Years of Experience - Faculty of Applied Science

June 7, 2002

Guidelines for the Calculation of Years of
Relevant Non - University Experience Prior to Appointment
Faculty of Applied Science, Queen's University

 The following administrative guidelines are designed to facilitate the calculation of relevant years of prior non- university work experience granted to members of the academic staff of the Faculty of Applied Science at the time of appointment to Queen's University. They are used to:
  • Assist the Dean is establishing equitable starting salaries.
  • Facilitate a comparison of remuneration for faculty members that will maintain pay equity between men and women and maintain an equitable application of career development and merit among members in related disciplines.

Preamble

As a Faculty responsible for preparing our graduates for the practice of the profession of engineering we value all forms of professional engineering practice, related industrial work experience and teaching and research experience which are obtained after the completion of an undergraduate engineering degree. All faculty members in Applied Science are expected to maintain professional engineering registration. To qualify for registration a faculty member must have graduated from an accredited engineering program, or equivalent as assessed by the licensing body, have acquired four years of relevant professional experience and completed a professional practice examination in law and ethics.

Non-University Experience Prior to Queen=s University Appointment

All non-university experience is assessed on its degrees of relevance to an individual's academic responsibilities. Relevant experience is defined as that which has contributed to a faculty member's expertise of value in university teaching and/or research.

(i) Degrees of Relevance

  1. Direct Relevance - counts one year for one year

    Experience in the practice of engineering or scientific inquiry or applications, typically in industry, in government, in institutes or private research laboratories, is directly relevant.

  2. Reasonable Relevance - counts for 0.5 of a year for one year

    Some non-university work experience may be judged to be of reasonable relevance on a case-by-case basis. Examples might include teaching in a high school or community college, or administrative or management experience in a technical environment.

  3. Limited Relevance - count for 0.25 of a year for one year

    Some non-university work experience may be judged to be of limited relevance on a case-by-case basis.

  4. No Relevance - no experience will be credited

    Examples might include traveling after graduation or compulsory military service in which professional practice is not involved.

(ii) Level of Education

Years of relevant experience are always counted after the completion of a bachelor's degree. Since all faculty members in the Faculty of Applied Science are expected to have a Ph.D. in engineering or a relevant science discipline, time spent in a program of graduate studies is not counted toward years of relevant experience. In some cases following completion of an undergraduate degree, work experience and graduate program registration are carried out simultaneously, usually through part-time involvement in each activity. When it is difficult to determine how much time should be attributed to each activity the Faculty has discounted 1.5 years for a master's program and 3 years for a doctoral program. This discounting is based on the normal completion time for graduate engineering students who on average spend 3 years beyond a master's degree and 4.5 years beyond a bachelor's degree to obtain a Ph.D.