The survey will try to find out what graduates are doing with their education. (Photo: morgueFile)

Grad survey aims to improve higher education

A survey is underway to give a detailed analysis of Maritime graduates’ activities five years after graduation

A wide-ranging survey is underway to see how the class of 2003 from Maritime universities is getting on in 2008. The survey started Nov. 12.

"It represents all institutions, the three provinces, all the fields of study are represented, all the degrees are represented," said Mireille Duguay.

Duguay is the CEO of the Maritimes Provinces Higher Education Commission (MPHEC), the group conducting the survey.

"There's really no other data source that will provide you with this," she said.

Those who lobby governments on behalf of students rely on these surveys for information about Maritime graduates and the universities they attended.

"Without this kind of external, third party, non-partisan research it's impossible for small lobby groups to do our job, which is implementing changes to the post-secondary system," said Kelly Wilson, executive director of the Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations (ANSSA). "We rely on the organizations like this to conduct this kind of research."

Wilson's organization represents 33,000 Nova Scotia university students at Acadia, St. Francis Xavier, Dalhousie and Saint Mary's.

She also feels the research is important to inform government policies.

"If this kind of research isn't being done then there are a lot of assumptions being made about the accessibility, affordability and quality of post-secondary education," she said.

Kaley Kennedy, the Nova Scotia representative of the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), said the commission data is the best snapshot of Maritime graduates and the challenges they face.

"There is some data that is collected by Statistics Canada but it's not nearly as comprehensive or region specific so it's not nearly as useful," said Kennedy.

The commission is a group of governments and universities that aims to study and improve higher education in the Maritimes.

The commission says the graduate follow-up survey is one of its top priorities. The telephone survey of university graduates aims to find out what they're doing with their education.

The current study is a follow-up to a survey of the class of 2003, conducted in 2005.

One of the main issues the surveys track is debt and Duguay said the commission is learning a lot about how students are managing it. She said the survey tries to get a more complete picture of student debt.

"We look at debt not only from government student loan perspective but financial institutions, credit cards, family, friends and part-time work . . . not many people have access to this information."

The survey will show how graduates have been managing their debt given the credit crunch and the climate around loans.

The surveys also ask the graduates which provinces they lived in after they graduated. This part of the survey yielded some surprising results in 2005.

"We had been able to retain as many graduates, even a bit more than we had in previous cohorts," said Duguay.

Duguay said the study will show if the region retained as many grads as it did in 2005.

As for participation in the study, the commission says the response rate to the survey is high.

"Students and graduates in the Maritimes are awesome in terms of their participation in this survey," said Duguay. "We really want to hear their opinion about the issues around post-secondary education."

Duguay said governments and universities use the surveys to set policy but student groups like Wilson's and Kennedy's are the most vocal about them.

"They're the first ones to take us to task if a report is late," said Duguay.

Duguay said the commission still needs funding for the data analysis and the survey should be released by fall 2009.

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