It’s been three months since the report from the External Review of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research was released to the University of Alberta community. The report was widely read, I know, even on the verge of summer. I’m writing now with an update intended to bring you up to date on FGSR’s initial response to the review and to introduce a spreadsheet that will continue to grow in the coming months. Needless to say, this has not been a quiet summer at Triffo Hall.
Our external reviewers made a number of detailed recommendations, which this update captures in summary. Two of them – a name change that reflects our responsibilities for postdoctoral researchers, a minimum funding guarantee for PhD students – will make their way into the university’s governance processes this fall. Major projects to replace a creaky student records management system and introduce digital forms are now underway. But the report, as I read it, was more emphatic about what it called the need for changes in culture and administrative processes so that the Faculty can lead creatively in shaping graduate studies at a critical time for the U of A. On-site, the reviewers heard that FGSR was too concerned with policing and standard-setting, too risk-averse, and not trusting enough in its relationships with academic program units. In particular, their report said, “memo culture” – the time-consuming, back-and-forth requirement of lengthy rationales to make the case for an admission, a deferral, an extension, as some of you know well – “must stop.”
The most important thing for me to say after three months is that FGSR staff have embraced the challenges set out in the review. They have met regularly over the summer to review processes and practices. Some of them spent two days with counterparts at the University of Calgary to learn from a very different model. Almost all of them were present at a successful retreat for graduate administrators from across the U of A that was meant to build a stronger community among those with hands-on responsibilities and to introduce a first set of process changes. Staff have done this while processing a significant jump in applications, acceptances and registrations for Fall 2023.
The work of responding to the external review has only begun. It will continue under the new leadership, effective November 1, 2023 of Dean-elect Tracy Raivio. We’re meeting regularly to ensure a smooth transition and agreement on short-term steps. We’re both committed to a Faculty that looks at graduate studies as a matter of shared responsibility, that leads by collaboration and that continues to surprise people.
Roger Epp
Interim Vice-Provost and Dean