Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED)

Detailed information for 2002-2003

The survey collects data about the graduate's post-secondary academic path, funding sources, field of study and his/her immediate post-graduate plans.

Data release - October 24, 2003

• Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s)
• Description
• Data sources and methodology

Description

The Survey of Earned Doctorates consists of a brief questionnaire that is given to all graduates earning a doctorate degree (research-oriented or other) in one of the academic institutions granting doctorates throughout Canada. There are more than 40 of these institutions in Canada, resulting in about 4000 doctoral graduates per year. Statistics Canada's goals are:
a) to determine who has received doctorates from these institutions during the academic year ; and
b) to obtain a completed SED questionnaire from each recipient.

The survey collects data about the graduate's post-secondary academic path, funding sources, field of study and his/her immediate post-graduate plans.

The data from the SED can be used:
- by universities as well as federal, provincial and territorial governments to make policy decisions that affect graduate education throughout Canada;
- by federal agencies to inform parliament and to make decisions about financial commitments that affect graduate education throughout Canada; and,
- in the evaluation of graduate education programs, strategic planning at the provincial level, labor force projections, and affirmative action plans at all levels.

Subjects

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

Data sources and methodology

Target population

The target population is all doctoral graduates from Canadian postsecondary education institutions who have obtained their degree during the reference period. The survey population excludes institutions that did not participate in the survey during the reference period.

The target population is identified from the list of Canadian postsecondary institutions granting doctoral degrees. This list is compiled and kept up-to-date by the Centre for Education Statistics of Statistics Canada. Every listed institution was invited to participate in this survey. Institutions with no doctoral graduates for the survey reference year were excluded from the target population.

Instrument design

Paper questionnaire which was tested by a pilot test conducted from November 2002 to June 2003.

Sampling

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

This methodology does not apply.

Data sources

Data collection for this reference period: October 2002 to September 2003

Responding to this survey is voluntary.

Data are collected directly from survey respondents.

All doctoral graduates from participating institutions are invited to fill in a paper SED questionnaire, which is distributed by their institutions. The graduates can return the completed questionnaire directly to Statistics Canada or to their institutions. Institutions mail back the completed questionnaires to Statistics Canada. Follow-up calls with non-respondents are made by Statistics Canada. Data is not gathered from proxies.

View the Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s) .

Imputation

No adjustment is made for item non-response.

Estimation

To compensate for the non-response of individuals, weighting is done within weighting classes to ensure that the survey population totals agree with known totals. Larger institutions are adjusted within institution, and institutions with a small number of graduates are grouped geographically to form weighting classes.

Weighting classes are also split by gender where appropriate. In most cases response rates differ by gender. Other variables are not reported consistently by institutions and cannot be used to form weighting classes.

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

This methodology does not apply to this survey.