A pilot study to permit a more accurate and complete picture of post-graduate award recipients.

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), in collaboration with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the Canadian Institutes of health Research (CIHR), has a requirement to conduct a pilot study to permit a more accurate and complete picture of post-graduate award recipients than is currently available by using administrative data provided by post-secondary education (PSE) institutions. The pilot study will be conducted over 2 phases and will involve the following:

Phase I – Gathering and Analysis of Post-secondary education institution data

• Establish agreements (up to five) with post-secondary institutions.
• Data assessment of institutional administrative data – cleaning and validation of data fields
• Analyze administrative data to provide the following: i) identify the percentage of students receiving awards from the three agencies, ii) descriptive characteristics of the population of award recipients (e.g., gender, age, official language, etc…) iii) analysis of degree completion rates and time to completion for award recipients and the overall population .
• Prepare a report summarizing findings, including technical appendices containing tables and graphs.

Phase II – Analysis of Statistics Canada data

• Establish agreement with Statistics Canada for access to micro data.
• Data assessment of Statistics Canada data – cleaning and validation of data fields
• Link post-secondary institutional administrative data to Statistics Canada data;
• Analyze data to describe how award recipients perform in the labour market compared to the overall population; for example: post-graduation earnings and other labour market outcomes.
• Prepare a report summarizing findings, including technical appendices containing tables and graphs broken out by, for example, award type, degree, discipline grouping and sector.