Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research

Dean's Message

Dean's Picture

Welcome to the web pages of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research (FGSR). It is a pleasure and an honour to serve as the first full-time Dean of the Faculty. It is an exciting time to be serving in this role as Saint Mary's University finds itself in an unprecedented rate of expansion of its graduate studies programs and research activities.

Saint Mary's University is a great place to pursue graduate studies. Since my arrival here in January 2005, I have been particularly impressed with the commitment of all levels of the University in the pursuit of graduate studies and programs, from individual Faculty members right up to the President's Office. We offer 19 different programs (15 Masters and 4 PhDs) across the Faculties of Arts, Science and Commerce. The University and the campus are compact enough to still have a strong sense of community, but the resources are here to pursue advanced studies at state-of-the-art/science level.

In terms of research activities at Saint Mary's, the great expertise resident in our outstanding Faculty members has been more effectively mobilized over the last decade. As a result, research funding, graduate student numbers, and number of research projects have been increasing at unprecedented rates at the University. The recent awarding of a $1.5M dollar institutional grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council to build Research Capacity Development is evidence of this increased activity. Saint Mary's is one of only seven Universities across Canada to receive one of these grants from NSERC. Likewise the $10M investment in our high performance computing facility as part of the Atlantic Computational Excellence Network (ACEnet) and the $3.5M investment from the Atlantic Innovation Fund of ACOA in a research project investigating human "behavioural" data for use in urban modeling and simulation is evidence of this increase activity. Although these projects are some of our "big ticket" projects underway at present, more millions of dollars are being invested in a plethora of research projects across the University. The establishment of our Industry Liaison Office in late 2004 is also evidence of our efforts to bridge our research activities with individuals and organizations external to the campus community.

We hope you find our web pages useful and interesting. Follow the links within this page and in the side bars for information on graduate studies programs and research activities within the University.

J. Kevin Vessey
Dean, Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research

Associate Vice President, Research


Our Mission

Approved by both Senate and the Board of Governors in January, 2001, the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research was officially launched in April of the same year to:

provide a co-ordinating and monitoring agency for graduate programs and graduate students, in order to ensure greater program continuity and foster university wide co-ordination;

provide a strong central authority to streamline Faculty grant applications; and

generate and disseminate Graduate Studies and Research Policy and Procedures.

Renewal of Saint Mary’s University Strategic Research Plan

Under instruction of Dr. David Gauthier, Vice President Academic and Research,  Dr. Kevin Vessey, Associate Vice President Research and Dean of the FGSR, has been charged with leading a campus-wide consultation for the renewal of the University’s Strategic Research Plan (SRP).

Aside from the strategic planning benefits that come from having a renewed SRP, to take advantage of certain Government of Canada research funding programs (e.g. Canada Research Chairs (CRC) program; Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) program), Universities in Canada are required to have an SRP  that meets certain criteria and follows a prescribed format.  A complete listing of the summary of Canadian Universities SRPs can be found at the CRC website.

To view Saint Mary’s current SRP, see: http://www.smu.ca/academic/vp/research-plan.html.  The current plan was originally written in 1999 and it has undergone only minor changes/updates over the years under the authority of the Dean of the FGSR.  These changes have normally been associated with submission of funding applications to the CRC and CFI programs.  

Process:

The renewal of Saint Mary’s SRP is association with, but also to flow from and be consistent with, the renewal of the University’s Academic Plan. 

Dr. Vessey gave presentations on the SRP and its renewal as part of a Town Hall sessions in March 2011 and January 2012.  Presentations on the renewal of the SRP were also given by Dr. Vessey at the FGSR Faculty Council meetings in April and December of 2011.  At all these events, feedback and submission were invited from Faculty and staff on the revision to the SRP.

As the renewed SRP must be consistent and supportive of the renewed Academic Plan, drafts of the renewed SRP are not anticipated until the Academic Plan is finalized or near finalization in the first quarter of 2012.  As consultation drafts of the revised SRP are available, they will be posted to this site.  Dr. Vessey will also consult widely with others in the Saint May’s Community right up until the SRP is finalized for consideration by Senate.  It is intended to have the SRP ready for consideration by Senate for its May 2012 meeting.

Submissions from the Saint Mary’s Community on the SRP renewal are welcomes at end time.  Send your comments directly to Dr. Vessey at kevin.vessey@smu.ca. 

Supporting documents:

Several supporting documents/analytical reports have been compiled by Dr. Vessey and are available below:


This page last modified Wednesday, 09-May-2012 13:47:37 ADT