Curriculum Review Committee (CRC)

 

The Certification Committee has always felt the success of TWS’ certification program lies in the hands of students. Currently, very few Canadian students/biologists are becoming certified as Associate Wildlife Biologists (AWB®s) or Certified Wildlife Biologists (CWB®s). The underlying reason for this dilemma is that Canadian students/biologists have had difficulty in meeting TWS certification course requirements. In 2018, based on a recommendation from Dr. Lu Carbyn, the Certification Committee proposed and was given the "green light" to form an ad hoc CSTWS Curriculum Review Committee (CRC). Its mandate was to assist Canadian colleges/universities in aligning their courses to facilitate TWS certification. 

To guide this initiative, a steering team was created.  The team consisted of myself (chair) and 4 professors who have had their curricula endorsed by TWS’ Certification Review Board (Dr. Mike Gillingham, University of Northern British Columbia; Dr. Everett Hanna, Lethbridge College; Dr. Rick Baydack. University of Manitoba, and Dr. Brian McLaren, Lakehead University).

After reaching out to 11 universities across Canada, the CRC identified 6 universities (UBC-Okanagan; University of Alberta, University of Saskatchewan, University of Guelph, Trent University, and the University of New Brunswick) who were willing to participate in our CRC initiative.  

The approach that the steering team adopted involved 4 elements: 

  1. Identify and contact key educators associated with Canadian post-secondary institutions involved in educating wildlife biology students.
  2. Ask these targeted educators to submit an AWB® application to the Certification Review Board (CRB) using courses available at their institutions.
  3. Consult with our steering team to complete an AWB® application for submission to the CRB.
  4. Assess the feedback from the CRB and explore options on how to proceed.