580 399 335 673 214 2,487 9,672

Female (%) 78.30 40.70 54.40 51.30 77.70 64.00 60.70 62.50 Co‐op (%) 1.40 0.20 6.00 2.70 0.40 4.20 2.00 17.00

Self‐declared subgroups (%) Aboriginal 2.40 0.20 0.30 0.30 0.60 1.90 0.70 1.00 Disability 0.70 0.00 0.30 0.90 0.70 0.00 0.40 0.50 Visible minority 1.70 1.90 0.30 1.20 0.70 0.50 1.10 1.10 International 1.40 26.00 1.80 3.60 5.20 1.40 8.50 5.10

Basis of admission (%)

BC HS 46.50 39.30 47.10 46.60 46.10 44.40 44.60 38.70 BC College 25.20 38.80 34.10 29.60 31.60 31.30 32.60 36.50 Other 28.30 21.90 18.80 23.90 22.30 24.30 22.70 24.80 Admission GPA 77.46 72.83 75.57 76.80 75.49 74.87 75.26 76.84

Average GPA Degree program 6.26 5.00 6.28 6.03 6.08 5.95 5.86 6.18

Time to completion (in years)

BC HS 5.40 5.00 5.60 4.80 5.00 4.90 5.10 5.50 BC College 3.20 2.90 3.70 3.20 3.30 3.80 3.30 3.40 Other 3.90 3.90 4.70 3.70 4.00 4.20 4.00 4.30 Total 4.40 4.00 4.80 4.00 4.30 4.40 4.30 4.40

(Source: UVic Institutional Planning and Analysis)


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The profile of the students entering the graduate program is mixed, with an increasing number of students returning from employment to upgrade to a Masters or PhD. Many of our PhD applicants have senior positions within government (federal and provincial). Most of our students are Canadian, although we have a solid cross section of students from Europe, SE Asia, and South America, and will soon experience a significant influx of funded African students. The fee differential imposed on foreign students appears to be a deterrent to many. There are slightly more female than male students in the graduate program. 2.8 Underrepresented and designated groups

Table 2.6 provides information on the status of the undergraduate student population regarding designated groups as reported by UVic’s Office of Institutional Planning and Analysis. As the University does not request that students self‐identify as one of the other groups, these statistics are not known. 2.9 Student retention

The Department of Geography attracts and retains high calibre students. Our undergraduate students participate in the Society of Geography Students (SOGS), the Western Division of the CAG, and departmental activities such as the Geography Student Conference. We encourage excellence and retention through an undergraduate scholarship program, including the Ross Geography Scholarships that provides support of approximately $25,000 annually.

We are undertaking several activities to grow our program with the highest quality students and have struck a Recruitment and Retention Committee to co‐ordinate these activities. In addition to the Faculty‐wide initiative to redesign websites, these efforts can be categorized as: 1) community outreach and student recruitment; 2) enhancing the first year experience; and 3) enriching the student experience.

Community outreach and recruitment activities include the Geographers in Schools (G‐I‐S) program, the creation of a promotional video, community mapping activities, and curriculum development for departmental tours and university events. G‐I‐S is a program initiated by SOGS whereby geography undergraduate students attend local high schools and educate Grade 11 and 12 students about opportunities in geography and the general university experience. The Department is working with SOGS to build on this activity through curriculum development and having a long‐term faculty liaison with the high schools. The Department is also creating a promotional video, highlighting research activities, which will link to our website and be shown on monitors throughout the geography building. Several community mapping initiatives are being undertaken to engage and educate the public about geography. Finally, we are working with UVic campus tours to develop curriculum for public tours of the Department. Tours will highlight research activities and educate the public on the many exciting aspects of geography.

An important goal of the Department is to assist first year students in feeling an integral part of Geography and of UVic. Enhancing the first year experience includes offering excellent instruction, providing senior student mentors, and hosting first year departmental social events. SOGS has initiated a mentor program, whereby senior students are available to answer questions on course work or campus life.

In the Fall of 2009, we hosted a first year barbeque attended by SOGS, graduate students, staff, and faculty. In 2009 we also initiated a Fall newsletter, primarily aimed at first year students and


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potential new recruits, which describes some of the exciting projects our students were engaged in over the summer (Volume 4). We are also developing a new brochure that outlines the nature of the discipline, the program at UVic, and what students can do with a Geography degree.

Enriching the student experience occurs through curriculum development and communication, experiential learning, seminars, conferences, and social activities. As noted previously, and detailed later, we have undergone a major curriculum review that has resulted in an excellent and engaging program. We use our online GeogPlan for disseminating this and other information on our undergraduate program.

As part of the curriculum review, new “service courses” have been added. The Department also offers a large number of field courses and experiential student activities that contribute to our retention of students. Geography is also active in engaging students through weekly colloquiums and discussion groups. As an example, Nelson’s “Spatial Salon” is hosted each semester to engage students with readings in spatial analysis. Finally, the Department hosts an annual Geography Student Conference, where all students are invited to present papers and posters on student projects or thesis research. This event is an opportunity for students to learn about each other’s work, gain experience in communicating research, and connect with faculty. Other social events are held to enable students, particularly graduate students, to associate with each other and faculty. For instance, the Geography AGM and slide competition are anticipated events and excellent for departmental collegiality. Graduate student orientation, where first year graduate students take a 3‐day field trip with faculty, has a strong positive impact on retention, helping students to settle into our program and build a social network.

At the graduate level, maintaining and enhancing faculty research profiles is key to attracting and retaining high quality students. This is obviously successful given the size of our graduate program, but we are also active in the redesign of our website and production of brochures and newsletters that help disseminate to potential grad students the nature of our research programs. Since UVic instituted an application fee for graduate students, the Department has strongly suggested that potential graduate students make contact with a potential supervisor prior to application. At this stage many potential supervisors will discourage students from applying if they feel the student does not meet University standards and/or is otherwise not a good “fit” for the Department in terms of supervisory opportunity. Hence, the number of applications does not constitute an accurate measure of demand for our program.

Quality of the Student Experience and the Learning Environment

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Criterion 3 Quality of the Student Experience and the Learning Environment

3.1 Review of the undergraduate and graduate curricula

A major review of the undergraduate program was conducted in 2009. The review, which included a SWOT analysis to identify major areas of future opportunity, identified five main goals:

• Improve the sustainability of the curriculum by reducing the number of course offerings, while enhancing enrolment, maintaining a wide breadth of course offerings, and remaining focused on areas of future opportunity;

• Increase the opportunity for experiential learning;

• Maintain and enhance the international component in the curriculum;

• Reflect changing faculty expertise in the undergraduate program due to recent hires and retirements; and

• Maintain and enhance the high quality instructional environment that has resulted in our currently successful program.

The curriculum review process identified the characteristics of the “ideal” graduating geography student in terms of the skills and knowledge they should have acquired, and then each of the four thematic instructional areas—biophysical, environment and sustainability, geomatics, and human—identified their ideal student. Each group then defined a range of fourth, third, second, and first year courses that would be needed to support the learning outcomes identified for the ideal student. This suite of courses was then compared with existing offerings to identify changes that needed to be made. A one day workshop held in the Learning and Teaching Centre, facilitated by Dawson, assisted with this process, and included faculty, staff, and both undergraduate and graduate students, as well as alumni. A well‐attended follow‐up meeting was held with the SOGS to overview the proposed changes, and this also resulted in further changes to the proposed new curriculum.

The end result of this process was a consensus on a new curriculum that we think will achieve the outcomes detailed above. Overall, it provides more focus, reduces the number of courses offered, reduces the dependency on sessional instructors, emphasizes our strengths, and should be attractive to students. We increased the number of service courses and also reduced prerequisites on some courses where this was deemed acceptable by the instructor.

A review of the graduate program was also undertaken in 2009. The main revisions to the program were submitted for the calendar in the Fall of 2009 and will come into effect in Fall 2010. All graduate course offerings were reviewed in terms of how they offered advanced training within our four thematic areas (i.e., biophysical, environment and sustainability, geomatics, and human) and met core program requirements. In addition, it was agreed that all graduate courses should be offered regularly (at least once in a 24‐month period) and that courses that had not been offered regularly would be removed from the curriculum. This resulted in the removal of several courses (540 series) that served the program during a time when more course credits were required to obtain a degree.

The revised graduate program recognizes the need for focus on areas of research specialization while maintaining exposure to broader geographical theories and concepts. The program accomplishes this via a new tiered approach to course work (see Table 1, Chapter 1). Tier 1 is the required core cohort course (GEOG 500, 3.0 credits over two semesters). This course was


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redeveloped from an existing offering that focused on Colloquium and Communication in Geography with salient content from GEOG 522 (Geographical Enquiry), which delivered broad exposure to key geographical approaches and philosophies. The new GEOG 500 is required for all graduate students and has three main objectives: i) to review current research paradigms and approaches in Geography; ii) to assist students in developing their research proposals, and iii) to expose students to research services and effective communication and presentation methods. The required colloquium component of the old GEOG 500 was removed and will be managed by a faculty member for service credit. Students will be strongly encouraged to attend.

Tier 2 provides a series of methods courses that explore various research techniques and develop analytical skills. Methods courses are a required component in our degree programs, and recently GEOG 518 (Advanced Spatial Analysis) was added as a cross‐listed option (with GEOG 418) for graduate students in geomatics, or other areas, wanting to build expertise in spatial analysis and statistics.

Tier 3 allows students to focus on research developments in key thematic areas (biophysical, environment and sustainability, geomatics, and human) via advanced seminar courses. These courses are a core component to our program as they provide in‐depth exploration of leading edge and foundational research paradigms and literature in our sub‐fields. Greater emphasis is being placed on consistency of structure and objectives in these courses.

At Tier 4, students can build expertise by exploring Directed Studies (GEOG 590) courses, largely tailored to individuals, and now, a Selected Topics (GEOG 591) course to allow offerings of specialized topics to smaller groups of students by visiting, adjunct, or regular faculty. Numerous 591s could be offered in a given year, depending on interested faculty and students.

The major changes to the graduate program are: i) the core course (GEOG 500) was expanded in terms of objectives and incorporation of content on broad geographical philosophies and methods from GEOG 522; ii) all graduate students must take the core course to strengthen the cohort effect; and iii) the 540 series was removed. The end product is a streamlined program that allows more flexibility and focus, for those who desire it. Under the new program, Masters students are required to complete a minimum of 7.5 units of course work and PhD students require 4.5 units. This is an increase from 6.0 and 3.0, for Masters and PhD respectively, due to increased credit for the core GEOG 500 course, and will see no increase in course load over the old program. Although maintaining a relatively low required course load was recognized as an important recruitment strategy, advisory committees may recommend additional coursework at their discretion.

The Department also discussed offering shorter, 1‐year, course‐based Masters degrees as favoured by some other departments in the Faculty. This would increase student enrolments, but would require a greater suite of course offerings and additional staffing. It was decided that our enrolments are already among the highest in the Faculty and that such an offering would be to the detriment of the quality of our graduate teaching and research offerings. 3.2 Learning objectives

Stemming from the review of the curriculum discussed above, the Department has sought ways to strengthen the undergraduate program through processes that are cumulative and integrative. By integrative it is meant that all geography students take courses from each stream to ensure that they are introduced to the richness, complexity, and unifying strength of the discipline. By cumulative it is meant that courses and their content are structured incrementally. Students increase the depth and breadth of their geographical knowledge in successive years


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over the course of completing a degree. The goal is to achieve mastery over different types of geographical knowledge (e.g., factual, conceptual, theoretical), preparing students for more advanced post‐graduate study, or at the very least, providing students with accumulated knowledge and a useful set of skills for entry into the labour force.

The process of developing skills and acquiring knowledge begins in a simplified way and becomes more complex as a student proceeds towards the completion of their Bachelors degree. This process is anchored by first year foundation courses. Lifting anchor, so‐called bridging courses are completed during the second and third years of study. Learning objectives culminate in fourth year mastery and capstone courses—or for some, the Honours program of specialized thesis research. This basic process of learning and knowledge acquisition applies to each of the geographical streams.

General academic and discipline‐specific skills are central to the learning objectives and desired outcomes of the Department’s curriculum. In particular, students are shown ways to think critically; to engage in creative problem solving; to write in the manner appropriate to a social scientist, scientist, or humanist; and to become analytically inclined by evaluating data and making informed statistical judgments. Students are also instructed to appreciate context when problem solving.

Beyond these general objectives, discipline‐specific learning outcomes are stressed: to appreciate a range of geographic perspectives and philosophical viewpoints; to understand the comprehensiveness of the discipline; to be excited about what it means to be a geographer; and to understand the intrinsic value of a geography degree. For geographers‐in‐the‐making, competency in reading maps and basic statistical reasoning and computer skills are essential. So too is the use, where appropriate, of questionnaire surveys, archival research, and data collection in the field. The importance of collaboration and team work is demonstrated throughout the program, as is the value of contributing spatial knowledge to a civil society. Oral communication skills are essential to imparting knowledge; they are first practiced in first‐year labs and tutorials, but honed particularly in fourth‐year seminar courses.

Additional learning goals are specific to geographical streams. Appendix 1 shows the course structure within each thematic area. Biophysical geographers are given a strong foundation in ecological, geomorphological, geological, ocean, and atmospheric processes. Human geographers are taught to appreciate the role of social, economic, cultural, political, and environmental factors in shaping human landscapes. As with other streams, the integration of knowledge is central to the Environment and Society program; here, the interconnections among environment, sustainability, and society are emphasized. For example, the learning objectives for the introductory environment course (GEOG 101A) are shown in Table 3.1. Lastly, the geomatics stream requires that students understand the fundamentals of geographic data, conduct field‐based research, demonstrate both statistical and computer skills, and gain competency in computer software. Despite this specificity, it bears repeating that the process of acquiring knowledge is integrative. For instance, students in all streams are required to take courses that offer instruction in quantitative and qualitative methods, mapping techniques, and the use of computers for problem solving.


