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Pan-Canadian Study of First Year College Students - Report 1 Student Characteristics and the College Experience - August 2007

1. Introduction

Learning and quality postsecondary education are critical for Canada's continued prosperity, particularly in today's global knowledge economy. Colleges and institutes have a pivotal role in postsecondary education in Canada by producing highly qualified graduates for direct entry into the labour market and facilitating transitions into further postsecondary education.

Canadian colleges and institutes are mandated to address the needs of diverse groups of learners within the communities they serve. These groups include first time postsecondary students directly from high school, adult learners seeking to increase literacy or workplace skills and highly skilled professionals needing to adapt to changing technologies and meet new skills and knowledge requirements.

In order to fulfill this mandate, colleges and institutes offer a diverse range of programs and make use of different learning strategies. Program offerings include basic literacy, adult basic education and high school equivalency, career-oriented certificates and diplomas, apprenticeship training, contract training for business and industry, post-graduate diplomas, university transfer and applied and baccalaureate degrees. It is also important to note that curriculum is developed with direct input from business and industry to ensure graduates acquire the skills and knowledge employers require.

Colleges and institutes are learner-centred and provide wrap-around support services which are intended to ensure learners succeed from the point of entry to program completion, and then successfully move into the labour market. The Pan-Canadian Inventory of Exemplary Practices in Learning at Colleges and Institutes conducted in May 2005 and funded by the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation (CMSF) helped to identify the types of institutional policies, programs, practices and services that exhibit high levels of student involvement, engagement and persistence. The report from this study and a searchable database of exemplary practices provided by colleges and institutes is available on the website of the Association of Canadian Community Colleges.

An extensive review of the literature on the impact of college on students in the United States, conducted by Pascarella and Terenzini (1991, 2005) demonstrated that, among other findings, three sets of variables contribute to student learning and educational outcomes in postsecondary institutions:

• Characteristics of students
• Characteristics of educational institutions
• Interactions between these two sets

Until now, no pan-Canadian research of this type has been conducted and, in particular, information on students attending Canadian colleges and institutes is severely limited.

This study, conducted with funding from Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC), begins to address the lack of information on Canadian college and institute students. The study is also a continuation of previous work the ACCC has undertaken in the area of student success, including a 1997 study entitled Just Say Yes to Student Success which was the concluding report of the ACCC Task Group on Student Success and Retention. It is important to note that colleges and institutes identified the need for this study as an important next step during the 2004 ACCC symposium on student success.

The study involved two surveys of first year students at colleges and institutes, the first to identify the characteristics of these students and the second then to gain an understanding of the nature of their experience during the first term. This report provides a descriptive overview of the first results of these two surveys. A second report will describe the differences in the profile and experiences of visible minorities, Aboriginal students and new Canadians.

All participating colleges were provided with a CD which contained their institution's survey results as well as the national results. The CD also provided institutions with specially designed software, the College Experience and Outcomes System, to enable colleges and institutes to provide end of semester average and second term enrolment status data for survey respondents. These outcomes data will be added to the database to complete the analysis on the determinants of first year outcomes for the over 6,000 students for whom common records are available from both surveys. This information will be used to identify four student outcome groups: academically successful persisters, academically successful leavers, failed persisters and failed leavers (Dietsche, 1990, 1995). A summary of these findings will be provided in the third report on the determinants of first year outcomes.

Students were also asked to provide comments for both the college entry and end of term surveys. At college entry, students were asked to comment on what one thing their college or institute could have done better, as well as what they actually do, to make beginning their studies easier. At the end of first term, students were asked to comment on what they wish they had known or better understood when they started their programs, the biggest challenge they faced during the first semester, what went better than they expected and a particular source of pride or pleasure from the first semester. Some examples of students' comments are provided throughout this report in order to give voice to the issues addressed. Given the extremely high numbers of comments received from participating students, there is clearly further complementary qualitative research to be done using these comments.

The results of this study provide some insights into college/institute students' perceptions of their learning experiences, their learning needs, and support services that students would benefit from to overcome barriers, enhance their overall experience and contribute to the successful completion of their programs. To this end, the results also help to inform policy and program development for colleges and institutes in terms of the types of learning strategies and support services offered, as well as for provincial and federal government departments to help shape postsecondary education policies and programs.

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Date Modified:

2007-08-29