Question:
I have a researcher here who’s looking for stats or data on higher ed and R&D (classification of programs, educational attainment, etc. ). I know there are several surveys that address the subject specifically (HERD, RDHES to name a couple) but they appear not to be accessible to us.
Are there other resources he might access to find similar content? Failing that, are these surveys available through custom tabs?
Follow-up Question:
I have done some further research into HERD, and have gained access to the CAUBO databases, which has provided me with university financial information regarding various groups of research expenses. I have, however, come across an issue. The data collection citations of all HERD estimates state .
"HERD uses two main sources of data found in the public domain: the Canadian Association of University Business Officers (CAUBO) and the University and College Academic Staff System (UCASS). CAUBO provides data on sponsored research and operating expenditures of all relevant universities. UCASS is the source of academic professor counts at the postsecondary level by subject taught. The extracted data are used to derive and produce aggregated HERD estimates by funder, province and science type, in the higher education sector."
Looking at 2015, Statscan notes that HERD is estimated at 12892.4 (in millions of dollars) making the Expenditure on Higher Education R&D almost 13 billion dollars. However, CAUBO accounts for only, at most, roughly 7 billion dollars of this expense, from what I can see.
Essentially, my question is, where is the remaining 6 billion dollars? Certainly, some of it must go into research hospitals, poly-techs and independent colleges, but CAUBO does not seem to have this information. If that is the case, then I am also confused as to where Statscan is drawing this data from.
Answer:
“HERD & HE R&D personnel currently belongs to ISTD.
Higher Education (HE) RD expenditure and HE personnel data are modelled.
For HERD expenditures CAUBO data provides the non-sponsored research and development amount. The model estimates non-sponsored research expenditure based on time-use coefficients applied to UCASS data. Additional indirect costs of research are also added. The higher education sector universe encompasses postsecondary institutions (universities, colleges) as well as research centres and affiliate teaching hospitals. Estimates for medical research from hospitals are also derived from the model. So the additional $6 billion covers these expenses. Details on the model can be found here:
o Estimation of research and development expenditures in the higher education sector - PDF, 109.82[PDF, 109.82 kb]
The initial question seems to have been regarding Higher education personnel and table 358-0159. HE R&D personnel are also modelled. It should be noted up front that all R&D Personnel is meant to represent R&D full-time equivalents only. So 1 FTE can represent 10 employees working only 10% of their time on R&D or 2 employees working 50% of their time on R&D. The HERD model includes time-use coefficients to determine the amount of time university academics (professors) spend on R&D. The administrative source for information on the counts of full-time university professors comes from the Higher Education in Research and Development (HERD) model which uses data from the University and College Academic Staff System (UCASS). Information on doctoral student counts is obtained from the Post-Secondary Student Information System (PSIS). Post-doctoral researcher information is obtained from external granting councils that keep track of the information on postsecondary R&D applicants. Postdoctoral fellowship information is a key variable that is obtained from the three granting councils: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) is used to allocate natural science R&D, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) is used for social science R&D and the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) health science R&D.
We were hoping to start a HE sector survey this fiscal to benchmark this sectors expenditures and personnel, but unfortunately funding has been delayed.”