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Table 3.1 Learning objectives for Geography 101A

Upon course completion students will:

1. Have a basic understanding of fundamental planetary processes such as energy flows and biogeochemical cycling;

2. Appreciate the ways in which humans change these processes, the implications of so doing, and potential solutions to these problems;

3. Understand the historical development of environmental problems and differences in spatial occurrence;

4. Develop critical and analytical thinking techniques and apply these to environmental problems;

5. Be able to critically analyze environmental problems from differing perspectives;

6. Understand the role of values in environmental decision‐making;

7. Understand the need for a comprehensive approach to environmental change involving the natural and social sciences;

8. Appreciate the role of Geography as a synthesizing discipline based on analysis of space and place and the links to specific courses in the Department of Geography that will provide more detailed insights into these challenges;

9. Have been exposed to a limited range of field and GIS techniques;

10. Be aware of fundamental academic research and research skills such as library searches, style of presentation, bibliographic citation formats, etc.;

11. Have worked in team projects that require co‐operation, planning, and the delivery of timely outputs;

12. Be aware of, and make informed judgments about, current environmental problems;

13. Be empowered to undertake changes in their own lifestyles that will lead to more sustainable futures.

Not all students learn equally, of course. Thus an overarching objective of the department is to facilitate students with learning opportunities in several different ways. The encouragement of good writing skills depends greatly upon an individual faculty member’s or teaching assistant’s willingness to take the time to offer thoughtful critiques and on‐going guidance. If serious writing problems or learning disabilities are identified, the department refers students to an appropriate service on campus. For writing, this means the Writing Centre; for a learning disability, it is the Learning Skills Program offered by Student and Ancillary Services. These services are associated, respectively, with UVIC’s Learning and Teaching Centre and its Counselling Services. 3.3 Teaching allocations and steps to maintain teaching excellence

The Department has made a focused effort to reduce the numbers of sessionals involved in teaching, and this was one of the goals of our curriculum review. However, the research success enjoyed by many of our faculty also involves teaching buyouts that require the increased use of sessional instructors. For example, in the 2008‐09 academic year only three regular faculty members were engaged in teaching a full course load, although some of these time reallocations were due to maternity, parental, and study leaves. The Faculty has a Policy on Work Substitution that is followed by the Department Chair, which sets guidelines for course buyouts. However, this


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does create some tension as faculty members are encouraged to apply for research funding to develop their research interests and also strengthen the graduate program, but may not be allowed course buyouts that are deemed to be detrimental to the Departmental teaching program.

The Geography Department maintains a culture of teaching excellence and several members have been rewarded externally for their efforts. Each Departmental member is encouraged to keep an up‐to‐date teaching dossier and attend University‐sponsored teaching enhancement opportunities, such as at the Learning and Teaching Centre. The Director of the Centre is a member of the Department. In addition, the Chair and Merit Advisory Committee pay keen attention to student course evaluations. The Department helps sponsor the Learning and Teaching Centre’s new program to improve the teaching capabilities of graduate teaching assistants. In addition, we have an annual award, the Gillian Sherwin Teaching Award, to recognize outstanding teaching assistants and sessional instructors. 3.4 Student experience with respect to the National Survey of Student Engagement

The 2008 National Survey of Student Engagement Results show that 70% of first year Geography students and 93% of fourth year students evaluated their entire educational experience as excellent or good compared with 83% of first year students in the Faculty of Social Sciences and 84% UVic general and 86% of fourth year students in the Faculty of Social Sciences and 85% UVic general. This suggests that our first year is not doing as well as it might in terms of student engagement, but the rest of our program is well above average. This finding is surprising given our high and improving second year enrolments (Table 2.3). Nonetheless, we have implemented several changes this year to improve the quality of the first year experience including re‐allocation of teaching assignments, reformulation of course contents and the development of first‐year oriented social events such as the barbeque and geocaching initiatives. 3.5 Internationalization

The Department of Geography has a long history of international engagement, and is known for its strong support for international initiatives on campus. The Department plays a pre‐eminent role in advancing UVic’s Strategic Plan objectives of enhancing the quality of both undergraduate and graduate education through greater internationalization of the university. Internationalization pervades the Department’s mandated responsibilities of teaching, research, and service.

Many Department members are involved in international research and development projects around the globe (Table 3.2). For some, international work is a career focus, while others participate on a more occasional basis. Funding for these initiatives has been obtained from a diverse group of Canadian and foreign agencies, including SSHRC, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Shastri‐Indo Canadian Institute, International Development Research Centre (IDRC), CIHR, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, among others. Three large CIDA projects (budgets exceeding $1,000,000) are currently based in the department. Two of these are University Partnerships in Cooperation in Development (UPCD) Tier 2 program grants – two only UPCD grants currently held at UVic. Two Departmental members are co‐investigators in a recently awarded SSHRC‐IDRC International Community University Research Alliance (ICURA) based at Vancouver Island University involving work in Tanzania, Ghana, and Canada. All graduate students (9 PhDs, 6 Masters) funded under this initiative will undertake their work in the Department. Several faculty members also have key roles (e.g., Members of the Executive Committee) with internationally‐focused research centres on campus such as the Centre for


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Global Studies and the Centre for Asia Pacific Initiatives. In addition, several are actively involved with advising international organizations and overseas governments with professional advice on various development issues, and their experiences are readily shared with students through their teaching.

Table 3.2 Examples of recent and current international projects undertaken by

Departmental members

Country Project

CANESSA Ghana/ Tanzania

The Relationship between poverty and protected areas in Tanzania, Ghana and Canada (ICURA, SSHRC/IDRC)

India Development of partnership opportunities with PRIA (Shastri)

COSTA Brazil Ecosystem and carbon dynamics of large tropical wetlands and rivers

DEARDEN Thailand Assessing the sustainability of an incentive‐based conservation mechanism: SCUBA diving in Thailand (SSHRC)

Cambodia Developing effective community based conservation practices for the South Cardamom Mountains (GoC, Barbara Delano Foundation)

China Developing protected area and community capacity for re‐introduction of the South China tiger (GEF, GoC)

Ghana/ Tanzania

The relationship between poverty and protected areas in Tanzania, Ghana, and Canada (ICURA, SSHRC/IDRC)

India Development of partnership opportunities with PRIA (Shastri)

Mexico Sustainability of the whale‐shark watching industry in Holbox (SSHRC)

Comoros Sustainability and governance of artisanal fisheries (SSHRC)

Sri Lanka Planning for biodiversity conservation in Sri Lanka’s protected area system (GEF)

FLAHERTY Mozambique Southern Oceans Education and Development (SOED) Project: Building sustainable aquaculture in Mozambique (CIDA‐UPCD)

Thailand Building capacity to manage aquaculture in Thailand (CIDA‐UPCD)

India Development of a knowledge base for coastal aquaculture policy‐making, planning and management

Brazil Brazilian mariculture linkage program. CIDA UPCD Tier 1 Grant

Laos Environmental protection and community development in Siphandone Wetland, Champassak Province, Lao PDR (EU)

GUTBERLET Brazil Cuba

Participatory sustainable waste management project (CIDA‐UPCD) Participatory video: Educational capacity building (IDRC) Participatory rapid appraisal of the fishing communities in Arraial do Cabo (Petrobràs Ambiental) Waste scavenging, informal recycling, and health in São Paulo (MSFHR‐UVic) From Conucos to current‐day urban agriculture: Cuba’s communal answer to food and health sustainability (UVic‐DPSMG)

JOSEPHSON India United States

Community mapping, development of partnership opportunities with PRIA (Shastri) Community mapping resources with Global Green Map System (greenmap.org)

LONERGAN Iraq Canada‐Iraq Marshlands Initiative


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McCANN Italy Literary Atlas of Atlantic Canada

NELSON Sri Lanka Developing veterinary public health capacity in low and middle income countries: A critical need for emerging zoonotic disease preparedness (CIHR/IDRC)

OSTRY Australia Comparative food security policy

PROWSE Norway Modelling of ice‐covered lake regimes (Norwegian Water Resources Institute)

Russia Freshwater budget of the Arctic (State Hydrologic Institute, Russia; Arctic Council‐AMAP‐SWIPA)

United States Synthesizing international understanding of Arctic hydrologic cycle (International Arctic Research Center and others)

New Zealand Climate control of the Mackenzie River Basin (University of Otago)

WCIRC plays a major role in international activities. Wrona, the WCIRC Director, is the Canadian Head Delegate for the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP), the Lead Author for the Arctic Biodiversity Assessment of Freshwater Ecosystems for the Arctic Council ‐ Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna Program, and was the Canadian Head Delegate for the 2007 UNESCO International Hydrology Program (IHP). Prowse is a member of the Scientific Steering Group of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP), Climate and the Cryosphere (CliC) program, as well as the international team lead for “The Terrestrial Cryosphere and Hydroclimatology of Cold Regions.” He is a convening lead author for the Arctic Council sponsored Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, Snow Water Ice and Permafrost in the Arctic assessment, and has been lead author for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), as well as their most recent report on Climate Change and Water. He also acts as Senior Scientist Advisor for Canada's National Committee to the UNESCO‐International Hydrologic Program (IHP), and is the Associate Editor for the international journal, Hydrological Processes.

All faculty members are engaged in other activities that contribute to the internationalization of the Department. These activities include participation in international conferences, serving on the editorial boards of international journals, acting as referees for research proposals submitted to international funding agencies, acting as advisors for international agencies, working with community groups and NGOs in developing countries, and maintaining memberships in international academic and/or professional societies. The Department’s commitment to internationalization is reflected in its undergraduate curriculum, which serves to enhance student awareness of cultural, social, economic, political, and environmental issues in a global context. We offer regional geography courses in South East Asia, Japan, Latin America, and South America, courses on international development, and have other courses that have significant international content (for example, 101A, 101B, 211, 218, 314, 357, 441, 457, 458). In 2009‐10 we are offering World Political Geography for the first time in many years, and the course is full to capacity.

However, the regional course offerings of the Department are changing. A Pacific Rim focus was originally specified, but we have not replaced faculty members in this field over the years and the focus on this region has been considerably weakened. At the same time, regional interest in South and Central America has grown with the hiring of Costa and Gutberlet. This change does not reflect a deliberate shift in regional focus by the Department (both Costa and Gutberlet were hired for their thematic expertise), but an enrichment with respect to the range of international offerings possible. The Department has also been engaged as a lead unit at UVic in developing closer links with India as a follow‐up to keen interest shown by the University in further development of ties to South Asia.


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At the graduate student level, internationalization is evident in two key areas. First, owing to the large network of international contacts that has been established by faculty, together with their success in obtaining research funding, it has been possible to provide many students the opportunity to conduct their thesis/dissertation research outside of Canada. Countries in which geography students have recently completed their research or are currently working include Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Comores, Ghana, India, Iraq, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Mexico, Mozambique, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Tanzania, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Second, the Department encourages foreign students to enrol in its graduate program. These students come from a range of countries that of late include Brazil, India, Thailand, England, and the United States, among others. A considerable number of African students will soon be entering the graduate program as a result of the new ICURA grant.

Our students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels benefit from initiatives to bring international speakers to the Department. In 2008, Nelson secured a visit by one of the world’s most celebrated geographers, Peter Haggett from Bristol University in the UK. In 2009, with the support of the UVic Women’s Scholar Series, we brought Tundi Agardy of the US, author of the coastal section of the global Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, to campus for a week to discuss her ground breaking work in ocean conservation.

Consistent with the University Strategic Plan, we intend to maintain and enhance the Department’s strong contributions to international work. This is reflected in our recent curriculum review and the maintenance of our overseas regional courses. Our future hiring plan will target international experience in at least one position. In the future, we plan to offer an overseas field course as part of our contribution to the experiential learning mandate of the University, as described in the next section.

Geography graduates report that their UVic education was very helpful in areas related to internationalization. According to question 43 in the 2006 survey of 2004 graduates, 60% said their education had been very helpful in preparing them with skills in global issues (compared to 44% for all Social Sciences graduates), 57% said the same in relation to interconnections between local and global issues (compared to 42% for all Social Sciences graduates), and 32% said the same in relation to knowledge and traditions of other countries and cultures (compared to 37% for all Social Sciences graduates). 3.6 Experiential learning

Experiential learning—or learning beyond the classroom—has long been a focus of the teaching mission of the Geography Department. Recently enhanced efforts have been made in this area to reflect the emphasis of the University Strategic Plan on experiential learning as a key part of the UVic learning experience. The goal is to provide geography students with opportunities for engaging in real‐world experiences that complement course instruction and thus enhance the process of learning and knowledge acquisition. There are currently three main paths to experiential learning: institutionally‐sponsored efforts (especially UVic’s Co‐operative Education Program); instructor‐led initiatives; and the self‐directed actions of students.

The Department has been a leader and participant in Co‐operative Education at UVic for almost 30 years. Within the Faculty of Social Sciences, geography students typically occupy about 40% of available work‐term positions (Table 3.3). While the actual number of placements ebbs and flows with the strength of the economy, in a typical year at least 75 geography students will enjoy the Co‐op experience. This is all to the good because Co‐op jobs often lead to career‐affirming


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experiences. To participate, students must maintain a strong second‐class standing (B+); and for students to receive the “Co‐op” designation as part of their degree, they must currently complete four—typically three‐ or four‐month—work terms. Work terms range throughout the public and private sectors, with most opportunities found with local, provincial, or federal government departments. Most students take up jobs in BC, but cross‐Canada and international work terms also exist. Geography has deliberately decided not to promote Graduate Co‐op, as our experience shows this leads to increasing time to thesis completion and attrition from our program. Table 3.3 Yearly Co‐op placements, 2004 to 2009

2004‐05 2005‐06 2006‐07 2007‐08 2008‐09 Average

Anthropology 14 26 16 16 15 17

Anthropology – Grad 0 1 4 0 1 1

Economics 7 20 34 23 19 21

Economics – Grad 29 26 29 22 20 25

Geography 89 76 70 78 92 81

Geography – Grad 1 2 3 2 1 2

Political Science 14 17 33 26 27 23

Political Science – Grad 0 1 4 6 8 4

Psychology 12 7 10 15 18 12

Sociology 9 9 9 6 12 9

Sociology – Grad 5 6 7 5 4 5

Totals 188 199 228 203 222 208

All discipline streams include experiential learning within their course offerings. Examples where faculty have facilitated learning opportunities beyond the classroom include participation in marine and wildlife conservation work, physical geography field camp, heritage research, urban planning workshops, conference planning, attendance at municipal council and planning meetings, involvement in community mapping projects, liaison with social advocacy groups, and meeting experts during field trips in both the Greater Victoria region and elsewhere across BC. Even with the large numbers of students involved in our first year classes, a field component is included with, for example, students in the introductory environment course being exposed to field techniques such as use of maps, compass, and GPS, and ways of describing vegetation patterns including sampling designs and species identification. At the other end of the curriculum, students get detailed instruction in field techniques such as dendrochronology and social survey design and implementation.

In line with the University Strategic Plan and overall desire to provide in‐depth experiential opportunities for our students, the Department has expanded the range and number of formal field courses and, given sufficient resources, will continue to do so. In particular, we are planning to make a “field term” a key part of our summer offerings. Current formal field courses are shown in Table 3.4. The Department is able, to some extent, to offset financial barriers to student participation in field courses through application of our Ross Fund endowment as subsidies for attendance. However, given the growth in offerings in experiential courses, the demands on the fund exceed the amounts available and this is a constraint on the future growth of our field program.


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Table 3.4 Geography field courses

Field courses: Courses that include field trips:

424 – Field Studies in Coastal Geomorphology 319 – Remote Sensing of the Environment

453 – Field Studies in Coastal and Marine Resources 340 – Geography of the City

457 – Marine Protected Areas 343 – Planning and Urban Development

474 – Advanced Biogeographical Concepts 353 – Coastal and Marine Resources I

477 – Field Studies in Physical Geography 357 – Protected Areas

370 – Hydrology

376 – Geomorphology I

420 – Field Studies in Coastal Geomatics

440 – Interpreting the Suburban Landscape

441 – The Design and Planning of Cities

Geog/EOS 120 – Introduction to the Earth System II

Students are also encouraged to create experiential learning opportunities themselves to round out their university education. Many of these self‐directed actions typically involve issues of social justice, community health, food security, or environmental concern. For example, geography students are currently at work creating a food‐growing demonstration project on little‐used university land. Another important initiative involves students who have taken it upon themselves to visit local schools to promote Geography. The experiential initiatives of geography students demonstrate convincingly that the discipline offers ample opportunity for personal growth and for making meaningful contributions to a civil and just society.

