| Beneficiaries: Students, Society, Professors, University, Undergraduates Who will be the beneficiaries of the high quality graduate programmes we offer now and will offer in the future? Immediately, "the graduate students", come to mind. As well they should – for as they fulfill the requirements we set for their degrees they acquire life-long scholastic, technical and professional skills. Ensuring the welfare of all our graduate students and the quality of the training they will take with them into the "real" world are the paramount concerns of FGS. As the ultimate goal of graduate studies is the training of highly qualified individuals to lead society into the future, society benefits when universities well-train their graduate students. But let's not forget that the professors who do the training are also beneficiaries. Teaching successfully is rewarding. And, in my experience there is nothing more gratifying than to see a student develop into a colleague. Add to this benefit, the huge, and often underestimated, contribution to research made by our graduate students. Indeed, if Dalhousie is the "research engine" of Nova Scotia, we might ask, How much of the "horsepower" of this engine is attributable to the hard work of our graduate students? The University as a whole benefits from our outstanding graduate programs. Programs that can attract excellent graduate students are a pre-requisite for attracting and keeping outstanding professors. |