St. Mary’s University (SMU) in Nova Scotia will see its first class of Bachelor of Engineering graduates soon, after the Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission approved the schools plan to launch its new two-stream program.  

The Bachelor of Engineering in Resource Engineering will allow students to specialize in either mining engineering or renewable energy engineering. The program will prepare students to manage the full lifecycle of projects, from planning and construction to operation and reclamation, while integrating areas such as environmental science, geology, management, finance, health and safety and the social impacts of resource development on local and First Nations communities. 

This now gives students the opportunity to complete their full engineering degree at SMU. Previously, under Nova Scotia’s collaborative multi-university system, students were required to transfer to another university in the province after two years of study to complete a specialized degree in disciplines such as civil or mechanical engineering. 

Dalhousie University—one of the participating universities in the multi-university system— discontinued its mineral resource engineering program in 2019, prompting concern from the mining industry, which lead to consultations that contributed to the development of the new SMU program. 

The milestone was marked at a formal launch event on April 9 at SMU, where it was also announced that St Barbara which owns the Touquoy gold mine in Nova Scotia would provide $120,000 in scholarship support.  

Sam Veres, SMU’s dean of science, told CIM Magazine that he hopes to see tuition for students entering the program fully covered through industry-sponsored scholarships and bursaries, alongside commitments from employers to hire students for the program’s co-op placements. 

According to Veres, discussions on scholarships are going very well. 

“There is such an acute need in the resource sector for additional engineers, and companies are seeing a lot of value in helping to incentivize student enrolment in the new program,” he added. 

“We have also heard from our students who transferred over to Dalhousie and then come back to SMU about how they wish there was a pathway for students to complete their full engineering degree here at SMU,” Veres said. “We’ve always been interested in how we could provide an option for students to do that, but also [offer] an option that enriches the overall disciplinary landscape in Nova Scotia.” 

Veres added that willingness from industry partners to play a direct role in teaching has been another promising outcome of industry consultations. SMU is exploring modular learning approaches that would divide courses into sections, with portions of instruction delivered by industry professionals who could engage directly with students. 

The initial cohort is expected to include 20 to 30 students across both streams. According to Veres, the application portal, which has been open for several weeks now, has already received more than 20 applications from university students from across the province. 

Veres explained that because the first cohort will include students who have completed second-year engineering at SMU and are transferring directly into third year, the program is expected to produce graduates relatively quickly. 

Work-integrated learning 

A central part of the new program will include a required 16-month co-op component—longer than those typically offered in similar engineering programs across Canada, Veres noted. 

“When we were going through our consultations with industry, we heard quite strongly that there was value in longer co-op terms, so that students really became acquainted with the workplace and the employer, and were able to do things that were valuable for both the employer and the student,” he said.  

Students will be able to choose to either spend the full 16 months with one employer or separate it into two eight-month terms with two employers. 

SMU will host an on-campus co-op fair for the new program in early fall, where employers can share information about their operations, present co-op and career opportunities and conduct on-the-spot student interviews. 

Vale Base Metals is among the companies that will offer co-op placements to students. 

Several of the degree requirements are designed to be completed during co-op work terms, added Veres. One example is an industry-based design course tied to the co-op, where students will collaborate with their employer to select a workplace-relevant project and complete a design assignment based on it. 

“We think [this co-op opportunity] is absolutely critical,” Don MacNeil, director of engineering at SMU, said in an interview with CIM Magazine. “It's a chance for students to see what they've been learning at the university put into practice, and see the relevance of its application, and also take [what they’ve learned] back to the classroom.”