Although Geography is a keen and proven supporter of the University’s emphasis on experiential learning, there are some costs involved that are over and above the obvious financial costs. One challenge is that most field courses must restrict student numbers due to transportation/logistical costs, safety reasons, and the need for detailed personal instruction. By sponsoring such courses at the expense of higher enrolment classroom‐based courses, the Department is fulfilling the overall University objective of increasing the experiential learning options for students, but at the same time is compromising our ability to reach our enrolment targets. In reviews of Departmental performance, it is often the latter that is prioritized by the Administration, and there must be some appreciation of the nature of the trade‐offs involved if we are to continue to expand our field program. The addition of a Senior Instructor position is one way to help alleviate this problem. Another way is to encourage higher enrolment in our junior courses to help “subsidize” the smaller numbers of students in our field courses.

Our graduate program is a research‐focused degree at both the Masters and PhD levels and virtually all graduate students are involved in extended experiential learning. This occurs via direct engagement with and/or increasing research internship positions sponsored by industrial, community, or government agencies (e.g., MITACS/Accelerate BC Graduate Research Internship Program Awards, NSERC Industrial postgraduate scholarships). In addition, the Department sponsors a field camp orientation for incoming students on southern Vancouver Island where they are exposed to the local geography via field trips and outdoor activities and build a strong cohort via interaction with each other and attending faculty and staff.


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3.7 Integrating research with learning and teaching

Integration of faculty research with learning and teaching is a central part of the Department‘s approach to instruction. Essay assignments in many undergraduate classes require students to conduct their own research using scholarly sources (especially peer‐reviewed journals), and many faculty support this by requiring students to attend library training sessions taught by librarians that familiarize students with online sources and distinctions among different types of sources.

Each faculty member teaches in their main area of expertise and has ample opportunity to include examples of their research programs in classes at all levels. At higher levels, GIS courses often use data directly from the research of faculty members. In fourth year seminar classes, more detailed examination of faculty members’ research programs is possible. Geography faculty members are very active in research and all members involve the students in their research programs in their instructional roles.

We recently introduced a new course in our coastal program, GEOG 352, Geography of the Coastal Zone, that was specifically designed to provide a vehicle for faculty members and graduate students to discuss their research programs with undergraduates. The course has proven very popular since its inception.

Students are introduced to various modes of research inquiry in individual courses. At the first year level, they are exposed to elementary biophysical approaches of a quantitative nature as well as bibliographic research. Second year includes a course on quantitative methods, whereas third year offers a new course on methods in human geography that will span a range of methodological approaches from survey design through to qualitative research and interpretive methods, including various kinds of discourse analysis and case studies. This course will be offered in 2010‐11 and is a combination of our previous two human geography methods courses, one on survey design and the other on qualitative approaches, both of which were offered on an irregular basis by sessional faculty. Our “Directions in Geography” course also overviews the main paradigms that have guided research in geography over the years.

Students in the Geography Department have many opportunities for involvement in primary and applied research experiences through the Co‐op program (as reviewed above) and in our many field courses. Many fourth year field courses require an independent research project providing students with research experience from design to dissemination. In addition, several faculty members make a practice of hiring undergraduate research assistants to provide lab support. This is especially true in the UVic Tree Ring, BLAST, GIS, SPAR, Whale Research, MPARG, and Community‐based Research labs. Students also have an opportunity to enrol in Directed Studies courses, working directly with a faculty member. These students have typically completed all courses in a specific area and are searching for more in‐depth learning opportunities that often involve direct collaboration with faculty in research. Some of these Directed Studies courses have resulted in conference presentations and peer‐reviewed journal articles. The Honours program fulfils a similar but more taxing role, and has also resulted in conference presentations and peer‐reviewed journal articles.

At the graduate level, the integration of research and learning and teaching is integral to the program as all of our degree offerings are research‐oriented and require close mentorship with advising faculty and research partners. As such, all students gain firsthand experience in primary data collection and analysis, learn technical writing and presentation skills, and develop independent research ability. Many students gain direct teaching experience via teaching assistantships during their program.


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3.8 Civic engagement within the local, regional, national, and international community

Our students are very engaged in civic activity. Many participate in student governance and in local community initiatives related to their research or sometimes related to their own interests (e.g., common energy, food security, campus community gardens). Students also volunteer in research projects for several local groups and serve as members on municipal advisory committees (e.g., heritage, planning, food security, QUEST‐food recovery). Government and NGO speakers are often invited to speak in geography classes and students become exposed to the wide array of avenues available to become involved with civic engagement.

Civic engagement is a focal point for the research and teaching activities of many faculty members. Faculty members participate in local and regional community forums, such as town council meetings (Victoria, Parksville, Qualicum, etc.), or more specific meetings like the Nanaimo Stroke Collaborative meetings, for example. They are also engaged internationally at community and national levels in disseminating their research findings and applying them to local situations. The Community‐based Research Lab has a particularly high profile in this regard, and members of the group often attend civic meetings and are quoted in local media outlets.

The Department has also been very supportive of the Community Mapping initiative started by Common Ground, a project of LifeCycles, a local NGO. The initiative involves several other units on campus (e.g., School of Environmental Studies, Office of Community‐based Research, Campus Planning and Sustainability) and is engaged in many initiatives with community groups, schools, local and provincial government, and First Nations. Geography’s Community‐based Research Lab has also applied these mapping techniques in the local context (e.g., binning mapping) and in international settings (e.g., traditional fisheries in Brazil). We recognize the value of this work and are developing more formal courses and means of support, including dedicated staff time and equipment.

Faculty members also serve on specific professional bodies, for example, the Advisory Planning Committee for the Oak Bay Municipality, a review committee of the City of Victoria Heritage Planning initiatives. Some faculty members are active in national and international committees (e.g., Vice Chair Canadian Committee of the International Geography Union, Co‐Chair of Parks Canada’s National Marine Conservation Area Science Advisory Committee, and board member of the National Capital Commission). Many members are asked to speak and also deliver keynote addresses at meetings of professional associations and government ministries.

Another opportunity to disseminate research findings, to learn about demands for further research, and to stimulate civic engagement is provided by the organization of public events. Some, for example, have been involved with organizing initiatives such as the ‘Ministry of Health Policy Rounds’ or a local public forum on ‘Inclusive Waste Management,’ as well as public seminars and conferences in other parts of Canada and abroad (e.g., workshops and seminars organized in São Paulo, Brazil on participatory sustainable waste management).

Many faculty members have been contacted to take part in TV and radio interviews on their research, not surprisingly given the applied nature of the research engaged in by most faculty members. Topics range from seniors and dignity and building healthy communities for older adults through to climate change impacts and adaptation and the need for greater ocean conservation. Geography faculty members have also been profiled extensively by university news services and the reports disseminated through various forms, such as local newspapers.

Those faculty involved in the Coasts Under Stress SSHRC‐NSERC MCRI program (2002‐07) were significantly involved in civic engagement activities through this research in/with coastal communities in BC, to understand the impacts of, and responses to, environmental and socio‐economic restructuring on the lives, health, and well‐being of community members.


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Similar engagement with coastal communities is a main focus of the work of the Marine Protected Areas Research Group relating to programs in Thailand, Cambodia, China, and Africa. The recently funded ICURA is specifically designed to create civic engagement with protected area communities in Ghana, Tanzania, and the west coast of Vancouver Island.

The Community‐based Research Laboratory (CBRL) also demonstrates the involvement of students and faculty with local and international communities, engaged in enhancing citizenship and in building more sustainable communities. This laboratory carries out community‐driven projects in Victoria and in BC, as well as in Latin America (website: cbrl.uvic.ca). CBRL conducts capacity building workshops and produces educational material, such as video documentaries, involving students and community members. Members and representatives of local communities are involved in finding and implementing solutions to their social, economic, and environmental problems. The CIDA‐AUCC‐UPCD‐funded University Partnership Program entitled Participatory Sustainable Waste Management (PSWM) is another concrete example of promoting and enhancing international civic engagement (pswm.uvic.ca).

There are many other examples that illustrate activities in networking, research dissemination, and community outreach and civic engagement. Several faculty members, for example, are prominent members of NGOs and provide students with good opportunities to become involved themselves. 3.9 Student groups

Extra‐curricular student activity is a very strong adjunct to the academic programs, and the Department has provided extensive support for these activities. The key organization is the course union—the Society of Geography Students (SOGS)—which was initiated as a course union under the University of Victoria Student Society constitution in 1984 and has been active since then.

SOGS meets weekly during the Fall and Spring terms, has a well‐structured executive and constitution, maintains a website,1 and since 2006, a Facebook site2 (Students of Geography), and organizes social events for students and academic‐career events to promote student‐faculty interaction. The Geography Department has co‐operated extensively, in part by providing a dedicated meeting room, the Geography Undergraduate Student Commons (SSM B323), which SOGS can use for meetings and for small social events.

Another significant part of the Geography Department's support of SOGS’ activities is the financial support it allocates for academic pursuits. Each year a SOGS delegation of about 20 undergraduate students attends the WDCAG conference, with fund‐raising, preparation, and participation creating an annual highlight that combines a social and an academic purpose.

1 http://www.geog.uvic.ca/dept2/undergrad/sogs/sogshome.html 2 http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=2213245694


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UVic had one of the largest delegations at each of these conferences, with financial support from the Department (the largest single component of financial support), from SOGS’ fund‐raising and individual delegate’s contributions, from the University of Victoria Student Society, and from the Faculty of Social Sciences.

SOGS also organizes regular seminars on topics such as getting into graduate studies, hosts geography‐related movie nights, and organizes social events for students that, while not being academic in nature, do extend the networking capability of building a geography student community on campus.

Former graduates from the Geography Department are invited to discuss their career paths since leaving UVic and to offer insights on how their degree has helped prepare them for professional life, either in government, business, law, the non‐profit sector, teaching, and others. This is a social evening and assists students understand how they might better construct their undergraduate programs with various career choices in mind.

SOGS also distributes a weekly "e‐zine" SOGS NOTES by email to 773 subscribers (including 422 current UVic students and the balance mostly alumni), with sections on SOGS meeting minutes, current events, grad studies opportunities, awards, and jobs.3

The other key geography student group, an off‐shoot of SOGS, is Geographers‐In‐Schools (G‐I‐S).4 G‐I‐S is open to all UVic students, but its core active membership of about 10 students is drawn mainly from Geography undergraduates who, as the name implies, visit local high schools. Geography Department staff members assist G‐I‐S in making presentational materials and the Department is increasing its level of support for this initiative.

The major link that brings undergraduate students into the Geography Department’s decision‐making organization is the appointment and of an undergraduate representative who participates fully in Geography Department meetings. The student then reports back to SOGS with her summary of the meeting outcomes and actions and brings back student input. In addition, the Chair meets with SOGS every year, and special meetings are called whenever the need arises, such as to review the new curriculum suggestions.

3 Current issue of SOGS NOTES: http://www.geog.uvic.ca/dept2/undergrad/sogs/sogsnotes.html 4 G‐I‐S website: http://www.geog.uvic.ca/dept2/undergrad/sogs/GIS.html


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At the graduate level, our Union of Geography Graduate Students (UGGS) is also very active in representing the concerns of graduate students at committee and Departmental levels. Two representatives sit on Geography Department committees, attend faculty meetings, and act as representatives to the university‐wide Graduate Students’ Society. While there is some interest in formalizing participation in the future, the UGGS has been successful as an unofficial organization with both representative and social goals.

For the general population of geography students, each year the Geography Department organizes a Bridging‐The‐Gap conference, where both graduate‐level and undergraduate students are encouraged to participate and to present papers (or posters). The all day B‐T‐G is intended to provide a realistic taste of an academic conference setting for developing skills and networking among the students. The initiative is a highlight of the year, with often full‐to‐capacity seating for presentations, followed by a Departmental social.

On an individual student basis, the Geography Department funds CAG memberships for any geography student who applies to them for such funding. This is especially helpful to senior undergrads who are applying to grad schools.

Another Department‐student project is the Computers for Kids program, whereby a small group of geography students refurbish discarded department lab computers to be used by children who otherwise would not have access to them. Besides donating several old computers, the Department has informally allocated a room (SSM B116) for refurbishing the computers. 3.10 Academic advising

Academic advising is provided through Departmental undergraduate and graduate advisors, and through the Faculty of Social Sciences Advising Centre. The Departmental advisors deal with details specific to Geography programs. The undergraduate advisor keeps regular drop‐in advising hours, and deals with course waivers and substitutions, and will, on occasion, recommend particular courses. The graduate advisor is available to graduate students by appointment and facilitates the core GEOG 500 course, which requires close mentorship of students and assistance in developing their research proposals. The faculty Advising Centre oversees undergraduate degree programs to ensure that all university requirements for graduation have been met, and to consider the recommendations made by the undergraduate advisor. Most often, other students or the faculty Advising Centre refers students to the Departmental undergraduate advisor.

Students at risk may be identified and contacted at the discretion of individual course instructors. The type of assistance or support will vary from one instructor to the next. 3.11 Engagement in research and scholarship on teaching or learning

The current Director of the Learning and Teaching Centre, Teresa Dawson, is a Geography faculty member and one of the most active people on campus in regards to research on teaching. However, in general, Geography faculty members do not have active research programs on teaching and learning per se.


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3.12 Integration of information technology into instructional practices or assessment strategies

Information technology has been integrated into the curriculum in virtually all of our courses. This integration takes the form of both knowledge delivery and pedagogic objectives. The Geography program is inclusive of both the arts and sciences. This in turn has influenced the manner in which information technologies are implemented in the classroom and learning environment.

The nature of this implementation ranges from course specific websites and Learning Management Systems (LMS) (Blackboard and Moodle) to technique‐intensive courses with detailed online laboratory manuals. The vast majority of the courses taught in the department employ either Moodle or Blackboard as a method to deliver course material. Examples of courses using either Blackboard or Moodle are listed below: Table 3.5 Courses using Blackboard or Moodle Course # Title LMS

GEOG 101A Biophysical Systems and the Human Environment Blackboard

GEOG 101B Introduction to Human Geography Blackboard

GEOG 120 Introduction to the Earth System: II Moodle

GEOG 222 Introduction to Geographical Information Blackboard

GEOG 226 Introduction to Quantitative and Qualitative Methods in Geography Blackboard

GEOG 228 Digital Geomatics Blackboard

GEOG 308 Introduction to GIS Blackboard

GEOG 319 Remote Sensing of the Environment Blackboard

GEOG 322 Digital Remote Sensing Blackboard

GEOG 323 Cartography Blackboard

GEOG 325 Field Surveying Blackboard

GEOG 328 Geographic Information Sciences I Blackboard / Moodle

GEOG 329 Geographic Information Sciences II Blackboard

GEOG 346 Geography of Environment and Health Blackboard

GEOG 347B Geographies of Development Blackboard

GEOG 352 Introduction to the Geography of the Coastal Zone Blackboard

GEOG 353 Coastal and Marine Resources I Blackboard

GEOG 358 Landscape Ecology Blackboard

GEOG 372 Physical Climatology Moodle

GEOG 373 Applied Climatology Moodle

GEOG 376 Geomorphology I Moodle

GEOG 388 Regional Studies Blackboard

GEOG 473 Medical Geography Blackboard

GEOG 453 Coastal and Marine Resources II Blackboard

GEOG 523 Qualitative Methods in Geography Blackboard

GEOG 537 Seminar in Physical Geography Moodle


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These LMS are popular with students as they are able to access course lectures and associated material. They also provide a secure and confidential method to disseminate assignments and exam grades. Instructors in the department employ them as efficient communication tools to contact classes with course specific details (deadlines, extensions, answer keys, etc.)

