Joel S.
Yelp
One can only be subjective when assessing the quality of an institution of higher learning, especially at the post-graduate level. I will not take the pitfall and use the word especially true because that would immediately make my response objective.
Enough with the semantics and accompanying BS (not to be confused with a Bachelor of Science Degree from the USA). An education is only as valuable as the effort the student is willing to put into. The higher the level the more this appears to be true. While completing the Graduate Project Management Program, I had plenty of opportunities to test this observation. Although this data is merely empirical, negating any chance to be objective, I concluded the more I dedication I gave to the quest for furthering my own knowledge and advancing the discipline through research, the greater the satisfaction I achieved in my studies. To this extent, I can state wihout qualification that the University of Calgary provided me a most excellent forum in which I fulfilled my goals. I came away with exactly what I wanted.
However, I can only give four stars. It is not because of the quality of the learning environment, but the constraints put on the access to the learning environment at the graduate level. The graduate departments in many faculties are averse to allowing students from other departments to take courses for credit. The Faculty of Law was one of the worst. A change of deans alleviated that and I was allowed to take advanced environmental law, the professor was the second most recent dean.
The Haskayne School of Business, even though a sponsor of the Project Management Program, would not allow PM students to expande their knowledge horizontally, especially at the 700 level of courses. If the course was PM oriented they had to let you register, if it was not then you either had to fight or forgo the class. Advanced accounting and finance courses were totally blocked yet many very senior project managers have responsibility for billion dollar budgets.
The Faculty of Environmental Design was the most liberal in allowing students in graduate programs in other departments to take their 600 and 700 level courses. All may take up to four courses without requiring special permission of the dean. I gorged myself on policy analysis, development, and environmental impact classes. They provided the most satisfaction during my two year sojourn at UofC.
Professors of note, in all departments, were Al Lucas (Law), George Jergeas (Project Management), Sascha Tsenkova and Bill Ross (Environmental Design), and Terry Rock (Strategic Management). I took a total of 11 graduate courses and none were inferior. I was given the opportunity to work on numerous faculty projects including editing books for George Jergeas, PM department head, and for Michael Mack, a visiting scholar in the Institute for Humanities. Funding was easily available and for this I had to proof read dissertations for fellow students.
I cannot speak for other programs but I highly recommend the University's Graduate Project Management Program. You get to choose your own research projects rather than being a slave for your supervisor. These were two of the best years of my life.
