Royal Roads University

History

Petty Officer First Class Gabby R. Bruner, Royal Roads bandmaster from 1979 to 1985, composed "Hatley Park" as the official quick march for RRMC and "Dunsmuir Castle" for the visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Royal Roads in 1983.

When the military college was decommissioned, many of the academic staff stayed on. The historic buildings of the military college, and the extensive gardens, which were part of the estate of the Dunsmuir's, continue to be a centrepiece of the campus. Hatley Castle, the former residence of the Dunsmuir family, houses a small Canadian Military museum. In 1995, Hatley Park and former Royal Roads Military College was declared a National Historic Site of Canada to commemorate the Dunsmuir family (1908–1937) and RRMC (1940–1995). The site was designated with a plaque in 2000 as an example of a well-preserved Edwardian park with gardens.

In June 1995, Royal Roads University became a public degree-granting university. A replica of Horatio Nelson's quote, "Duty is the great business of a sea officer: All private considerations must give way to it however painful it is", which hung over the entrance to the Grant Building, was returned to Royal Roads University's campus for Homecoming in 2011.

Royal Roads University Museum

The museum is located in the lower level of Hatley Castle, on the campus of the Royal Roads University and former campus of the Royal Roads Military College. The museum's mandate is to collect, conserve, research, and display material relating to the history of the Royal Roads Military College, its former cadets and its site.

The Royal Roads Military College Museum is a member of the Canadian Museums Association and the Organization of Military Museums of Canada. The Royal Roads Museum is an accredited museum within the Canadian Forces Museum System. The museum has formed a cooperating association of friends of the museum to assist with projects. The museum is not open to the public.

Academics

Royal Roads University is an active member of the University of the Arctic. UArctic is an international cooperative network based in the Circumpolar Arctic region, consisting of more than 200 universities, colleges, and other organizations with an interest in promoting education and research in the Arctic region.

Campus and grounds

The campus and surrounding grounds of Royal Roads University are situated at Hatley Park National Historic Site in Colwood, British Columbia. Royal Roads leases the land from the Department of National Defence for $1 per year and assumes all stewardship responsibilities related to the site including the cost of site management, operations, the protection, preservation, and restoration of heritage assets, which include all buildings, gardens, and other historic and natural features on the site.

Other buildings

The grounds, a mix of landscaped gardens and natural woodland, still go by the name of Hatley Park that the Dunsmuir family gave their estate (although it is not a designated park). Hatley Castle and its surroundings have made appearances in numerous movies and TV series programs such as Smallville where it serves as the Luthor Mansion, and the second and third X-Men films where the university is transformed into Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.

Visitors to the 565 acre Hatley Park can tour the extensive walking trails, as well as the Hatley Castle museum. The museum is free to enter, and contains historic, local memorabilia as well as a gift shop. Tours of the castle itself are available (schedule is seasonal) and access to the heritage gardens (approx 20 acres) have a visitor fee that helps offset the cost of preserving the site.

In a visit to the university in August 2009, Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated: "There is surely no more beautiful campus in Canada than Lord Dunsmuir’s magnificent castle and the majestic forest and gardens of the Hatley Park National Historic Site. But beneath the Edwardian grandeur of Royal Roads lies a cutting-edge modern university".

During the life of the college, the HMCS Royal Roads Bell was displayed in the porte-cochere of Hatley Castle. After the closing of Royal Roads Military College, the HMCS Royal Roads Bell was kept in the Museum at CFB Esquimalt. It was officially repatriated on 10 Sep 2010 during the Royal Roads University 2010 Homecoming.

Rankings

Based on the 2011 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), Royal Roads University was ranked as the 1st public institution for an active and collaborative learning experience and for level of academic challenge.

In 2008, The Globe and Mails Canadian University Report gave Royal Roads grades in particular categories along with 55 other universities. The grades are based on the Globe and Mail student satisfaction survey. Royal Roads was one of the 14 universities in the under 4000 students assessment pool and received a grade of B−.

Business school ranking

The BCom and MBA programs at Royal Roads were ranked by Corporate Knights Magazine in July 2007. The Royal Roads BCom program placed 28th out of the 47 BCom programs in Canada. The MBA placed 20th out of 35 MBA programs. In 2008, Corporate Knights Magazine dropped the Bcom ranking from 28th to 36th out of 47 BCom programs in the country. The MBA program dropped from 20th to 31st with the assessment pool for the ranking growing from 35 to 38 MBA programs. In 2009, Corporate Knights Magazine ranked the Bcom 25th overall out of 47 universities and 4th in the Small Sized Business School category. The MBA ranked 22 overall out of 35 universities and 4th in the Small Sized Business School category. Corporate Knights magazine bases its rankings on "the integration of environmental and social issues into university and college programmes."

Notable alumni

• Jean-Yves Forcier, Commander Maritime Forces Pacific, Commander Canada Command, currently Head of Program for the Master of Arts in Disaster and Emergency Management at Royal Roads
• Jasbir Sandhu, former Canadian politician
• Jon Reyes, Canadian politician and member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba
• Kellie Garrett, Executive Coach, Speaker and Consultant; former Senior Vice President of Farm Credit Canada; named Fellow of International Association of Business Communicators in 2015
• Nicole Oliver, Canadian actress
• Dan Pontefract, Canadian business writer
• David Hamilton, Deputy Minister of the Legislative Assembly and Chief Electoral Officer of the Northwest Territories
• Jim Kyte, former NHL player and Chair of the Business School at Algonquin College
• Hugh MacDonald, former VP Strategic Alliance Management at CIBC; currently owner of HR Macdonald Training and Development, Inc.
• Laurel Collins, Canadian politician and Member of Parliament in Victoria, BC
• Peter Robinson, CEO of the David Suzuki Foundation and former CEO of Mountain Equipment Co-op
• Mitzi Dean, Canadian politician and member of the New Democratic Party of British Columbia
• Doug Stables, President of Bluewater Technologies Corporation
• Jennifer Walinga, Olympic Gold Medalist and World Champion in rowing
• Kelly Williams, Director of Maritime Strategy for the Department of National Defense
• Charles Bourdeleau, former Canadian deputy chief and chief of police for the city of Ottawa
• Chris Hadfield, Canadian astronaut
• Vernon White, Canadian senator

Media appearances

The Royal Roads campus has been used as a location for filming TV shows and movies, including The Changeling, the X-Men movies X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand, Smallville, Arrow, Deadpool, and The Professor.

Arms

Books

References

References

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23. [http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2012/02/08/how-students-rate-professors-at-62-canadian-schools/ - Maclean's On Campus] {{Webarchive. link. (2013-11-23 . Oncampus.macleans.ca (2012-02-08))
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28. (12 November 2020). "Royal Roads University". Canadian Heraldic Authority.