Potential challenges the Department faces with these LMS applications are both practical and pedagogic. From a practical point of view, the University maintains two systems and students taking courses in the Geography program have to become comfortable with both systems. As demonstrated in the table above, some courses employ a different LMS dependent on the instructor. A potential pedagogic challenge to the learning environment is that there is a possible disconnect between how much information an instructor believes is appropriate to be disseminated this way versus in the class material and how much the student wants.

The Department has developed instructional websites for the majority of its techniques courses. These websites are accessible, by password usually, to students registered in that course, and act as virtual lab manuals. These lab manuals enable students to work their way through the material at their own pace (either in class or elsewhere). They include the assignments and links to external websites and in some cases links to further readings. These significantly enrich the learning experience and enable students to succeed based upon their learning style. The nature of the high‐end software and advanced techniques we teach makes this particular type of learning environment paramount. The courses that take advantage of this include Introduction to Geographical Information (GEOG 222), Introduction to Quantitative Methods (GEOG 226), Digital Geomatics (GEOG 228), Introduction to GIS (GEOG 308), Remote Sensing of the Environment (GEOG 319), Digital Remote Sensing (GEOG 322), Cartography (GEOG 323), Geographic Information Sciences I (GEOG 328), and Geographic Information Sciences II (GEOG 329).

In order to deliver these courses, the Department has three dedicated computer classrooms in the SSM building. There are two 25 seat labs with a removable wall that enables them to be converted to a 50 seat lab. There is also a 10 seat lab that is dedicated to fourth year courses, but also serves as a drop in facility for students completing directed studies or Honours projects. These rooms are populated by 20” computers with dual boot Mac OSX and Windows Vista operating systems. The nature of the dual boot system allows our students to select the interface with which they are most comfortable. The learning technologies are also supported by multiple servers on a fast network with substantial disk storage. This is maintained by a dedicated Geography systems administrator.

This dual system also enables us to run a wide variety of software. The Department maintains University‐wide site licenses for ArcGIS GIS Software and ENVI Remote Sensing Software. These machines also run CorelDraw for our cartography classes. These are all industry leading programs, enabling our students to experience software that is prevalent in the work environment.

These labs were designed taking into account pedagogic learning objectives to improve student learning. To that end, the room is laid out in pods of five workstations that enable students to interact with each other, to run discussions, and to allow them to take more individual responsibility in the learning process by not separating themselves physically from the instructor. This pattern also gives the instructor the ability to access each of the students and to move around the room with ease. The pods are also designed to be large enough for students to have their laptops and/or binders on the desk at the same time as using the workstations. This also works well when they are looking at large NTS map sheets. The audio‐visual setup of these rooms also builds on this pedagogic theme. There are two LCD projectors facing opposite sides of each of the 25 seat rooms that can either project from a laptop connected at a podium or be connected to any of the workstations in the room. There is also a powerful audio system that enables audio‐visual


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presentations as well as taking into account the increasing multi‐media facets of geographic topics and research.

Access to these rooms is normally during office hours (8:30 am to 5:00 pm). However, in response to our students needs, a keycard/fob access system has been installed. This enables students to get secure access after the rooms have been locked and in the evening and on weekends to work on projects and assignments.

Information technology is also employed to facilitate student research papers. The geography program has many courses that incorporate research papers, and students are encouraged to take advantage of the research facilities of the University’s McPherson Library. Students are usually well versed in internet searches, but often need to be cautioned against relying solely on this method. To that end, students are advised to search out the information technologies housed in the Library. This involves students accessing online citation indexes and interacting with the reference librarians, thus enabling them to look not only for books and articles, but also to investigate the wider search facilities of the Library. A highly relevant geography‐based avenue for helping with research papers is the Library’s dedicated geo‐spatial portal. The research librarians tasked with managing this component of the library have provided valuable information to students on how to access digital geographic data. Examples include accessing Statistics Canada, accessing census data, and obtaining digital boundary files from DMTI.

An example that ably demonstrates how information technology is used in a supplementary role is in our upper level urban geography courses (GEOG 340 ‐ Geography of the City, GEOG 343 ‐ Planning and Urban Development, GEOG 440 ‐ Interpreting the Suburban Landscape, and GEOG 441 ‐ The Design and Planning of Cities). In these courses, students are directed to check out places referred to in lectures by using Google Earth and other websites. In conjunction with this, they are also cautioned against relying too heavily on information technology. Instead they are asked to supplement it by getting out into the field and looking for themselves and reading a theoretically nuanced book on the particular subject.

Quality of Student Outcomes

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Criterion 4: Quality of Student Outcomes

4.1 Undergraduate degrees granted and pattern of retention and attrition of students

Since 2003, the Department has graduated an average of 151 students per year (Table 4.1). In 2008, the Department graduated 141 students. The majority of the degrees conferred were Major degrees. Until recently, the BSc Major was conferred more often than the BA Major. However, in 2008, more BA Major than BSc Major degrees were conferred, a trend noted across the country. We expect the number of Minor degrees conferred to increase after 2010 as we introduce Minors that are accessible to the rest of the university community. Table 4.1 Number of undergraduate degrees conferred, 2002‐03 to 2008‐09

2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09

BA Honours 3 5 5 2 4 6 2 BA Major 57 54 64 70 66 80 77 BA Minor/General 7 7 9 4 7 5 0 BSc Honours 2 8 8 7 7 2 4 BSc Major 75 69 55 82 63 74 58 BSc Minor/General 1 1 3 2 2 1 0 TOTAL 145 144 144 167 149 168 141

There is no Departmental‐level data available on the pattern of retention and attrition of students over the past 5 to 7 years. 4.2 Graduate program

Our graduate program is one of the largest and oldest on campus. According to data compiled by the Canadian Association of Geographers, UVic has the fifth largest geography graduate program in the country (Appendix 2). Patterns of enrolment and FTEs in our graduate program are shown in Tables 4.2 and 4.3 below. In terms of thematic areas, as of 2008 there were 32 students in the environment and resources field, 28 in physical, 26 in geomatics, and 17 in human. The average time for completion is 6 years for a PhD and 3 years for a Masters program. A listing of graduate student theses completed since the last review is included as Appendix 3.

The Department has hosted between 73 and 103 FTE graduate students per year since the last review, which equates to approximately 4 FTEs per full time regular faculty member. In the last 2 years, the Department has seen record enrolments that reflect a directed response to increasing enrolment targets outlined by the University. This increase has been facilitated, in part, by improved funding opportunities and partnerships (e.g., CFI, MITACS, NSERC Industrial, CIDA, ICURA, MPBI, etc.), and by increased research capacity in the department in the form of new labs and infrastructure and the addition of new research units (e.g., WCIRC). In addition, many faculty members have expanded their supervisory roles and commitments to help meet these demands.


36

Table 4.2 Geography graduate enrolment, 2003 to 2009 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

Admitted 26 24 19 16 24 27 29

Total enrolment 81 85 82 78 73 90 103

Degrees awarded:

MA/MSc 9 12 9 14 15 6 12

PhD 4 3 2 5 4 1 3 Table 4.3 Graduate FTEs for the Faculty of Social Sciences, 2000‐01 to 2008‐09 2000‐01 2001‐02 2002‐03 2003‐04 2004‐05 2005‐06 2006‐07 2007‐08 2008‐09

ANTH 26.0 17.6 16.1 16.0 15.0 19.7 25.1 26.6 25.2

ECON 30.0 40.5 47.6 58.3 55.4 42.3 37.6 34.0 40.4

ENVI 9.7 8.6 7.3 6.0 6.0 7.2 13.4 21.7 26.9

GEOG 49.4 54.1 57.4 66.6 70.8 71.8 68.9 71.5 74.0

POLI 23.9 17.7 16.0 18.1 26.4 31.8 39.3 42.5 55.7

PSYC 63.6 60.2 67.1 65.6 72.9 72.1 65.6 66.0 65.8

SOCI 32.8 30.9 33.5 38.6 37.6 35.7 40.9 42.1 48.1

FAC 1.6

Total 235.3 229.5 245.2 269.1 284.1 280.6 290.8 304.4 336.1 Of significant concern to the Department is the very high target set for geography graduate enrolments in relation to the number of faculty members when compared to other departments in the Faculty. Our current target has been set at 80 FTEs, implying an average supervisory role of 4 students per faculty member. However, in a recent memo the Dean has indicated that a Faculty average may be considered 2.5 students per faculty member. This discrepancy is compounded by the fact that geography graduate degrees are research‐oriented degrees requiring a full thesis or dissertation, usually based on considerable field work, whereas some other units offer course‐based Master’s degrees that do not require supervisor funding or field work. Our concern is that our graduate FTE targets do not reflect the high level of investment required by supervisors in our graduate program and may not be sustainable given the current faculty complement and available support funding for student stipends and TAships. We return to this topic in the final chapter.

Another indication of student and program quality is the large number of papers published in peer‐reviewed journals by our graduate students. Although publications from Doctoral dissertations are not unusual, a significant number of our Masters students, in collaboration with their advisors, undertake research of sufficient calibre to be published in peer‐reviewed journals, some of which are top‐tier, international venues. Since 2003 our PhD students have published 63 papers and our Masters students 67 papers in refereed outlets (Appendix 4).

In addition to the variations in graduate enrolments among departments, there are also considerable differences in supervisory responsibilities undertaken by individual faculty members within the Department (Table 4.4). These differences reflect student interests, funding availability,


37

inherent differences in research programs, and faculty interest in the graduate program. Nonetheless, the differences amount to significant variation in faculty workloads. Many geography departments across Canada assign lower undergraduate teaching responsibilities for faculty who commit more towards the graduate program. The Department proposes to phase in this approach as discussed further in Section 8.5. Table 4.4 Graduate student supervision by faculty members

Length of service (years)

Graduate students

Current Past Total

MA/MSc PhD MA/MSc PhD MA/MSc PhD

Senior Instructor

O’Connell 5 1 0 0 0 1 0

Assistant Professor

Canessa 7 5 2 2 0 7 2

Lacourse 2 2 0 0 0 2 0

Associate Professor

Cloutier‐Fisher 8 2 1 4 1 6 2

Costa 9 2 3 2 0 4 3

Cross 4 4 0 0 0 4 0

Duffus 18 2 0 18 6 20 6

Gutberlet 7 3 1 5 0 8 1

Jelinski 4 2 0 0 0 2 0

Nelson 4 3 2 5 0 8 2

Walker 9 3 0 4 0 7 0

Professor

Dearden 27 5 6 31 16 36 22

Flaherty 23 1 2 10 8 11 10

Gibson 7 1 0 0 0 1 0

Keller 24 2 1 21 9 23 10

Lonergan 20 2 1 16 6 18 7

McCann 17 3 1 6 1 9 2

Niemann 21 10 1 20 3 30 4

Ostry 2 2 2 0 0 2 2

Prowse 7 2 2 1 0 3 2

Smith 17 9 4 26 4 35 8

Taylor 11 1 0 0 1 1 1

Tuller 40 3 1 8 1 11 2

Wrona 5 1 1 0 0 2 1


38

4.3 Post‐baccalaureate student employment in the field

The 2008 Survey of 2006 Baccalaureate Graduates indicates that 97% of them are in the labour force. As well, 60% reported that their employment was related to their studies. 4.4 Applicants to graduate or professional programs

The 2008 Survey of 2006 Baccalaureate Graduates (Appendix 5) indicates that a large number of Geography graduates took further formal education after graduation. Responses to question 15 indicate that 41% of Geography graduates had taken further education 3 years after graduation (compared to 60% for all Social Sciences graduates) and 60% of 2004 Geography graduates had taken further education by 2006 (compared to 61% for all Social Sciences graduates). This difference probably reflects the applied nature of the Geography program, where less additional training is required to enter the work force compared with other Social Sciences disciplines. According to question 16 in the 2008 survey, Geography graduates who went on to further education were more likely to enrol in a Master‘s program (35% cf 33%) and less likely to enrol in an additional undergraduate degree (12% cf 19%) than all Social Sciences graduates, and were less likely to enrol in professional association certification programs (18%) than all Social Sciences graduates (19%).

Most students accepted to the graduate program are funded. The level of funding varies, but every effort is made to provide at least one section of TAship support per term, as well as other support. A target minimum of $10,000 is provided by the Department to every student for the duration of 2 years for the Masters and 3 years for the PhD program. It is anticipated that faculty members provide top up funding from research grants. As well, we have developed enhanced academic support to assist our graduate students in becoming more successful in Tri‐Council fellowship applications than they have been in the past. Early indications are that this program will lead to increased success in these fellowship competitions.

4.5 Time to degree completion

There are no data available on the percentage of majors graduating within 4 years. Masters students graduate in an average of 3 years and PhD students in 6 years. This time to completion is not inconsistent with overall time completions for advanced degrees at other institutions. The length of time taken varies depending on the nature of the research program that the student undertakes, the commitment to outside activities, and personal issues. Outside commitments for many of the students takes the form of work‐related activities. In addition, some of our graduate students (often mature students) enrol in the program on a part time basis. 4.6 Alumni satisfaction with the program

Surveys were conducted in 2000, 2002, and 2004 to determine satisfaction with the Geography program 2 years after graduation (Appendix 6). The same survey was conducted in 2001, 2003, and 2005, but in this case to determine satisfaction with the Geography program 5 years after graduation. Results (Table 4.5) were averaged for each answer across the three surveys for each of the survey groups (2 and 5 year follow‐up). The results show that 2 and 5 years after graduation, alumni are highly positive about their experience and about the skills they obtained from the Geography program.


39

Table 4.5 Selected results from follow‐up surveys of Geography Department graduates 2 years and 5 years after graduating

2‐year follow‐up

(% responding positively)5‐year follow‐up

(% responding positively)

Satisfied/very satisfied with the program 98.1 97.6 Skills gained useful/very useful in work 80.7 90.5 Written communication 91.7 89.0 Verbal communication 85.6 84.0 Reading comprehension 94.6 92.6 Group collaboration 85.1 83.9 Critical analysis 86.2 90.1 Problem resolution 72.2 72.5 Use of mathematics 58.6 63.7 Use of computers 70.2 73.6 Learning on your own 88.1 87.0

The 2008 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) shows that 85% of fourth year UVic students rated their overall educational experience as good, compared with 93% of fourth year Geography students. The same survey showed that 93% of Geography graduates would definitely or probably come to UVic again if starting over, compared with 84% of UVic graduates overall.

