ISHS Acta Horticulturae 204: Postgraduate Training for development, XXII IHC
HORTICULTURAL GRADUATE STUDENT TRAINING IN CANADA |
| Author: | I.L. NONNECKE |
| Abstract:
The horticultural education and research capabilities in Canada do not reflect the importance of current changing trends in food and aesthetic demands. Many IHC countries have similar problems in that agricultural education and research reflects a national interest in agronomic crops and animal husbandry. Historically and currently, resources have been allocated to reflect this. In addition, in the climate of broad agriculture there has traditionally been a tendency to equate many things as being horticulture simply because it was a convenient pigeon hole for putting things, e.g. insects and diseases studies only periferally concerned with actual production. Whereas resources of education and R & D have been production oriented in the non-horticultural field, such understanding and distribution of horticultural production needs have been dealt with indequately and without understanding. This has lead many professionals-to-be to plot a pathway to a career by way of the disciplines of science with no regard for the understanding of the management of the whole plant which is the basis of horticultural manipulation. In Canada with a population of over 25 million people, and a climatic and micro-climatic capability of producing all temperate region plants, only one University has a designated Department of Horticultural Science with more than 3 or 4 horticultural faculty members. Reflecting the national agricultural interests there are five Universities (University of British Columbia, University of Alberta, University of Manitoba, Macdonald College (McGill University, Montreal) and Nova Scotia Agricultural College)-with departments of Plant Science with large staffs. There is one French language University (Laval) with a Department of Plant Physiology that likewise has minimal interest in horticulture. One other University has a department of Horticulture, but with only 3 or 4 permanent faculty. Only the University of Guelph offers a diploma (2 year course), an undergraduate (4 years honours course B.Sc.Agri.) and an M.Sc. and Ph.D. programmes in horticulture. Students seeking graduate training in horticulture in Canada have traditionally been able to obtain a M.Sc. from Canadian Universities. Until the University of Guelph was formed out of the Ontario Agricultural College in 1964, there was no Ph.D. training in horticulture available in Canada. Traditionally, Canadians with | |
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