Standards for Students program launched at more universities after successful start

2006-06-01

Since January, the Standards Council of Canada has provided professors and students in registered courses and programs with standards developed by the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission. The program began with l'École de technologie supérieure, a member of the Université du Québec network, and has since extended to three other post-secondary institutions.

“If they just hear about the standards, they will not remember very much. If they read a little bit, they will retain more. But if they use the standard in practical work, there will be a technology transfer,” says Dr. Claude Y. Laporte, an associate professor of software and information technology engineering at l'École de technologie supérieure.

Anne Sharkey, Information Resource Officer with the Standards Council of Canada, says that there are 200 standards in use in 23 different courses at l'École de technologie supérieure, University of British Columbia, Dalhousie University and  University of Guelph. The majority of the courses are in engineering and computer science.

Laporte says that the program has made things much easier for his students because purchasing multiple standards comes with a hefty price tag.

“At one point when we had a subscription to (international standards), it cost over $60,000 USD,” he says. “No university has the money to buy a few copies of every standard related to each curriculum.”

Laporte says that in his software engineering program, standards are used for one undergraduate and two graduate courses, since standards are the sole quality controls.  Laporte adds that standards are not only important for creating structure when developing software, but also ensure high quality products and prevent legal entanglements.

“It’s like building a house...there’s a code of practice. If they violate the code of practice, then they are vulnerable to all sorts of litigation,” he says.

Sharkey says that introducing students to standards at the post-secondary level will make the transition to jobs in the industry easier.

“In the long term, because they’re knowledgeable about standards, they’ll be more likely to use standards in the workplace,” she says.

Laporte cites that 80 to 90 per cent of software houses have fewer than 25 employees and these small enterprises sometimes struggle with implementing standards because staff are unfamiliar with interpreting them.

“Our students will eventually work in those small enterprises...so we have to make the standards understandable,” he says. “I think all software and IT engineering faculties worldwide should have access to this (program) and use all the pertinent standards in everything they’re teaching. It should have a very high multiplying effect in the quality of their work.”