Trends in Undergraduate Soil Science Education in Canadian Universities and Colleges.

The Soil Education Committee of the Canadian Society of Soil Science was established in 2014 with the mandate to enhance soil science education in Canada at the post-secondary and K-12 levels. One of our first initiatives was an assessment of soil science education at the undergraduate level in Canada. To identify which schools offer undergraduate soils courses, we developed an inventory of all the faculties and/or departments in Canada that offer soil science courses at the undergraduate level by searching the academic calendars of all post-secondary institutions. As of 2015, 62% of universities and 27% of colleges in Canada offer soils courses, but there is variation across the country. In Atlantic Canada only 29% of universities and 3% of colleges offer a soils course, whereas 80% of universities and 100% of colleges in Alberta offer a soils course. Academic units offering soils courses were asked by email to participate in a web based survey to gain a better understanding of their offerings, changes in enrollments, programs and curricula, faculty etc. In this talk I will present the findings of this survey, which had a 58% and 67% response rate from universities and colleges respectively, and will discuss trends in enrollments and course delivery. In addition, examples of successful incorporation of soil science concepts in geology and environmental science courses will also be presented as strategies to increase interest in soils and enrollment in soil science courses.