The program will not accept any new students while it is under review
UFV’s Master of Arts (Criminal Justice) program will suspend intake for two years in order to conduct a review of the program and make revisions.
Dr. Zina Lee, the director of UFV’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, said that the program took in no new students in Fall 2020 due to a lack of applications, likely because of COVID-19. Lee said, “I think that we draw from working professionals, and so many of them had to shift in response to COVID-19 and redirect their resources.”
The program only takes in new cohorts of students in the fall semester, so this gap provided an opportunity to conduct the review and make changes without disrupting any cohort’s time in the program. Current students, who began their study in Fall 2019, will not be affected by the review or any changes resulting from it.
Lee said that the suspension will also have a minimal impact on UFV staff and faculty who work in the program. “We have a complement of faculty that teach in the program, but we also rely on working professionals, and they are sessional and contract faculty,” said Lee. “I think that for faculty who were teaching a course in the master’s program, they would then just shift their teaching load to something at the undergraduate level. We didn’t find a huge impact from that perspective.”
According to the department’s request for the suspension, the review will examine students’ experiences: the program’s courses, structure, delivery, tuition model, and “supervision compensation” — or how resources are allocated with regards to students’ capstone projects.
Lee explained that the purpose of the review is to “ensure that we’re still meeting the needs of the students, the potential students that come in, our community, and all of our partners.”
The review began with a survey of past students, the results of which are currently being compiled. “The survey went out to about 140 previous graduates, and so we’ve asked them to comment on things like, what courses did they find relevant? What did they like about the program? What are some gaps in the program? And we also asked them to talk about modes of delivery as well,” Lee said.
According to Lee, the program has not undergone a systematic review in its lifetime.
“We’re really hopeful about trying to make changes that really serve students and the community’s best interest,” said Lee.
