Later this month, the University of Ottawa will engage academic leaders in a program revitalization exercise that will bring renewed relevance and energy to our programs.
Provost and Vice-President Academic Affairs Jacques Beauvais will lead the initiative, which aims to build on the University’s strengths while preparing programs for the future.
The initiative reflects one of President Marie-Eve Sylvestre’s priorities: ensuring the University’s offerings remain relevant to students, attractive to leading scholars and consistent across campus.
Building from a strong base
Beauvais says students often cite the University’s programs and their relationships with professors as its top draws.
“Academic programs are at the heart of everything we do for our students. They’re our core value proposition. We must always be improving.”
At the same time, Beauvais adds that universities must reflect on how programs can evolve and respond to the impacts of artificial intelligence, climate change and political upheaval across fields and sectors.
“Academic programs are at the heart of everything we do for our students. They’re our core value proposition. We must always be improving.”
Jacques Beauvais
— Provost and Vice-President, Academic Affairs
Collaborative by design, the revitalization exercise invites academic leaders to draw on their combined experience to propose approaches that strengthen ties among research, education and teaching innovation.
Beauvais says the University has no predetermined blueprint for what change might emerge.
“We can’t mandate change from the top down,” he says. “Change is most successful when all parties contribute and when ideas and efforts are embraced across the institution. Initiatives are stronger, more sustainable and better aligned with the community’s needs.”
Beauvais stresses that the project is designed to create value while driving better outcomes and supporting growth.
“Our goal is to improve student success without compromising academic standards.”
Looking for outcomes in three focus areas
Drawing on institutional data, program performance indicators, emerging societal needs and labour-market requirements, academic leaders will focus on three areas:
- Simplification and flexibility: Exploring ways to support students’ success through clearer, more flexible program structures.
- Modernization: Updating current programs to reflect advances in research and evolving approaches to teaching and learning.
- Program innovation and relevance: Anticipating emerging fields and ensuring that programs remain relevant as society changes.
Together, these three areas provide a framework to evaluate programs on an ongoing basis, which is necessary in the face of rapid change.
Challenges to solve and opportunities to improve
Beauvais says the revitalization is a unique opportunity to highlight uOttawa’s strengths and to address program features that may no longer serve students as intended.
With many students juggling study and work, some curricula may not be flexible enough for them to complete within four years.
“We’re taking a critical look at how we can better support students in completing their studies successfully,” Beauvais says. “Over time, degree requirements can evolve in ways that may inadvertently create barriers to timely graduation, so we’re examining our programs holistically to ensure they remain accessible, while maintaining academic rigour.”
The initiative is also an opportunity to expand multidisciplinary and experiential learning opportunities, as complex societal challenges call for people who can analyze problems from multiple perspectives and propose pragmatic solutions.
“It's vital that we continue to take decisive action to enhance experiential learning opportunities for students."With the recent Telfer Innovation Sprint on Preventing Youth Homelessness and CoCreate Health Sprints as examples, Beauvais says other initiatives could engage more faculties, as well as private sector and federal government partners, to tackle challenges.
The University can also take greater advantage of its proximity to the policy experts, decision-makers and world-renowned researchers working, in some cases, quite literally down the street.
“There’s no other place in Canada where students can interact on a daily basis with people from the federal government, national agencies and research councils, community organizations and entrepreneurs in Kanata North."
The revitalization will also consider how developments such as artificial intelligence are reshaping fields across disciplines. As knowledge evolves and our challenges become more multidimensional, universities must increasingly bring together perspectives from a wide range of fields.
Revitalization already at work
The project has a two-year timeline, but the spirit of renewal is already afoot across campus.
At Telfer, a new modular Bachelor of Commerce program allows students to build their own personalized program atop a core set of business courses. The Faculty of Engineering now offers an interdisciplinary design program that includes mandatory hands-on learning and allows students to choose between customized learning paths.
Students in the entirely new Clinical Science and Translational Medicine program develop specialized skills to tackle complex biomedical questions. In the Faculty of Social Sciences, the new In-Depth Experiential Learning Stream (IELS) incorporates hands-on fieldwork or self-directed courses in a rigorous classroom curriculum without extending the program's length.
These initiatives capture the spirit of innovation across campus, and the program revitalization initiative promises to build on the momentum in the years ahead.
“The University plays a vital role in its community and continues to strengthen its reputation for research excellence on the world stage,” says Beauvais. “Reflecting on how our programs evolve will help sustain that trajectory.”
