Overview of Findings
PARTICIPANT DEMOGRAPHICS:
Surveys:
Surveys:
- 690 undergraduate students at three universities across Canada, either in their final year of study or recently graduated, completed an online survey;
- Of those surveyed, 294 were aged 22 or less, 275 were aged 23-30 years, and 74 were aged 31 years of age or older;
- Most survey participants completed their high school diploma requirements in 2012 and 2013; however, the range spread from 1978 to 2014.
- 83% are Canadian citizens by birth; 66% of the non-Canadian citizens are from Asian countries
- 71% white, 9% indigenous, 8.9% south Asian
- 43% identify as Christian, 31% no religion
- 78% speak English as first language at home
- 75% lived with father and mother up to age 17
- ~63% of mothers and ~42% of fathers had a high school diploma or higher
- 91% had one or more siblings
Interviews:
27 students were individually interviewed
Purposively selected from random volunteers to meet demographic criteria
Four significant factors that impacted on the ability of interviewed students to be successful in reaching their final year of university:
27 students were individually interviewed
Purposively selected from random volunteers to meet demographic criteria
- 50% female, 50% male
- One female and one male who self-identify from the following “categories”: Indigenous, Recent Immigrant (in Canada 5 years or less), Established Immigrant (in Canada more than 5 years), Canadian-born visible minority, Canadian-born non-visible minority
- UOIT: life sciences, commerce, 4 from criminology, networking & IT, mechatronics engineering, nursing (all UOIT Faculties are represented here)
- MSVU: arts & science, business, women’s studies, communication studies
- UWinnipeg: education & urban studies, environmental studies, human geography, kinesiology, geography, Indigenous studies & film,
Four significant factors that impacted on the ability of interviewed students to be successful in reaching their final year of university:
- family support,
- a sense of belonging or community when attending school,
- developing a relationship with one or more professors, and
- the ability to manage or cope with stress.