Results from these surveys suggest that Geography is producing very satisfied graduates. 4.7 Alumni success

The University conducted a survey of 713 Social Sciences students (including 132 from Geography) who graduated in 2004. The survey was conducted in 2006 and so it was essentially a survey of students taken 2 full years after obtaining their undergraduate degrees. The survey shows that 60% of our students graduating with a BA or BSc in 2004 had, 2 years later, gone on to take further education. As well, 87% were in the workforce at the time of the survey in 2006, and of those not in the work force, 80% were attending an educational institution.

At the time of the survey, 46% of Geography graduates in the workforce were earning 40 thousand dollars or more per year compared with 35% of graduates from other Social Sciences departments. Figure 4.1 illustrates these results in more detail and clearly shows that 2 years after the Geography class of 2004 graduated, the proportion of Geography graduates earning in the 40 to 80 thousand dollar range was considerably higher than it was for Social Sciences graduates as a whole.


40

Figure 4.1 Gross annual income (categories) from main job reported 2 years after 2004 graduation in Geography and in Social Sciences

This may reflect the places that Geography graduates in this survey were working relative to their Social Sciences peers. In particular, Geography graduates were over‐represented in the natural and applied sciences and under‐represented in sales and service and business and finance. Given the current economic recession, with its major impacts on financial services and sales, one might expect the position of geography graduates in the coming less robust labour market to be stronger than it may be for their Social Sciences peers.

In addition, 47% of Geography respondents to this survey indicated that their job required a university education compared to only 38% of their Social Sciences peers, indicating that the Geography degree appears to mesh well with the needs of graduates and employers. 4.8 Employer satisfaction with students or graduates of the program

The ongoing success of Geography’s contribution to the Co‐op program suggests that employers are satisfied with our graduates. This is supported indirectly by the results of the Surveys of Baccalaureate Graduates (see Appendix 5).

For our curriculum review, not only did we seek input from current students, but also from alumni and employers. Overall they expressed strong support for the program and the applied and grounded manner in which many of our courses are taught. The changes that we have made to the program, described in other sections of the report, built upon some of the suggestions that were forthcoming from our alumni and employer feedback. We also maintain active contact with our alumni and this is an ongoing source of feedback for our program.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Less than$20,000

$20,000 to$39,999

$40,000 to$59,999

$60,000 to$79,999

$80,000 to$99,999

$100,000 andAbove

Perc

ent

GeographySocial Sciences

Research

41

Criterion 5: Research

5.1 Research expertise and relationship to the mission and goals of the University

The Department seeks to contribute new knowledge, understanding, and solutions to the challenges facing society, which speaks directly to the University’s vision of “betterment of a rapidly changing global society.”1 These contributions, disciplinary and interdisciplinary, range from the local and humanistic to the international and biophysical. All faculty members have vibrant, active research programs with varied socially and scientifically‐relevant foci, including:

• Climate change impacts and adaptations (Dearden, Lacourse, Lonergan, Ostry, Prowse, Smith, Walker, Wrona)

• Coastal zone (Canessa, Costa, Cross, Dearden, Duffus, Flaherty, Jelinski, Lacourse, Walker) • Community‐based research (Canessa, Dearden, Gutberlet, McCann, Ostry) • Geomatics (Canessa, Costa, Keller, Nelson, Niemann, OConnell) • Geomorphology and Quaternary science (Lacourse, Smith, Walker) • Health and society (Cloutier‐Fisher, Keller, Ostry, Taylor) • Hydro‐climatology (Gibson, Prowse, Tuller, Wrona) • International development (Dearden, Flaherty, Gutberlet, Lonergan) • Landscape ecology, biogeography, and spatial ecology (Dearden, Duffus, Jelinski, Lacourse,

Nelson, Wrona) • Marine aquaculture (Costa, Cross, Flaherty, Jelinski) • Protected areas planning and management (Canessa, Dearden, Keller, Walker) • Urban planning (McCann, Rose‐Redwood)

Several research laboratories are housed in Geography. These include:

• Boundary Layer Airflow & Sediment Transport (BLAST) Laboratory (Walker) • Community‐based Research Laboratory (CBRL) (Gutberlet) • Earth Systems Ecology Laboratory (EaSEL) (Lacourse) • Hyperspectral‐LiDAR Research Laboratory (Niemann) • Laboratory for Ecosystem and Landscape Ecology (Jelinski) • Marine Protected Areas Research Group (MPARG) Laboratory (Dearden, Canessa) • Population Health Laboratory (Ostry) • Spatial Collaboration and Visualization Lab (Canessa, Keller) • Spatial Pattern & Analysis Research (SPAR) Laboratory (Nelson) • SPECTRAL Laboratory (Costa) • University of Victoria Tree Ring Laboratory (UVTRL) (Smith) • Whale Research Laboratory (Duffus)

Geography also includes the Water & Climate Impacts Research Centre (WCIRC), a joint initiative of the National Water Research Institute (NWRI) of Environment Canada and the University of Victoria. Specific research programs underway include:

• climate change impacts on cold regions hydro‐ecology • climate impacts on river ice jams • climate impacts on peatland and permafrost hydrology • lake thermal responses to climate change

1 UVic Strategic Plan p5


42

• climate impacts on aquatic food webs • climate impacts on groundwater systems • hydro‐climatology of western and northern water resources • climate impacts on ice‐covered aquatic systems • water and climate studies using isotope tracers

Geography is home to two research chairs: Ostry (CRC, Tier II) and Prowse (Environment Canada), and Lacourse’s NSERC‐UFA appointment also allows a reduced teaching load to accommodate additional time for research for the first 5 years. A third, the Leading Edge Endowment Fund (LEEF) Chair in hyperspectral remote sensing, is currently vacant as the original Chair holder resigned and the University is “resting” the Chair while endowment funds recover. However, the funding for the LEEF Chair is tied to deliverables for Natural Resources Canada, so it is fully expected that the Chair will be filled as soon as finances recover. The Department also has a joint appointment with the Centre on Aging (Cloutier‐Fisher) that allows for a reduced teaching load to concentrate on research. A CRC (Tier I) Chair in Economics (van Kooten) is cross‐appointed with Geography and is also actively supervising graduate students within the Department.

The University’s Strategic Plan and Geography Research Programs

The Department of Geography maintains active research within, and contributes significantly to, 5 of the 10 strategic research goals identified by the University as follows:

i) Environmental Science and Policy. Geography is a leading unit on campus in environmental science and much of this research is informing public policy (e.g., climate change impacts and adaptations research, hydrology and water resources research, assessing mountain pine beetle infested forests, protected areas planning). Natural sciences research includes specializations in: alpine geomorphology and dendrochronology (Smith), coastal geomorphology and dune dynamics (Walker), coastal waters and wetlands (Costa), climatology (Tuller), hydrology (Prowse, Wrona), landscape, marine, paleo, and spatial ecology (Cross, Dearden, Duffus, Jelinski, Lacourse), marine mammals (Duffus), Quaternary environmental change (Lacourse, Smith, Walker), and climate change impacts on biophysical systems (Prowse, Smith, Walker, Wrona).

Many departmental scientists are also engaged in some aspect of policy development and/or natural resources management. For instance, collaborative NSERC‐funded research by Cross, Flaherty, Costa and Jelinski is exploring social, environmental, and regulatory aspects of coastal aquaculture development via the Canadian Integrated Multi‐trophic Aquaculture Network (IMTA). Cross leads the scientific study of sustainable, multi‐species aquaculture initiatives while Flaherty leads the community and regulatory aspects of IMTA development in British Columbia and New Brunswick. There is a strong culture of collaboration within and beyond the Department whereby faculty (both natural and social sciences oriented) work closely with government, private sector, and community‐based research partners. For example, Nelson and Jelinski have examined grizzly bear movements in relation to human activity with a range of scientists associated with the Alberta Model Forest. Nelson and Jelinski have also completed research on the movement of mountain pine beetles over the Rockies as a function of climate change. The implications for forestry outside the beetle’s traditional biogeographic range could be devastating. Walker recently led a team of experts in BC who wrote a report that laid the foundation for subsequent ongoing collaborations involving NRCan, local municipalities, and industrial stakeholders toward developing informed and relevant climate change adaptation strategies. Walker also has established a research partnership with Parks Canada to monitor coastal erosion and climate change impacts in three of Canada’s coastal parks. Our research and policy impacts are also international. Dearden is part of an international team to reintroduce tigers into southern China and his published critique of the

Research

43

international classification of protected areas led to an international summit on the topic and to changes implemented consistent with the article’s recommendation

ii) Global Change & Sustainability. Geography contributes to many aspects of global change through some of the environmental science investigations mentioned above, as well as social sciences contributions. The UVTRL (Smith), for example, is actively engaged in the documentation of past climate change, as is Lacourse through paleoecological and paleoenvironmental studies, and Walker through research on the impacts of climate change on coastal geomorphology. In addition, the extensive research programs of the WCIRC (Prowse and Wrona) provide national and international leadership in the area of water and global change. Faculty members are also making contributions on the social and economic dimensions of global change. Walker has undertaken studies on the impacts of climate change and sea‐level rise on communities in the Queen Charlotte Islands. Dearden is working on some of the impacts of global change on marine protected areas, and incentive‐based conservation on coral reefs in Southeast Asia. Lonergan has a long‐standing interest in this area, recognized both nationally and internationally, and is involved with studies on water availability in the Middle East. Ostry was commissioned (2008) by the Pacific Institute for Climate Change and BC’s Climate Action Secretariat to lay out a research and conceptual framework to help the Province move forward on climate change and health issues in BC. Prowse was a lead author on the 2007 IPCC report that was subsequently recognized as a co‐recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize.

iii) Health and society. Health research, medical geography, and disaster planning have been active areas of research in Geography for more than 25 years and, currently, involve four faculty members (Cloutier‐Fisher, Keller, Ostry, Taylor). In the past decade, a strong emphasis on the social and environmental determinants of health, health services provision, and aging research has emerged, particularly via the research programs of Cloutier‐Fisher (jointly appointed with the Centre on Aging) and the CRC, Ostry. This group maintains strong associations with the Nursing and Island Medical Program, as well as in the community with the local Vancouver Island Health Authority, the BC Ministry of Health, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Cloutier‐Fisher is on the local advisory committee for the largest longitudinal study on aging ever launched in Canada, the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Keller has been very active with regards to the spatial dimensions of health, particularly in BC, and is developing, with co‐investigators, a BC Population Health Data Access and Analysis Platform that has direct implications for health care in the province with funding from the Michael Smith Foundation worth an anticipated $2.5 million. Studies on wood smoke distribution by Keller in the Capital Regional District have helped set the numbers of prescribed burning days, and similar spatial modelling of cruise ship emissions has helped set policy for management of cruise ship stays. Ostry directs a major CIHR‐funded study on the social determinants of rural and remote health in BC, and runs a comprehensive program of research on food security and nutrition policy.

iv) Oceans and climate. Research in Geography includes initiatives in applied climatology, climate change impacts and adaptations, coastal biophysical systems, coastal erosion and sea‐level rise, coastal zone management, remote sensing of coastal waters, marine protected areas, marine aquaculture, and watershed hydrology. These interests range from the high latitudes to the tropics and include researchers such as Canessa, Costa, Cross, Dearden, Duffus, Flaherty, Jelinski, Lacourse, Prowse, Walker, and Wrona. As with the Environmental Sciences and Policy strategic area, the Department contributes both fundamental science research, and applied research initiatives with management and policy implications. For example, the Whale Research Lab (Duffus) focuses specifically on whales, and has had an active field research program for more than 20 years, including policy inputs regarding marine mammals. In addition, Flaherty and Cross of the Aquaculture Research Group are national leaders of a $6million NSERC/DFO grant on multi‐trophic aquaculture in Canada and are also involved with aquaculture developments internationally


44

including Brazil, Thailand, Vietnam, and Mozambique. The Marine Protected Areas Research Group is the only MPA research group in Canada and is the lead institution for the national MPA Working Group of the Ocean Management Research Network. Dearden is also the Co‐chair of Parks Canada’s National Marine Conservation Areas Science Advisory Network. MPARG has had significant inputs to marine park policy in Canada. Keller has also contributed in this field in relation to studies on MPA zoning, and his work funded by GEOIDE on marine traffic modelling is informing policy on coast guard resource allocations. Costa is installing optical sensors as part of NEPTUNE for long term monitoring of light off the coast of BC. Jelinski served as a board member (2004‐07) for the international Pacific Institutes of Marine Science (PIMS).

v) Information technologies and environmental monitoring. Geomatics research is a leading and critical component in this strategic area, and Geography has invested heavily, with six faculty members with core interests in this area. Canessa, Costa, Keller, Nelson, Niemann, O’Connell, and several others actively use geomatics in their research (e.g., Jelinski, Walker). Spatial data processing and analysis is inherent to GI‐Science and Remote Sensing research and is being used to examine and monitor critical issues of societal and economic importance, such as the previously mentioned mountain pine beetle infestation (Jelinski, Nelson), marine aquaculture development (Cross, Flaherty), impacts of climate change on water resources (Prowse, Wrona), wetland restoration and conflict resolution in the Middle East, carbon stores in the Amazon floodplain, hydrological dynamics of the largest tropical pristine wetland, the Brazilian Pantanal (Costa), modelling and predicting disease spread (Nelson), development of multi‐criteria decision support systems for coastal management (Canessa), development and application of techniques in remote sensing for forest assessment and management (Niemann), and a coastal erosion monitoring network that involves repeat topographic surveying and aerial surveillance of over 40 coastal sites within BC Parks (Naikoon) and Parks Canada (Gwaii Haanas, Pacific Rim, Gulf Islands NPRs) (Walker).

5.2 Faculty recognition by external bodies

Our faculty members have been widely recognized for the calibre of their scholarly contributions, recognition ranging from editorship of top class journals, appointments to External Review Committees, and invitations to give key note addresses, through to Honorary degrees and major international awards. Examples include:

• Honorary degrees: ‐ PROWSE (Waterloo)

• Research Chairs: ‐ PROWSE: Environment Canada Research Chair ‐ OSTRY: Canada Research Chair (Tier II)

• Journal editorship: ‐ The Canadian Geographer (SMITH, 2000‐2003) ‐ Landscape Ecology (JELINSKI, coordinating editor, 2003‐2009) ‐ Journal of Coastal Research (WALKER, editorial board, 2005‐ ) ‐ Journal of Rural and Remote Health (OSTRY, co‐editor) ‐ Geoforum (DEARDEN, editorial board, 2003‐2007) ‐ Tourism in Marine Environments (DEARDEN, coordinating editor, 2003‐ ) ‐ Cartographica (KELLER, Editor, 2004‐2007) ‐ Journal of Geographic Information & Decision Making (KELLER, editorial board, 1996‐ ) ‐ Cartography and Geographic Information Sciences (KELLER, editorial board, 2000‐ ) ‐ Int’l Journal of Applied Geospatial Research (KELLER, editorial review board, 2008‐ )

Research

45

• External reviews: ‐ SMITH: Montréal, Trinity Western, University College of the Cariboo; Graduate

Program Reviews: Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier, York ‐ KELLER: Calgary

• Key note addresses ‐ examples include: ‐ DEARDEN: Getting Real about Wildlife Tourism: The 2nd Australian Wildlife Tourism

Conference, Freemantle, 2006; Canadian Parks for Tomorrow: 40th Anniversary Conference: Assessing Change, Accomplishment and Challenge in Canadian Parks and Protected Areas, Calgary; International Tropical Forestry Congress: “Tropical Forestry Change in a Changing World.” Kasetsart University, Bangkok, 2008; 4th International Lake Tourism Conference, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, 2009.

