Program creators share about the long and winding road to course development
Photo courtesy of the University of Victoria.
Since September 2023, UVic has initiated a variety of new certificate programs and one new faculty — but getting programs off the ground can be a daunting task.
From the spark of an idea to the first course offerings, UVic’s Media Studies certificate, Transformative Climate Action certificate, and Faculty of Health have all taken between 18 months and eight years to reach classrooms.
The creation process looks different depending on each project, but all program proposals at UVic have one thing in common: lots of consultation.
For Dr. Jentery Sayers, director of Media Studies, the project started back in 2017–2018, with a two-year inquiry by the Faculty of Humanities into a potential program on media and cultural studies. The first step was gathering support for the idea.
“You have to get internal support,” said Sayers. “You have to run everything by every faculty that’s a stakeholder.”
Initially, Sayers, along with others in the faculty, talked to the chairs and deans of various academic programs at UVic. The first consultations helped develop learning outcomes and courses for the new program.
Dr. Kara Shaw, academic director of the Transformative Climate Action (TCA) certificate, approached her own project in a similar way. Driven by the recommended suspension of UVic’s Human Dimensions of Climate Change (HDCC) program in 2022, Shaw got to work immediately when she saw how strongly students objected to the announcement.
“As soon as I decided that … this was a good idea, I just started talking to people,” she said. Over the course of six months, Shaw met with approximately 110 different people — including students, faculty, potential employers, and Indigenous and government representatives — to develop a plan.
“We did it really fast, because I felt like it was urgent — you know, we’re in the climate crisis,” she said. The TCA certificate was up and running by September 2023.
After Sayers and Shaw developed curriculum for their respective certificate programs, they each completed a proposal template required by UVic and provided evidence of consultation with various groups, including other post-secondary institutions in B.C., the UVic Libraries, and the Office of Indigenous Academic and Community Engagement. Then, the UVic Senate and the Board of Governors reviewed the proposals.
For UVic’s new Faculty of Health, set to launch this May, COVID-19 complicated the development process. UVic first explored the concept of a new faculty in 2019, but set the idea aside during the pandemic. In 2023, the Senate established an ad-hoc Committee on Academic Health Programming to spearhead the project.
The committee engaged with UVic and the community through town halls, forums, meetings and a campus-wide survey; two student representatives on the committee also gave input on the project.
“Consultations and communications were key,” said Lindsay Gagel, the project manager for the Faculty of Health initiative, in an email. “Students are why universities exist, and students are centred in our decision making.”
Shaw’s work on the TCA certificate also involved two students, who reviewed her proposal and offered feedback about their experiences in the suspended HDCC program. “They had a lot of insights to offer into what I was building,” she said.
After the Media Studies certificate launched in 2023, an ongoing program committee was established to review changes to the curriculum and courses. The committee includes one student representative, one representative from UVic Libraries, and others from related UVic faculties and the surrounding community.
“It’s structured so that you have to make an argument to a student … who represents all students … that the changes are valid,” said Media Studies director Sayers. “You [also] get feedback from them along the way.”
Rory Todd, one of the first students to graduate with the Media Studies certificate, was part of a committee during the project’s search for a director.
“Students’ voices are very much championed in those discussions,” she said. “Getting to be a part of that process, and knowing that my voice was also important in that conversation as a student, it felt like I had a responsibility to the Media Studies program.”
Ultimately, Todd recognizes value in UVic’s variety of academic options.
“What is university for, beyond experiencing new things?” she said. “I think that’s what education is about.”
