Education

SGS Surveys Students at U of T

The Office of Graduate Education Research at the School of Graduate Studies is currently administering the SGS Graduate Student In-Program Survey. The survey is designed to solicit graduate students' opinions on their overall program, their research and teaching experiences, university resources, funding, quality of life outside the classroom, and other topics. This survey, coordinated by the Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium (HEDS), is also being used by several major US institutions such as MIT and UCLA, allowing us to compare the answers we receive to the answers of students at a number of other institutions. Information submitted will be treated with the utmost confidence.

Last year, as a pilot project SGS administered the survey to all graduate students in eleven graduate units at U of T. This year they are going to conduct the survey using a sample of students randomly selected from all graduate programs at U of T. Approximately 25% of all students have been selected to participate in the survey. The survey will be administered on the Internet and the selected students will be informed of the survey through e-mail. Those whose e-mail addresses are not available will receive paper copies of the survey.

Participation in the survey will be voluntary but SGS are working hard to achieve a high response rate. Each student will be assigned a PIN number to access the survey. After SGS finish data collection and analysis, department chairs and faculty deans will receive a report of aggregate results. The summary for each department will be made available to the chair, if there are more than five responses in the program.

How will SGS analyze the results? For example, they will:

1. compare answers between Programs/Departments/Divisions;
2. examine gender differences within and between Programs;
3. examine correlations for time-to-degree (e.g., do students finish more quickly in programs where satisfaction is high?);
4. examine correlations for completion rate (e.g., are students more likely to complete their degree in departments where satisfaction is high?);
5. compare overall results to the results of other universities that have participated in the HEDS survey;

What might SGS do with the results? For example, SGS expect to:

1. provide feedback to departments, for their information. They will suggest follow-up actions, if appropriate;
2. conduct follow-up research to obtain more information about particular problem areas that may be suggested by the results of the study, in consultation with the department;
3. conduct follow-up research to obtain more information about departments where satisfaction is high. If these departments are doing something that is particularly successful or innovative and is improving student satisfaction, we will communicate these "best practices" to all departments;
4. if indicated, and in consultation with departments, suggest policy changes or advise on the creation of new policies to improve problem areas that are suggested by the results of the survey.

If you require further information about this survey, please do not hesitate to contact Jane Alderdice at the School of Graduate Studies at 416-946-3102 or jane.alderdice@utoronto.

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