Is OITs geomatics curriculum in line with the needs of the industry?
Yes, says Marker, because the push to establish the two options came partly from the department’s industrial advisory committee, which is made up of practicing professionals in both surveying and GIS. “This was based very much on their recommendations,” he says. “In the surveying program, we’ve had pressure to incorporate GIS from engineering firms that use it for land development. On the GIS side, which was in the environmental science program, they were not receiving that much pressure to have baseline surveying courses, but we thought that merging the two programs would use resources more efficiently and might make the GIS degree more sellable. Our primary mission is at the bachelor’s degree level, trying to prepare people for professional practice.” Some of the students, he adds, may then want to pursue graduate studies at other universities. • Is the merger of surveying and GIS education at OIT a further indication that surveyors 10 years from now will be quite different from toda
