Common use of Key Findings Clause in Contracts

Key Findings. As has been found in previous CUSC surveys of first-year students, students are generally very positive about their initial experiences at university. Even with changes to survey methodology and the addition of weighting to account for the population of participating institutions, overall results are very similar to previous surveys, and trends that have been established over time were generally still apparent in the current survey. Among the multitude of results summarized in this report, a few key results are most informative. ► There appears to be significant interest in living on campus. Results from other CUSC surveys show that students tend to move off campus in their third or fourth year, but interest among first-year students who are not living on campus is very high. Living on campus appears to allow students to take in more activities on campus than those who live off campus, as rates of being involved in on-campus activities tend to be higher among those in institutions with higher proportions of students living on campus. ► Students report higher average grades in their first year of university in 2013 than in previous years. In fact, student-reported average grades have been increasing steadily over time. With that being said, there still appears to be a significant drop-off in students’ grades coming from high school to university. The majority of students expect to receive grades lower than their high school grades, especially for those achieving grades of A- or higher while in high school. Examining the relationship between reported grades in high school and university may help to identify segments of students that may be strongly related to outcomes such as intention to continue studies and satisfaction with their decision to attend the university. ► Although working while attending university has positive and negative impacts on students’ academic performance, students who appear to be most negatively affected are those working more than 15 hours per week on average. These students tend to be older (20 years or older), indicating that there may be a strong financial need to work while attending university. Students tend to be most heavily influenced in attending university by employment outcomes, such as preparing for a job or career or getting a good job. Although academic pursuits play a role, employment outcomes play a much stronger one in convincing students to pursue a university education. This also tends to be how students choose their university, as they are often influenced by career-related programs or the quality of the academic program (which may be a proxy for the quality of job they hope to get from earning their degree from the program). This survey is being completed by first-year university students at a number of Canadian universities so that we may learn more about our new students and help them make a more successful transition to university. This includes both in and out of class experience. If you cannot finish the survey in one sitting, you can close the survey and return to it using the link in the email we sent you. It will return you to the last page that you were on. All of your responses are confidential. [At bottom of each page: If you have any problems, please contact ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ of PRA Inc. at ▇▇▇▇@▇▇▇.▇▇]