‐ WALKER: Brazilian International Conference on Coastal Dune Systems, Fortaleza, Brazil, 2005

‐ OSTRY: Rural Health Research Colloquium, Tamworth, New South Wales, Australia, 2007; Comparative History of Nutrition Policy in the USA, UK, and Canada. Three Societies meeting (British Society for the History of Science, Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science, History of Science Society), Oxford, 2008.

• Research awards: ‐ LACOURSE: American Quaternary Association Denise Gaudreau Award for Excellence

in Quaternary Studies, 2004 ‐ McCANN: Award of Merit, The Heritage Society of British Columbia, “for his efforts to

increase public appreciation and understanding of the heritage of Oak Bay and Victoria,” 2006; Award of Merit, Hallmark Society of Victoria, “for communicating the value of heritage to his students and his invaluable research into the history of Oak Bay,” 2006

‐ PROWSE: Nobel Peace Prize Laureate – Nobel Peace Prize Co‐award winner as Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) contributing author to the 4th assessment report – Polar Regions Chapter, 2007

‐ SMITH: William C. Wonders Award for Scholarly Distinction, Western Division, Canadian Association of Geographers, 2006; Canadian Geomorphology Research Group Distinguished Service Award, 2009; Distinguished Alumni Award, Faculty of Arts, University of Waterloo, 2009

‐ OSTRY: Senior Scholar Award with the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research in BC (5‐year award 2007‐2012)

‐ WALKER: J. Ross Mackay Award, Canadian Geomorphology Research Group, 2007 ‐ WRONA: Nobel Peace Prize Laureate – Nobel Peace Prize Co‐award winner as

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) contributing author to the 4th assessment report – Polar Regions Chapter, 2007; Citation of Excellence, for Teamwork, Partnering and Collaboration in recognition of contributions to the 4th IPCC Assessment Report, Environment Canada, 2008;

• Teaching Awards ‐ DEARDEN: Macleans Popular Professor, 2004 ‐ JELINSKI: Queen’s University, Outstanding Professor (Teaching) Award, School of

Environmental Studies, 2004 ‐ McCANN: Macleans Popular Professor, 2002‐2008


46

5.3 Research and scholarly productivity

The Departmental publication record since the last review is shown in Table 5.1. Further details are included in the accompanying faculty CVs (Volume 2). Many publications have appeared in some of the most prestigious scholarly journals and presses. Our output has a large international reach. Publication is widespread throughout the ranks. Table 5.1 Publication record, 2003‐2009

Name Rank Refereed Articles Book Chapters Edited Volumes Books

CANESSA Assistant 4 5

LACOURSE* Assistant 14 2

ROSE‐REDWOOD Assistant 8 1

CLOUTIER‐FISHER* Associate 15 6 2

COSTA Associate 14 2

CROSS Associate

DUFFUS Associate 10 1

GUTBERLET Associate 9 3 2

JELINSKI Associate 10 2

NELSON Associate 28

WALKER Associate 16 4 1

DEARDEN Professor 31 29 5 2

FLAHERTY Professor 10 3 1

GIBSON Professor 24 3

KELLER Professor 18 5 4

LONERGAN Professor 2

McCANN Professor 1 7

NIEMANN Professor 10 2

OSTRY * Professor 50 5 2 3

PROWSE* Professor 39 13 2

SMITH Professor 23 1

TULLER Professor 1

WRONA Professor

TOTAL 307 91 14 7

*Research weighted appointment with reduced teaching obligations. Our faculty members publish with some of the most prestigious university presses, such as Les Presses de l’Université Laval, McGill‐Queen’s University Press, Oxford University Press, University of California Press, University of Toronto Press, and UBC Press. Examples of journal impact factors include: American Journal of Public Health (3.7), Atmospheric Environment (2.5), Biological Conservation (3.2), Climatic Change (2.9), Ecography (3.0), Environmental Conservation (3.1) , Epidemiology (5.2), Geology (3.7), Geomorphology (3.3), Ecology (4.8), Health and Place (2.4), Journal of Biogeography (3.5), Journal of Geophysical Research (2.9), Marine Ecology Progress Series (2.5), Quaternary Science Reviews (4.1), and Remote Sensing of the Environment (3.0).

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47

5.4 Research funding activity

Research funding is summarized in Appendix 10. Eleven faculty members hold, or have held, tri‐council funding in the past 7 years. Canessa, Flaherty, Ostry, and Walker have held funding from two of the three tri‐council sources. Current NSERC holders include Flaherty, Lacourse, Prowse, Smith, and Walker. SSHRCs are held by Cloutier‐Fisher and Dearden, and CIHRs by Cloutier‐Fisher and Ostry. Other sources of funding are wide ranging and span industrial, as well as municipal, provincial, and national government and international funding agencies. Many grants involve multiple applicants and exceed the million dollar amount. Examples include:

• FLAHERTY and CROSS: Southern Oceans Education and Development (SOED) Project: Building Sustainable Aquaculture in Mozambique. CIDA, University Partnerships in Cooperation and Development (UPCD) Tier 2 program grant $2,142,000

• CROSS and FLAHERTY: The Coastal Aquaculture Research and Training (CART) Network ‐ Western node for the Canadian Integrated Multi‐trophic Aquaculture Network (CIMTAN) – NSERC $5,000,000, DFO $1,000,000, and private sector partners $130,000

• GUTBERLET: Participatory Sustainable Waste Management (in Brazil) – approx $1,000,000

• LONERGAN: Canada‐Iraq Marshlands Initiative – CIDA $5,000,000

• DEARDEN and CANESSA (with others): Protected Areas and Poverty Reduction: A Canada‐Africa Research and Learning Alliance – International Community University Research Alliance SSHRC/IDRC $2,000,000

• NIEMANN: Positioning hyperspectral remote sensing technology for the development of natural resources – NRCan $2,250,000

• NIEMANN: Development of an airborne platform to acquire integrated remotely sensed data – Western Economic Diversification $1,050,000

• KELLER (and others): BC Population Health Data Access and Analysis Platform – Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research $1,000,000 (initially)

• JELINSKI: Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre – NSERC Major Facilities Grant $1,580,000

• OSTRY: Social Determinants of Rural Health in BC – CIHR $1,500,000

However, it should be noted that the Geography Department recognizes the breadth of academic endeavour within the discipline and the fact that very valuable work may be undertaken in some areas with modest financial support. 5.5 Recognition by external bodies

See list in 5.2 above. 5.6 Recognition by the University of teaching or research excellence

Prowse and Wrona were recognized in 2008 through the Craigdarroch Research Award for Societal Contribution, awarded to IPCC authors at the University of Victoria.

Faculty and Staff Characteristics

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Criterion 6: Faculty and Staff Characteristics

6.1 Faculty

The current faculty roster, including Limited Term appointments, is shown in Table 6.1. Table 6.1 Current faculty roster

Rank Name FTE Appointed Specialization

Professor Phil Dearden Mark Flaherty Peter Keller Steve Lonergan Larry McCann Olaf Niemann Aleck Ostry Terry Prowse (LT) Dan Smith Martin Taylor Stan Tuller

1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 .25 1.0 1.0 1.0

1982

1986

1985

1989

1992

1988 2008

2002

1992 1998

1969

Protected areas; conservation; Southeast Asia, marine, development, ecotourism Social, environmental, and regulatory aspects of coastal/ aquaculture; Southeast Asia GIS; Decision making; cartography; tourism Middle East water, environment and security, environment and migration Suburbanization; planning and urban development Remote sensing; geomorphology Social determinants of health; rural health; food security and nutrition policy Climate effects on water resources with a specialization in cold regions Geomorphology, dendrochronology Environment and health; health promotion Climatology; heat balance; Japan

Associate Professor

Denise Cloutier‐Fisher Maycira Costa Stephen Cross (LT) Dave Duffus Jutta Gutberlet Dennis Jelinski Trisalyn Nelson Ian Walker

.50 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0

2001

2000

2005

1992 2003

2005

2005

2000

Healthy aging; population health; vulnerable populations; health service delivery Primary productivity; carbon budget; remote sensing: Brazil, Canada Nutrient recapture and conversion through ecological design of Integrated Multi‐Trophic Aquaculture Systems Biogeography, wildlife, marine International development resource management; Latin America, Brazil Landscape ecology, biogeography, conservation of biodiversity Geomatics; advanced spatial analysis, spatial statistics, GIS Geomorphology, sand dunes, sediment transport, coastal erosion


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Assistant Professor

Rosaline Canessa Terri Lacourse Reuben Rose‐Redwood

1.0 1.0 1.0

2002

2007

2009

Integrated coastal management, marine protected areas, GIS, collaborative decision support, seascape geovisualisation Earth systems ecology, palynology, paleoecology and paleogeography Urban geography; cultural landscape studies; historical cartography; history of geographical thought

Senior Instructor

Teresa Dawson Ian O’Connell

1.0 1.0

2006 2004

Learning and teaching GIS, cartography, statistics, surveying

The pattern of hiring since the last review is shown in Table 6.2. Unfortunately, we lost one position in the cuts of 2008. However we have been granted an incremental position to be hired for 2010 that will make up for this loss. In the future, we envisage ongoing replacement of retirements. Our graduate supervisory load is already significantly higher than other units in the Faculty and if the graduate program is to continue to expand we will need additional resources. Furthermore, our Leading Edge Endowment Fund (LEEF) Chair is currently vacant, further inhibiting graduate growth. The need for additional faculty in relation to the graduate program is discussed in greater detail in Section 8.5. Table 6.2 Hiring pattern since 2003

Year Hiring Sex Area

2003‐04 Gutberlet F Human

2003‐04 Canessa F Resources/Geomatics

2003‐04 O’Connell M Geomatics

2004‐05 Nelson F Geomatics

2006‐07 Ostry M Human

2007‐08 Jelinski M Physical/Resources

2007‐08 Lacourse F Physical

2009‐10 Rose‐Redwood M Human

Since the period of the last external review, the department has made gains in terms of recruiting and hiring women. At present, there are 7 female faculty members and 15.25 males (Table 6.1), bringing the female complement to 31.4% compared with the national average in geography departments of 27.8%.1 However, we do not have members of faculty who have self‐identified as being a member of other designated priority groups.

6.2 Future Hiring

Future hiring will be made in response to anticipated retirements, the needs of our undergraduate and graduate programs, and the areas identified in the SWOT analysis as the main areas of future opportunity. Equity for designated minority groups is always a factor taken into account in departmental hirings. The anticipated sequence of replacement hirings is suggested below.

1 CAG data


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1. Climatologist: We are currently advertising for a climatologist to fill the incremental position regained by the Department this year. This is in response to the upcoming retirement of Tuller, the Department’s only climatologist, and the urgent need to have someone on faculty who can teach in this area. The replacement will also contribute to the University and Departmental priorities relating to climate change and provide important links to WCIRC, PICS, and PCICS. The advertisement for the position is included in Appendix 7.

2. Water resources: Historically, the Department has had major strengths in the resources component and also in water resources. However, our water resources course is now commonly taught by sessionals and there is little active engagement in water resource management issues in Canada. This hiring will strengthen our resources component, contribute to the climate change priority, and possibly to our sustainable communities and coastal initiatives. The hiring will work closely with WCIRC and other water‐related research units on campus. A draft advertisement for this position to replace the retirement of Tuller at the end of this academic year is included in Appendix 7.

3. International development: Geography is a strong contributor to University international initiatives, but we have no faculty member whose prime area of focus is in international development per se. This hire would contribute to university initiatives in this area and also contribute to our teaching program in human geography and particularly with a regional specialty. This will help maintain our popular regional geography offerings, which will again be depleted with the retirement of Tuller.

4. Sustainability: One of our identified areas of opportunity is in contributing to the development of sustainable communities. This hiring will focus on aspects of coastal community sustainability with a likely emphasis on indigenous communities and governance.

5. Regional specialist: As indicated earlier in the report, regional course offerings have been badly affected by retirements, and these courses number among our most popular with students. Of particular concern is the reliance on an experienced sessional to teach our high enrolment regional courses in BC and Canada. If these course offerings cannot be covered in the preceding positions, and if other faculty members are unable to take them on, serious consideration would have to be given to a regional specialist position. Elements of this might be able to be covered by a senior instructor position.

6.3 Faculty mentorship

Geography has a formal mentoring system whereby new faculty members are paired with a more experienced member who provides ongoing advice. The senior member is in the same cognate area as the new member, and the latter is encouraged to draw on the experience of the senior member for a wide range of issues, from teaching to pre‐reading publications and grant applications. There have been no requests to change this system. It seems to work well. In individual cases where a strong working relationship cannot be achieved a new mentor may be assigned.

Under the University Framework Agreement, untenured faculty members receive an annual written assessment of their progress. By May 15th of each year, the Chair meets with each untenured colleague to assess her/his progress towards achieving the Department‘s written standards for tenure. The Chair then writes an assessment that evaluates progress towards tenure for research, teaching, and service, and is placed in the official performance file. Any reservations or shortcomings should be put in writing, and the candidate given explicit advice about how to address each concern. The departmental expectations for re‐appointment and tenure are included as Appendix 8.


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6.4 Faculty evaluation policies

An elected Merit Advisory Committee of four people (Chair, ex‐officio) reviews faculty performance against expectations and provides advice to the Chair regarding relative performance of faculty members. Faculty are evaluated on a 5 point scale for each attribute and this is transformed to a score out of 40 for teaching, 40 for research, and 20 for service to reflect distribution of a normal faculty load (40% teaching, 40% research, and 20% service). The Committee members each declare their allotted score for a member, after having reviewed all of the files, and then consensus is sought among the committee on the score for each attribute. Comparisons are difficult in such a varied discipline and, although quantitative comparisons are used (e.g., numbers of articles, books produced), there are also discussions regarding the quality of publications and the nature of the sub‐discipline. In exceptional cases, consensus cannot be reached and a mean is taken. The totals are then used by the Chair to rank faculty members in terms of their performance as required by the Dean for the allocation of merit increments.

The process is complicated, with some faculty members having different ratios to reflect the nature of their appointments (e.g., some faculty have a research subsidy with a reduced teaching load and hence a 20:60:20 allocation), while others have made temporary arrangements with the Dean that emphasize other aspects. Smith, for example, in his post‐Chair role, has a 20: 45: 35 ratio, selecting a heavier emphasis on service. It is difficult to take these factors into account in comparisons. Should someone teaching half as much be expected to produce double the number of publications? Furthermore, expectations increase along with the number of years at a particular rank.

