Closer links urged

BRONWYN CHESTER | It will be business as usual, more or less, for McGill's departments of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and Earth and Planetary Sciences if the recommendations of a new report are accepted. These departments, along with similar departments at other Quebec universities, are the subject of the newly released seventh report by the Commission des universités sur les programmes, an arm's length creation of CREPUQ to assess a number of the province's university programs.

Noting the high quality and importance of the research conducted in these departments and the number of graduate students enrolled in them -- more than half of the approximately 800 students in these programs are graduate students and they are eminently employable -- the report basically says: "'It's good and let's do more of it,'" comments Associate Vice-Principal (Academic) Nicholas de Takacsy, McGill's representative on the commission.

Given that in 1997, both Concordia University and the Université de Montréal closed their geology departments, there were no recommendations made regarding closing down or rationalizing earth science departments.

Rather, the report supports the recommendations, made in 1994 by the Table de concertation en géologie et génie géologique, that the province have three regional poles for research and training in the earth sciences: Montreal, Quebec and Chicoutimi.

Regarding the training of geologists and geological engineers, the report also recommends that the École Polytechnique and UQAM's earth science programs collaborate when it comes to teaching.

Calling Montreal an internationally recognized centre for atmospheric research, the report called on McGill and UQAM to intensify their collaboration.

Since 1991, UQAM students have been able to do a "collaborative PhD" at McGill (provided, of course, that the University accepted them) while still being supervised by an UQAM professor. UQAM's department is far smaller than McGill's -- 9 1/2 faculty members at McGill compared to the French-language university's four -- and it makes sense that UQAM students come here, says atmospheric and oceanic sciences professor Jacques Derome.

The report recommends similar collaboration at the master's level. While the PhD program is relatively trouble-free at the academic level, de Takacsy notes that collaborations with other universities are "not so good" at the administrative and financial levels. McGill's graduate grading system of considering anything less than a B- to be an F, doesn't accord well with other universities, he said, and each university has its own financial peculiarities, making cost-sharing a challenge.

At the undergraduate level, the commission is concerned about the future of atmospheric sciences -- there is a growing shortage of undergraduate students in the programs.

The report recommends that a revamped bachelor's degree in physics (called for in a previous CUP report) should include courses in the atmospheric sciences "in order to make students aware of the physics of the atmosphere and assure Montreal's reputation as an international centre of research in the field."

Greater collaboration -- this time between McGill, Université Laval and the Université du Québec à Rimouski -- is also the order of the day for oceanography. Last spring, the three universities agreed to offer a joint PhD in oceanography, starting next fall. They have yet, however, to finalize the program content and logistics.