The Director of Academics and the rest of the academics team oversees the BEDFund, Discipline Clubs, and any student initiatives around academic feedback or advocacy. This means making sure that the BEDFund is used to enrich the Queen’s Engineering experience, helping Discipline Clubs run events and elections smoothly, collecting and implementing academic feedback from students, and so much more!
If you have academic concerns or feedback you would like to share, see the Academic Feedback Form below.
The Director of Academics is responsible for collecting student feedback on their courses and academic programs, identifying issues, and working with the faculty to address them. This feedback is collected via direct emails to the academics team, as well as through caucus events, DSC’s, and the feedback form located below.
Academic feedback can be emailed directly to the Director of Academics, or the Academic Feedback Officer (who may be able to respond more quickly) at a[email protected].
Alternatively, it can be submitted via the Academic Feedback form, which is actively monitored by the academics team and includes the option to make your response completely anonymous.
Feedback can be on topics specific to a certain class, professor, or TA, or more generalized (for example, concerns about courseloads, schedules, or prerequisites). The Director of Academics can also help to address accessibility concerns; however, we recommend that you first try to go through Queen’s Student Accessibility Services, as they will be better equipped to address those concerns.
Established in 1990, the Better Equipment Donation Fund (BEDFund) is an endowment fund with the sole purpose of enriching the educational experience of Queen’s Engineering students. The fund is grown by a 60$ opt-outable donation included in every engineering student’s fees, and today generates upwards of 100,000$ a year split across the nine engineering discipline clubs, first year, and general-use purchases.
The BEDFund is used to make purchases which go above and beyond course requirements, and is entirely student run. If you have an idea and can get enough support for it, we can make it happen! Recent purchases include 3D printers and multimedia stations for student lounges, advanced soldering equipment, and even a supercomputer for machine learning projects – so think big!
Every year, 11 BEDFund proposals are drawn up by elected representatives (one per discipline, as well as First Year and General representatives). Once these are complete, they are approved by the BEDFund Head Board, voted on at Engineering Society Council, and finally signed off by the Dean of Engineering before items are purchased by department or building managers.
If you have any questions about BEDFund operations or want to get involved, contact our Head Manager: [email protected]
If you have ideas for BEDFund purchases, keep an eye out for BEDFund events on campus or contact your disciplines representative from the directory list.