There are many challenges with this system and there is scarcely a faculty member who does not disagree with their score, although some more vocally than others. Invariably, the widest range of scores is attributed to the Service component, where there is a much greater variability in what might be counted than in the other categories. However, overall the main comment appears to be that scores are too low. Given the obvious research success of most faculty and the high teaching evaluations, this is probably true, but it also reflects the high standards that are set within the Department.

The entire system of evaluation will be reviewed during the 2009‐10 year to devise a more satisfactory system. 6.5 Working and learning environment

Geography seeks to provide a welcoming and inclusive learning environment, both formally and informally. Formally, new faculty are included in all Departmental deliberations where their presence is not specifically excluded by the Framework Agreement. Informally, Geography arranges many social events through the year, ranging from baking and picture competitions through to Christmas and end‐of‐term parties to which all incoming faculty and staff are invited. The Department has an equity policy in place and, as described above, has made progress in this area with the hiring of a significant number of female faculty members. The Department pays special attention to applications from members of the designated minority groups whenever a position becomes available.


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6.6 Staff characteristics

The current staff complement is shown in Table 6.3. We have recently experienced some turn over in the Receptionist position and feel that this will continue unless we are able to raise the pay level of this position. The last incumbent left for a position with very similar duties in another department that was rated two pay bands higher. This was a particular setback for the Department since there has been some instability in that position and we had also identified the position as being the focus for the enhanced web presence now being developed in all departments in the Faculty. Table 6.3 Current staff complement

Diane Braithwaite — Senior Secretary John Fowler — Senior Lab Instructor Ole Heggen — Cartographer Natalie Jackson — Receptionist Ken Josephson — Cartographer Darlene Li — Graduate Secretary Kathie Merriam — Administrative Officer John Newcomb — Senior Lab Instructor Carrie Steckler — Senior Lab Instructor Rick Sykes — Computer Programmer Philip Wakefield — Lab Supervisor and Undergraduate Advisor

Our staff members are very supportive and creative individuals and play a key role in the delivery of the Departmental teaching program and in supporting our research activities. Their roles may change a little from time to time as new priorities emerge. Ken Josephson, for example, who is a Departmental cartographer, has played a strong role in developing the community mapping links in the Department and often liaises with various outside bodies in this area. He plays a main role in supporting the Recruitment and Retention Committee through, for example, the production of newsletters and calendars, designing Departmental displays, and assisting in web design. His talents have been noted elsewhere, with recent secondments to the Dean’s office for Faculty‐wide duties.

There are, however, some deficiencies in terms of lab support. The Department of Geography has essential laboratory programs that are as intense and diverse as any found in the natural sciences. For many years, several of the Geography laboratory programs have been without laboratory coordinators who help with lab development, and organizing and preparing graduate student teaching assistants. These duties are generally assigned to senior laboratory instructors (SLIs) and non‐graduate student laboratory instructors (LIs).

The following table compares the number of laboratory instructors (SLIs and LIs) to individual laboratory programs for courses with two or more labs from the Faculty of Science at UVic for the 2008 winter session.


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Table 6.4 Comparison of numbers of laboratory instructors to individual laboratory programs

Current # of SLIs Current # of LIs Current # of programs with two or more labs

Ratio of programs to SLIs and LIs

Biology 4 2 21 3.5:1

Chemistry 5 0 13 2.6:1

Earth & Ocean Sciences 3 0 10 3.3:1

Physics 3 3 20 3.3:1

Geography 4 0 20 5:1

By comparison, the Geography Department has the highest program‐to‐lab instructor ratio, sometimes double other Science faculty ratios. In order to meet the current and projected needs of the Geography laboratory programs, the Department would require at least one 1.0‐FTE SLI and one 0.67‐FTE LI. Their duties would cover laboratory programs in the areas of biogeography, geomorphology, hydrology, and resource management, as well as taking a lead role in assisting with and coordinating proposed field courses.

For September 2010, the number of lab programs, excluding proposed field courses, will increase to 21. With the proposed additional 1.67‐FTE laboratory staff, Geography’s ratio of laboratory instructors to laboratory programs would decrease to 3.5:1, which is line with the highest ratio from the Faculty of Science, Biology. Without these staffing resources, it will be very difficult for the department to maintain or improve its current levels of quality for some of the laboratory programs. Already, some laboratory programs are suffering from a lack of consistency and coordination. 6.7 Sessional instructors

Sessional instructors provide invaluable support to the teaching program in the Department. Some are very experienced and have provided this role for many years, while others are hired for specific courses as the need arises. Without the support of sessionals it would be impossible to maintain the quality and breadth of our program of instruction. Nonetheless, excessive use of sessionals can be detrimental to the program, lack continuity, and not serve students well when they pass through their degree program with little if any contact with regular faculty members. For these reasons, one of the goals of our Curriculum Review was to reduce the overall dependence on sessional instructors. This was partially achieved through identification of courses that had been taught by sessionals on an ongoing basis for many years and were not seen as part of our core curricula and these courses were deleted. A second strategy has been to request a senior instructor to take on some of the courses that are a necessary part of the curriculum but often taught by sessionals, and also provide greater potential to mount our proposed integrated field course in the summer session.

Sessionals are fully integrated into Departmental affairs where possible. There is a sessionals’ representative on the Departmental Committee. Sessionals are included in all our activities, including internal reviews (such as the Curriculum Review), conferences (Bridging the Gap), and social activities. Some sessionals have enjoyed senior and distinguished careers at other institutions and need no mentoring; others are at the beginning of their careers and an informal mentor is suggested to guide their activities. It is common for the mentor to talk through course objectives with the sessional and go over their outlines beforehand. Mentorship is also available for future career moves, and the Chair is often approached within this context. Sessionals are made aware of the practices of the Department through reference to the Departmental Documents website.

Resources

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Criterion 7: Resources

7.1 Recent Resource Improvements

The following section summarizes the main investments in Departmental programs over the last 7 years. Undoubtedly the largest has been the move into the new Social Sciences and Mathematics Building in the Spring of 2008, and Geography has benefited tremendously from the increased space available and up‐to‐date facilities provided. The building has also provided the opportunity to develop closer physical ties with WCIRC, and Geography has also benefited from University support for WCIRC being on campus.

2002‐03:

• Faculty complement: 18; including newly created Limited Term Chair (.25 FTE) in Climate Impacts in Water Resources (Prowse) from WCIRC (created from vacant .25 FTE Thomas position)

• TA funding: Budget $167,227 plus $14,180 in Enrolment Management Funds (EMF)

• Staff complement: 8.5; AO position created (Merriam), full‐time Publication Assistant position becomes ½ time Publication Assistant and ½ time Senior Secretary (Braithwaite)

• Equipment Allocation from VP Academic: $27,011

2003‐04:

• Faculty complement: 19; one retires (Lai) and is replaced (Gutberlet), plus an incremental hire (Canessa); Senior Instructor position created to support new Geomatics/Computer Science Combined program (O’Connell); and one on leave without pay (Lonergan)

• New Combined Program in Geomatics/Computer Science: Start‐up funds $232,663 for renovations to create and equip lab space and $30,000 (yearly) to maintain equipment and licenses

• TA funding: Budget $167,758 plus $3,600 in EMF

• Staff complement: 8.5; no change


2004‐05:

• Faculty complement: 18; one on leave without pay (Lonergan) and one on Long Term Disability (Porteous)


• Staff complement: 10.5; 2 Senior Lab Instructors appointed to support new Geomatics/Computer Science Combined program (Fowler, Steckler)


2005‐06:

• Faculty complement: 21; incremental faculty position for Geomatics/Computer Science Combined program (Nelson)

• Staff complement: 11; Graduate Secretary becomes full‐time position (Li)




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2006‐07:

• Faculty complement: 21; includes 2 newly created positions ‐ Canada Research Chair in Urban Population Health (Ostry) and Limited Term Chair in Sustainable Aquaculture funded by BC Aquaculture and Innovation Award (Cross); one on LTD (Porteous) and one retired (Edgell)

• Staff complement: 10.4; Cartographer seconded to Dean’s Office becomes .4 FTE (Josephson)



2007‐08:

• Faculty complement: 24; includes new NSERC University Faculty Award (Lacourse) and replacement (Jelinski) of retiree (Edgell); one on LTD (Porteous)

• Staff complement: 10.4; Cartographer secondment continues .4 FTE (Josephson)

• Capital Expenditures: Move to new building

• TA funding: $257,267 (includes budget increase of $3,288) plus $18,827 in EMF

• Equipment Allocation from VP Academic: $61,000 (re: move to new building and new computers for Geomatics Lab)

2008‐09:

• Faculty complement: 24; includes new Leading Edge Endowment Fund (LEEF) Chair (Rivard); 2 retirees (Foster, Porteous) ‐ one position will not be replaced and one to start 2009‐10 (Rose‐Redwood)

• Staff complement: 10.4; Cartographer secondment continues .4 FTE (Josephson)



2009‐10:

• Faculty complement: 24; resignation, for personal reasons, of LEEF Chair (Rivard) and hiring of Urban Geographer (Rose‐Redwood); search for replacement climatologist initiated (Tuller retires Jun30/10)

• Staff complement: 10.6; Cartographer secondment .4 FTE April 1 to Aug 31 then secondment changes to .6 (Josephson)

• TA funding: $272,555

• Equipment Allocation from VP Academic: $11,040 7.2 External support

One of the key ways in which the Department has augmented its resources has been through the recruitment of a large number of adjunct appointments. In all areas of research and training, Geography is strengthened by the close association with scholars and researchers from a broad array of institutions including government, academic, NGO, and industrial sectors. Currently Geography benefits from 5 limited term, 3 cross‐listed, and 35 adjunct appointments (see Appendix 9). These individuals and organizations help support our programs through provision of expertise, funding, and physical/infrastructural support that enhances both research and

Resources

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academic initiatives. Several adjuncts, with distinguished teaching and research records in universities elsewhere, regularly teach undergraduate classes in which they have special expertise or when regular faculty are on leave. Adjunct faculty also play a key role in our graduate program, serving as co‐supervisors with regular faculty and as members of supervisory committees. Several adjunct appointees hold and administer grant funds through Geography.

Securing grants and donations has not been a major activity of the Department in recent years, in part due to the role of the Faculty of Social Sciences Development Officer who is primarily responsible for fundraising. Nevertheless, the Department has been successful in operating several endowment funds, particularly to support undergraduate scholarships and bursaries. In 2008‐09, approximately $80,000 was available for student scholarships.

Technical Services within the Department generates approximately $10,000 annually from contract work, enabling it to keep current in automated cartography and publication production. The income generated contributes to Departmental operating funds. Most recently, some of the funds were used to purchase computer equipment to support students and faculty engaged in community mapping. The new state‐of‐the‐art geomatics teaching labs have also been rented out to external organizations.

Other Departmental grant and donations include:

• Latitude Geographics, a Victoria‐based Internet mapping company founded by a Department alumnus, donated $5,000

• ESRI Canada, an international Geographic Information Systems company, has donated several $1,000 scholarships for undergraduate students in our geomatics program

• Grants have been acquired from Clayoquot Biosphere Trust to support a field course

The Department spear‐headed an application for a Chair in Integrated Water Resource Management in the recent Canadian Excellence Research Chair competition. The application, involving PCIC, WCIRC, Biology, and Geography, was selected from more than 20 internal applications as one of the three to go forward to Ottawa. It was unsuccessful at that level, but it does illustrate the willingness and initiative of Geography to engage in such time‐consuming activities. 7.3 Formal partnerships with community stakeholders

The Department has established formal partnerships with several groups. For example:

• Southern Oceans Education and Development (SOED) Project: Building Sustainable Aquaculture in Mozambique (2007‐2013). Canadian Development Agency (CIDA), University Partnerships in Cooperation and Development (UPCD) Tier 2 program grant. Mark Flaherty, Co‐Director ‐ $2,142,000

• Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA). In 2009, the Department and New Delhi‐based PRIA were awarded a $30,000 Partnership Development Seed Grant from the Shastri Indo‐Canadian Institute to develop teaching and research linkages between the University and PRIA. Key personnel from PRIA visited the Department in September and a report is under formulation regarding future development of the relationship. One of the thematic areas for co‐operative work has been designated as sustainable waste management, and the Capital Regional District is very keen to become formally involved in the relationship. We are also investigating an international field trip opportunity with PRIA.

• International Community University Research Alliance (SSHRC/IDRC). Two members of the Department (Canessa and Dearden) are principals in a recently funded ICURA link with


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strong relationships to community stakeholders in Clayoquot Sound and in Tanzania and Ghana. This formal partnership will result in a considerable influx of graduate students (and funds) and strong ties to the communities in these areas.

Several faculty members have established formal partnerships with community stakeholders. Gutberlet helped to establish an agreement between UVic and University of Comahue, Argentina for student, faculty, and staff exchange between the two universities. She is also involved in developing an umbrella agreement with the University of São Paolo on graduate student, faculty, and staff exchange between the two universities. The Department also has a collaborative agreement with Kasetsart University, Bangkok, and has been instrumental in spearheading University initiatives in Thailand.

Opportunity Analysis and Future Directions

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Criterion 8: Opportunity Analysis and Future Directions

8.1 Comparable programs

Geography at UVic compares very well with other geography departments in Canada in terms of both undergraduate and graduate enrolments (Section 4.7), and in terms of enrolment per faculty member we are among the best in the country. Quantity is not everything, however, and surveys of past undergraduate students reveal high levels of satisfaction with their programs at UVic (Section 4.5). The quality of graduate programs is also challenging to measure, but the robust nature of our applications indicates that we are still a department of choice for many students. The quality of our graduate program is indicated by the large number of peer‐reviewed publications our students author (Appendix 4).

Our faculty members are very successful in obtaining funding for their research, and publish in some of the top journals in their respective fields. UVic Geography faculty members have also authored text books that are widely used in departments across Canada. Our faculty members have received a wide range of recognition for their scholarship at both national and international levels.

In terms of thematic comparisons, Geography has identified four integrative themes where we have comparative strength and opportunity. All themes are strongly supportive of the University’s identified areas of research concentration and growth. Our curriculum review and resulting changes reflect these themes, as does our future hiring plan. Three of the themes (coastal, climate change impacts and adaptation, and sustainable communities/health) provide robust frameworks for the integration of all the traditional elements of geographical enquiry ranging from the physical sciences through resources and environmental management to geomatics and human geography. The themes represent not only opportunities for collaboration among interests within the Department but also for engagement with a wider range of stakeholders both within and outside the university. Tangible aspects of this potential are illustrated by our new Geography of the Coastal Zone course, where Departmental members are given the opportunity to discuss their coastal research ranging from oceanographic processes, biogeographical distributions, and coastal erosion through to marine protected areas, coastal planning, aquaculture, and coastal community health. Departmental members are also a strong presence as guest lecturers in the new interdisciplinary Human Impacts of Climate Change program. As well, integration is occurring not only within, but also among these themes. For example, our health geographers have collaborated in the climate change assessments and our sustainable community researchers have strong coastal interests.

