University Student Information System (USIS)

Detailed information for 1998-1999

This survey collected annual information from degree-granting universities and colleges in Canada on individual student characteristics and their study programs including gender, age, citizenship, geographic source of student, field of study, level, type of attendance (full-time/part-time and year of graduation).

Data release - March 9, 2000

• Description
• Data sources and methodology
• Documentation

Description

These data are now collected by the Postsecondary Student Information System (PSIS, see the link in the "Documentation" section). PSIS is a national survey that enables Statistics Canada to provide detailed information on enrolments and graduates of Canadian postsecondary education institutions.
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This survey collects annual information from degree-granting universities and colleges in Canada on individual student characteristics and their study programs including gender, age, citizenship, geographic source of student, field of study, level, type of attendance (full-time/part-time and year of graduation).

Federal and provincial government departments that have interest in higher education use the data. Other national and international organizations and individual researchers also make extensive use of the data.

The information is used for studies of the education system, policy initiatives, international comparisons, and for trend analysis of the labour force supply and the participation of special groups such as foreign students, language groups and women.

Reference period: Academic year for enrolment; Calendar year for degrees

Collection period: November-December - for enrolment, end of December for Graduation Information

Subjects

• Education, training and learning
• Fields of study
• Students

Data sources and methodology

Sampling

This survey is a census with a cross-sectional design.

Data are collected for all units of the target population, therefore, no sampling is done.

Data sources

Data collection for this reference period: 1998-10-01 to 2000-03-31

Responding to this survey is voluntary.

Data are collected directly from survey respondents and extracted from administrative files.

This survey is designed to collect individual data on students and degrees granted at universities and affiliated colleges. Data collected include personal such as age, marital status and residence of student; as well as academic such as program of study, level and type of attendance. The enrolment portion of the survey is conducted once a year in the fall; whereas the degree survey is conducted in winter for the full year.

Follow-up activities are carried out annually to ensure 100% reporting.

• Additional documentation

Estimation

This methodology type does not apply to this statistical program.

Quality evaluation

To ensure accuracy of the data collected; respondents are required to approve a few aggregate summary tables before data are released.

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects that could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

In order to prevent any data disclosure, confidentiality analysis is done using the Statistics Canada Generalized Disclosure Control System (G-Confid). G-Confid is used for primary suppression (direct disclosure) as well as for secondary suppression (residual disclosure). Direct disclosure occurs when the value in a tabulation cell is composed of or dominated by few enterprises while residual disclosure occurs when confidential information can be derived indirectly by piecing together information from different sources or data series.

Revisions and seasonal adjustment

Data corrections for the previous 2 years are obtained.

Documentation

• Postsecondary Student Information System (PSIS)
  • Format: Postsecondary Student Information System (PSIS) - HTML[HTML]