One year ago, the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs (FGPA) approached the Office of Quality Initiatives to undertake a benchmarking project to analyze graduate student services and communication at Carleton.
The goal? To identify areas that need improvement and make recommendations to remedy the situation.
The Graduate Student Services Benchmarking (GSSB) Committee was created and included representatives from FGPA, the Graduate Students’ Association, Office of Quality Initiatives, MacOdrum Library, Office of the Associate Vice-President (Students and Enrolment), University Communications, as well as a PhD student.
After a year of research and analysis that included four focus groups with Carleton grad students, the Committee has submitted its final report. The Report summary is available here.
The Report contains four main recommendations:
• Improve campus-wide coordination mechanisms for graduate student services
• Continued improvement of communication strategies to graduate students
• Coordinate a professional skills development program for graduate students
• Develop improved offerings related to the graduate student experience
Meanwhile over the last year, FGPA has instituted several new initiatives to upgrade services for grad students including introducing:
• The Graduate Newsletter (sent to all grad students)
• GRAD TALK – where grad students can share their thoughts on relevant issues/questions
• PREP Services that provides support and services for all grad students.
• Several new skills workshops and seminars, including the PREP Seminar Series.
• A Referral Guide of Grad Student Services which was shared with all new grad students at Orientation.
• Hiring a part-time Coordinator of Graduate Services and Professional Training (more information is available at: carleton.ca/fgpa/2012/new-coordinator-of-grad-services-and-pro-training)
As well, FGPA will be hosting two focus groups in the near future. One is on barriers to the thesis process and the other is asking for feedback about our existing FGPA website (as we want to make it more user-friendly). Both groups are now full and have long waitlists.
FGPA would like to thank everyone who participated in this project for their time and ideas.
Please feel free to give us your feedback and share your ideas (fgpa_newsletter@carleton.ca) as we continue to move forward to enhance the grad student experience at Carleton.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012 in Grad Student Services, News
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