The fourth area of strength and opportunity is environmental science. Although not as integrative as the other themes, the area provides a focus for our physical scientists to integrate their work with each other and with the other themes. In fact, all of our physical scientists are engaged in research that informs the other themes.

We believe our research productivity in terms of funding and publications per faculty member compare extremely well. The tradition at UVic has always been towards a more applied interpretation of the discipline, and our integrative themes represent more of a consolidation of our interests and continuing engagement with societal problems than a radical change in direction. We are also comfortable with this reinforcement of our past trajectory, as in many ways it builds on past strengths and new opportunities. Our healthy undergraduate and graduate enrolments suggest that students find value in our approach and are attracted to our program.

Elsewhere in Canada, some universities have recognized the leading role geography departments play in teaching and research on environmental management and sustainability and have combined


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with other units to form a “Department of Geography and Environmental Management” (e.g., Waterloo) or “Department of Geography and Environmental Studies” (e.g., Wilfrid Laurier and Carleton), to name a few. In the future, it will be interesting to see whether such emergent combined departments facilitate an overall program strengthening when compared with the stand‐alone departments, such as at the University of Victoria. SFU has responded in this regard with formation of an innovative “Faculty of Environment,” in which geography is the main academic department. 8.2 Future aspirations

The Department has undertaken thorough reviews of our overall goals, objectives, and teaching programs over the last year. We have made extensive changes to our undergraduate and graduate teaching programs and these changes will come into effect next year. The next few years will involve close monitoring of these changes and making adjustments as necessary to ensure that our planned‐for outputs, increased enrolments, teaching excellence, and high retention, are realized. However, it will also be a period of consolidation for our teaching programs and will provide an opportunity to invest more in the development of our research agenda focused on our identified areas of strength. This will involve more attention being paid to collaborative opportunities both within and outside the Department. Geography has a clear vision of its future over the next 5 to 7 years and sees many opportunities to be a strong contributor to the University Strategic Plan, especially as we continue to strengthen our focus on the integrative themes of climate change, coastal studies, environmental science, and urban sustainability/health.

Over the next 5 to 7 years we plan to focus on the following issues:

1. Faculty retention and renewal

• Continue to take advantage of opportunities to gain incremental faculty to strengthen our program in the core areas mentioned above, consistent with University interests in climate change, environmental science, coastal and ocean studies, and health and sustainability

• Hire an outstanding faculty member for our vacant Leading Edge Endowment Fund (LEEF) Chair in Remote Sensing

2. Undergraduate program

• Continue active review and revision of our undergraduate curriculum to enhance enrolment and ensure student interests are being met consistent with the academic integrity required for a geography degree

• Implement and develop our new Coastal Minor while exploring potential for other new Minor programs

• Continue to experiment with our summer programs to encourage student interest and increase enrolments

• Strengthen our field course offerings to meet high student demands and take advantage of enrolment opportunities

• Examine the feasibility of more online program offerings


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3. Graduate program

• Maintain existing graduate student enrolments and explore ways to ensure the quality and sustainability of our graduate program. This will involve active pursuit of means to expand the program conditional upon allocation of additional faculty

• Explore the interest and feasibility of introducing theme‐designated Masters programs (e.g., Masters in Geomatics or Urban Sustainability) and increasing Co‐op option Masters enrolments

4. Research partnerships and collaboration

• Provide stronger inputs to interdisciplinary centres on campus that reflect University goals, such as PICS, PCIC, ICOR, and CAPI

• Continue to build a strong working relationship with WCIRC and ARC

• Develop further support for the community mapping initiative

• Build stronger collaborative relationships with other units on campus, such as Environmental Studies and other units in the Faculty of Social Sciences, as well as SEOS, the Office of Community‐based Research, Continuing Studies, and other units outside the Faculty, where mutual benefits can be achieved

• Explore partnerships with outside agencies that will help lever Departmental resources for greater effectiveness in research outcomes and experiential learning opportunities

5. International programs

• Continue to develop and enhance support for the University’s international programs via many existing research and teaching partnerships

8.3 Increasing enrolments

In 2008, the Department formed a new Recruitment and Retention Committee, with representation from staff and students, charged with designing and implementing priority activities to enhance enrolment, mainly at the undergraduate level. In addition to these efforts (Section 2.9), we have updated our curriculum to generate an outstanding academic program that will attract students. With concentrations in geomatics, human geography, physical geography, and environment and sustainability, our curriculum builds on our research and teaching strengths. As well, minors such as the coastal program and combined geomatics and computer science program offer unique and attractive experiences to students. We also offer a number of service courses, some existing and others new, that contribute to the UVic community and create opportunities for enrolment growth. Service courses include: Geography of Canada; Geography of British Columbia; Human Dimensions of Climate Change; Geography of the Coastal Zone; several regional courses; and proposed new geomatics service courses such as GeoCaching and the GeoWeb, and Community Mapping.

In addition, we have a whole suite of outreach activities, including our Geographers in Schools program, brochures and a newsletter, a new first year barbeque, and other initiatives that have been outlined elsewhere that demonstrate a keen interest in enhancing enrolments.

At the graduate level, we continue to maintain the highest student enrolments in the Faculty (Table 4.2, Section 4.2) and have increased enrolments via the successes of our faculty in securing new and innovative research opportunities, some of which include research internships with partner agencies, and by direct increased research capacity in the Department via new labs and infrastructure and the addition of new research units (e.g., WCIRC, Alberta Research Council). In addition, many faculty members have responded positively by expanding their supervisory roles


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and commitments to help meet the disproportionately high enrolment quotas set by the Administration.

Currently, we are meeting enrolment targets at approximately 4 graduate FTEs per faculty member, which is the highest in the Faculty of Social Sciences. Not only is our graduate program a highly productive enrollment success, it also gives students direct experiential learning in most areas of interest in the University Strategic Plan, including: Environmental Science and Policy, Global Change and Sustainability, Health and Society, Oceans and Climate, Information Technology and Environmental Monitoring (e.g., Section 5.1, etc.). In addition, our program also involves many smaller foci of interest to the Administration including: experiential learning, community‐based research, and internationalization, to name a few.

The Department feels that our Graduate Program is at a critical threshold for sustainability beyond which the quality of the program will become compromised. As such, plans to continually increase enrollments beyond current targets for our program, given our current faculty complement, are untenable. Graduate student intakes are at record levels and highest in the faculty, both in terms of total numbers and FTE/faculty. Future growth is limited by: i) limited capacity of faculty members to supervise more students, ii) constrained availability of internal graduate student support funding, and iii) limited space to house large, in‐residence student populations. Geography faculty have demonstrated clearly a significant effort and success in obtaining research funding to provide or supplement graduate student stipends and opportunities. Further growth in the graduate student program will require attention to faculty workload and student funding issues. We are not application‐limited in most areas of the Department, and with the exception of strong support for the reconfiguration and frequent updating of our website, we do not see the need for major investments in graduate recruitment. 8.4 Challenges and opportunities

In the current rapidly changing university environment, the Department recognized the need to undertake a thorough re‐examination of its trajectory and undertook a SWOT analysis in the Fall of 2008 that resulted in a new undergraduate curriculum, changes in the graduate program, and identification of main thematic opportunities for the future, as described elsewhere in this report. The Department was also a strong contributor to the Faculty of Social Sciences Strategic Enrolment Plan and has become more aware of some of the main challenges in student retention, such as ensuring our best teachers are engaged at the first year level in order to improve the retention of students from the first to the second year. We have also helped initiate, with the Learning and Teaching Centre, a more in‐depth training program for our teaching assistants that will help in retention and in maintaining the overall quality of our program. Our first year barbeque is an opportunity to have first year students meet and interact with faculty and more senior Geography students, and we also have similar events such as our Geocache in Geography Awareness Week.

We will continue to invest in the aspects of our program that provide us with points of differentiation and potential competition from other new degree‐granting institutions. We will emphasize integration of research and teaching and the active research profiles of our faculty, along with the quality of our program to attract and retain the best students. Our historical emphasis on the application of geographical knowledge to current societal problems will continue to be a strong interest, as will our support for, and promotion of, the Co‐op program.


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8.5 Most important priorities

Our most important priorities are to nurture the steps we have taken to enhance the enrolment and quality of our teaching programs and to provide opportunities for faculty to develop meaningful and successful research programs. Two specific items that will help accomplish these goals and that require University support are graduate program growth and obtaining further support for the development of community mapping within the Department.

1. Graduate program growth. Geography has a robust and effective graduate program. Enrolment figures are consistently the highest in the Faculty of Social Sciences. Our students produce excellent work. Even at the Masters level, much of this work is published in top journals. Our new building has provided excellent facilities, and we have a broad array of top class researchers in our defined areas of strength. There is strong student demand for our program. The Department has an appetite to continue expansion of the program and accept a greater proportion of PhD students, but would need further support from the University to do so. Our limitations are:

• Supervisory capacity: Some areas of our program have very high demand and we regularly turn away highly qualified students. In order to create more supervisory capacity we could:

‐ Hire incremental faculty in the areas of high demand, with the specific expectation that this will lead to higher supervisory capacity in that area. This option would not only strengthen the graduate program but also lead to higher teaching capacity at the undergraduate level and enhanced research profiles. This option would be the most effective way to further expand the capacity of our graduate program. An additional draft position description is included in Appendix 7.

‐ Reduce undergraduate teaching expectations for those involved with additional graduate supervisory responsibilities. Although ostensibly this is within the purview of the Department, enrolment expectations at the undergraduate level make these adjustments difficult to achieve. Granting of the new SI position to Geography will give us considerably more flexibility in this area in the future. We are currently in the process of determining the optimal mix of courses that might be involved with this position. There needs to be greater recognition of the finite capacity of our faculty to deliver maximum enrolments at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

‐ Promote graduate growth in areas where student demand is not as strong through more targeted recruitment efforts. This would also require willingness on the part of faculty in these areas to take on additional supervisory duties. It is also not realistic to assume that all areas have equal pools of interest from potential graduate students.

• Financial support: Graduate programs need to be able to provide adequate base funding to support students.

‐ Enhanced TA support: Geography has received generally good support from the University in this area, but we still often lack sufficient funds to support all eligible students. It is essential that the TA budget is maintained and enhanced if we are to support higher numbers of graduate students. Our new undergraduate program should continue to produce the increased enrolments that will support greater TA funding in future.

‐ Grants and scholarships: Geography has worked to establish a large number of graduate scholarships to support our students. However, to further support our students we request a more consolidated input from the Faculty and University fund raisers that will assist in establishing a larger funding base.


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2. Community Mapping Initiative: Community Mapping (CM) is citizen engagement, an empowerment and educational tool, and a research methodology. CM, with long‐standing roots in geographic and cartographic studies, is increasingly capturing the imagination of students, scholars, University administrators, government and non‐government organizations, and the general public. In fact, these and other groups are already working together to use CM in a variety of teaching, research, and problem‐solving contexts to ensure, for example, the sustainable use of natural resources, better‐planned neighbourhoods, and the empowerment and social welfare of communities locally and abroad.

The Department of Geography has been a leader at UVic in responding to the growing demand to learn about the uses, techniques, and scholarly worth of this growing field of geographic and cartographic enterprise (www.mapping.uvic.ca). The Department, through its staff, particularly Ken Josephson, and faculty and in support of UVic’s Strategic Plan, has already engaged in many CM initiatives on campus, in Victoria, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, and overseas (e.g., in India and Brazil), often in partnership with the University’s Office of Community‐based Research, Common Ground, and the international Global Green Map System. These projects include both printed and interactive online maps, seminars, guest lectures and workshops, conferences and roundtables, consultation and advising, incorporating CM in teaching, and engaging in research. Examples include mapping health, wellness, transportation, sustainability initiatives, historical and cultural landscape stories, and international connections of UVic, resource conflicts in indigenous communities, identifying treasured places in local neighbourhoods, and land use conflicts in major transportation corridors. The ongoing Coastal Community Map of Saanich Inlet and Peninsula is an excellent example of the Department’s capabilities to combine teaching, research, and community outreach and engagement.

There exists the potential to implement a more enduring and cohesive Community Mapping Initiative (CMI) on campus, and given University support, the Department of Geography will take the leadership role. Current efforts have already demonstrated that the CMI has tremendous potential to attract new audiences, add to enrolments, enrich existing course offerings, offer experiential learning through co‐op and internships, engage in community‐based learning and research, build liaisons with other stakeholders both inside and outside the University, enhance community engagement, meet the University’s internationalization goals, and showcase geographic skills.

The multi‐disciplinary CMI would build on existing course offerings, computer and laboratory facilities, and faculty and technical staff. CM is already practiced to a varying degree in courses at all levels in the Geomatics, Resource Management, and Development and Urban Studies streams. Faculty members (Canessa, Gutberlet, McCann, O’Connell, Ostry) have already engaged in various course and research projects in conjunction with community stakeholders. The Department’s highly‐skilled technical staff has been instrumental in facilitating these projects. To complete projects, use has been made of the Department’s space and computer laboratories.

With University support, the Department can strengthen and consolidate the CMI to more effectively support and expand CM activities in the Department and across campus. To convert the potential into reality, the following is required:

• Establish a collaborative mechanism for CM activities within the Department, across campus, and throughout the community, thus making most efficient use of resources;

• Provide a curriculum coordinator to ensure that course offerings and curricular linkages between Geomatics, Resource Management, and Development and Urban Studies are initiated, strengthened, and maintained;

• Develop a credit course in CM and provide a qualified course instructor;


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• Explore the potential for web‐based interactive mapping to further outreach and engagement with community and policy makers;

• Integrate the CMI within Ken Josephson’s (currently staff cartographer) position, for community outreach and technical expertise for curriculum and research design and implementation; and

• Evaluate and, where possible, provide and designate space and equipment in support of the teaching, research, and community outreach components of the CMI.

8.6 Funding required

In terms of graduate program growth, the most effective option is for an incremental faculty member to provide additional supervisory capacity in a high demand area that helps support achievement of the University’s strategic plan. We suggest that this position be related to water resource management, and have drafted an advertisement (Appendix 7). This position should be filled as replacement for the upcoming retirement of Tuller. We request support for this retirement replacement.

Another strategy to boost supervisory capacity is to allow greater recognition for graduate supervision through undergraduate teaching relief, to be accommodated by the hiring of a second senior instructor. The University has already given permission for this position to be filled and we are currently working out the optimal course mix. We request support for this hiring.

Our third strategy is to promote graduate interest in areas where there is still excess supervisory capacity. This would require a targeted recruitment program. The Department is willing to establish a graduate student recruitment fund to which individual scholars or thematic groups can apply to target specific student populations for graduate work. We request that the University match this fund by providing $1,500 per year for 3 years.

For the CMI initiative, the department has already made considerable investment through contributions of staff time, equipment, and space. We are prepared to increase the level of this investment through enhanced investments relating to staff time (Josephson), credit course development and instruction (O’Connell), responsibility (O’Connell), and possibly space and equipment. However, we would expect matching investments from the University that will help offset the cuts we have to make in other areas to further support CMI. Discussions are currently underway.

External Review 2009 - University of Victoria · sea‐level rise, coastal zone management, remote...

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