Engineering program being rebuilt from the ground up

Simaan AbouRizk served as the interim dean for the faculty of engineering for three years starting in 2021. When it came time to decide if he wanted to stay in the position, he felt some big changes needed to be made to the program. 

“I had the opportunity [in the first three years] to experience what’s going on in the faculty and get to know what the challenges are with the students,” he explained. “I was like, if I’m going to be the dean for the next five years, these are the sort of things that I want to do, otherwise I’m not interested.”

The student experience is a big part of what needs to change for him. He said he’s seen frustration from students around different aspects of the engineering program, especially with the lack of flexibility.

“One of the criteria [in rebuilding the program], we wanted the programs to be agile because currently our programs are kind of fixed,” AbouRizk said. 

He said the program hasn’t changed in decades, aside from a few courses being added and a few being dropped. Part of the need to make the program more agile is to reflect changes in the industry and community. 

“If we have rigid programs, it’s going to be almost like you’re on a death march,” he said. “You need people to be able to pivot and adopt certain things as they come up.”

Reducing the workload and improving first-year experience

The high workload of engineering students was also of concern for AbouRizk. 

“[It’s] a very high workload compared to other disciplines, and we compared this to other universities where it’s not the same in terms of the demand on the student but they still produce good engineers,” he explained.

Engineering students typically have to take six or seven courses a semester. An engineering student at other major universities may only have to take four, according to AbouRizk.

The current program also doesn’t allow students to take many electives. The hope is that by cutting down the workload, students will be able to take six to eight electives. This may allow students to complete a certificate or add a minor in another area.

The third key area of change for AbouRizk is the first year program for students. Currently, first year engineering students enter into a common, general engineering program not specialized to a specific area of engineering. 

“There isn’t really a connection to engineering. It’s just another year of advanced high school.”

They have found through surveys that the experience in the first year program is the worst. But as students went into more specialized classes, the experience got better.

Part of the issue with the entry level courses is that they tend to be pure math or science with little application to engineering. AbouRizk wants to incorporate real engineering problems and applications into these entry-level math and science courses.

“It motivates the student to learn more. It introduces them quicker to engineering concepts.”

“The idea is to embrace a continuous kind of improvement,” AbouRizk says

It will also allow for students to go right into specialized cohorts as opposed to a general cohort in their first year. 

AbouRizk says this will reduce stress on students in their first year. Right now, first year students have to be admitted into their specialized programs in the second year. In order to get in, their marks have to stay above a certain cutoff. 

There will still be a general cohort for those who haven’t yet chosen their specialization.

“So we wanted to take all that and bring it into a coherent program that basically addresses all these objectives,” AbouRizk said.

To put these changes into action, AbouRizk set up a committee about a year and a half ago and the committee produced a report this June outlining how they can achieve these changes.

He said they worked backwards from what an engineer is supposed to know when they graduate. From there, they worked to design and build courses to support those attributes. 

“The idea is to embrace a continuous kind of improvement,” AbouRizk said.

A pilot launch is expected to take place in September 2026. This would test the new program with a cohort of about 50 students in their first year.

“If everything works the way we intend, the renewed first year launch would be in September 2027,” he said. “The first graduates from the new program would be expected in June 2031.”

Cautious optimism from students on changes to the program

AbouRizk said that although the changes are significant, there shouldn’t be an increased cost to students beyond the yearly two per cent increase for domestic students.

“In fact, there might be some reduction, because a student may end up taking a lesser number of courses and therefore you pay by the course, you may end up paying a little bit less,” he added.

“You can take my word that we will not increase the cost as part of the renewal activity,” AbouRizk said.

The renewal is meant to be done organically within the faculty and using the resources they already have. Gifts and endowments will also help with the costs of developing a new program.

Bassam Dakhel, an engineering student councillor, said that “from my experience, many engineering students feel that the current program is overloaded and that many first-year courses don’t feel relevant to their actual discipline.”

A move toward a reduced course load and more engineering-focused content in courses could be an improvement, according to Dakhel.

“Looking back as a student in computer software engineering, I realize that many of the courses I took in my first years were irrelevant,” he said. “Engineering students are noticeably more motivated when taking courses they see as related to their future careers.”

But he also noted there’s some skepticism about a direct-entry model.

“Students are cautiously hopeful that this new approach will actually allow relevant coursework to begin earlier, depending on how it’s implemented. That’s why consultation with students is extremely important.”

He said that he is not personally aware of direct consultation done with students regarding these changes, but based on conversations with his peers, many would appreciate being consulted.