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Undergraduate Degree
Guidelines: what a UW degree means
UW’s senate will hear next week about changes that the university will start to see now that it has signed on to Ontario-wide guidelines about the “expectations” for an undergraduate degree.
The guidelines, issued in 2005 by the Ontario Council of Academic Vice-Presidents, define the “depth and breadth of knowledge” that a degree-holder at the general or honours level should have, as well as “knowledge of methodologies”, “application of knowledge”, “communication skills”, “awareness of limits of knowledge” and “autonomy and professional capacity”.
For example, a degree holder should have demonstrated “critical thinking and analytical skills inside and outside the discipline . . . the ability to review, present and critically evaluate qualitative and quantitative information . . . an appreciation of the uncertainty, ambiguity and limits to knowledge.”
Senate will hear about the OCAV guidelines from UW’s associate vice-president (academic), Geoff McBoyle, and if they think he’s speaking about “oodles” of something, it’ll only be because the official title of the document is University Undergraduate Degree Level Expectations — abbreviated to UUDLEs.
“These guidelines outline specifics of the disciplinary knowledge and skills students will learn during their undergraduate degree, as well as broader statements pertaining to meeting societal needs,” says a written report from McBoyle that’s part of the agenda for the senate meeting to be held at 4:30 Monday afternoon.
“In addition to these UUDLEs,” he writes, “the University of Waterloo intends its graduating students to be able to articulate their learning from experiential or applied opportunities, and to demonstrate an understanding of the intellectual, social, cultural, and political diversity of the world in which we live.
“The OCAV framework, together with the University of Waterloo enhancements, will support departments and academic units in planning or revising curricula and in communicating program goals and outcomes to students and stakeholders. As of June 2008, departments and faculties engaged in program review shall use these guidelines as base expectations while retaining the flexibility to add objectives unique to their specialties.”
The OCAV guidelines are being shown to senate as part of an updated procedure for the “academic program reviews” that UW has been doing since 1997. All programs have been reviewed at least once, and the schedule is for every program to be dealt with once in seven years, so that a second cycle of reviews started in 2005-06. The latest review to be finished — for the music program — is also on the agenda for Monday’s senate meeting.
“The fundamental purposes of the review process,” says the procedure document, “are to help each program to achieve and maintain the highest possible standards of academic excellence, through systematically reflecting on its strengths and weaknesses, and looking forward to determine what actions would further enhance quality in the program; assess the quality of the program relative to counterpart programs in Ontario, Canada and internationally, and meet public accountability expectations through a credible, transparent, and action-oriented review process.”
© University of Waterloo Daily Bulletin
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