National Graduates Survey 2015

Question:
May I please have an update for the release of the PUMF of the 2015 NGS? Tentative release dates page just says 2019. Researcher is inquiring.

Answer:
I’ve received the following reply from subject matter:
“Unfortunately, we do not even have dates for the initial data release (current thinking is near the end of this year), but the PUMF could be up to a year after that.  We hope to have a preliminary calendar of releases for this fiscal year by the end of this month.”

Release Date For National Graduates Survey (NGS) – Class of 2015 PUMF

Question:
Is there anything more concrete than 2019 (as per the Tentative release dates page, item updated July 2018) [for the release date of the National Graduates Survey - Class of 2015]?

Answer:
We’ve had the following response from subject matter:

“Based strictly on previous NGS release cycles, the best estimate for the time being would be in late fall/early winter 2019, but that can extend into early 2020 if circumstances necessitate.”

GPA or Average Final Grade in Post Secondary Institutions in Canada

Question:
I have a student who is looking for graduation by sex, by type of PS institution and GPA/Average final grade for Canada.

I’ve suggested she look at the National Graduate Survey but PSIS may be more appropriate however it doesn’t have any grading characteristics (GPA/average grade) in the public tables. Is it possible to access this information?

Answer:
Subject matter has informed us that unfortunately, PSIS contains no data related to grades or rankings and NGS has only one variable related to ranking in graduating class (top 50-25%, top 25-10%, top 10%) and nothing regarding grades. I was able to identify this variable and find it on Nesstar Webview: Variable PR_Q05: Academic ranking. 

Economic Performance of Ontario Graduates

Question:I have a Masters student who is interested in looking at how Ontario graduates perform economically pre 2003 and post 2003. She seems pretty wedded to using the Census and DoB to differentiate between pre/post graduates-- in addition to including place of origin, language, income and marital status.

Does Ontario have a suitably anonymized dataset that might meet her needs? Another option would be to apply to the RDC but I don't think her timeline would accommodate that.

Answer:“The National Graduates Survey (NGS) has data regarding students who graduated in 2000 and in 2005.

The following link provides a list of CANSIM tables that provide data from the survey:
http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/COR-COR/COR-COR/objList?lang=eng&srcObjType=SDDS&srcObjId=5012&tgtObjType=ARRAY

Please see the attached CANSIM table user guide. In each table, click the ‘Add/Remove data’ tab to uncheck ‘Canada’ and check ‘Ontario’. Scroll down and click ‘Apply’.”

The DLI has the NGS PUMFS from 1982-2013 available through Nesstar Webview. The following are direct links to the cycles that Subject Matter has referenced: National Graduate Survey, 2000 - Follow-up and National Graduate Survey, 2005.

If the student wanted to explore the variables available on the master file, they are also available through Nesstar. The following are direct links to the zero frequency master files: National Graduate Survey, 2002 - Follow-up and National Graduate Survey, 2005.

The NGS is also available on the EFT at: /MAD_PUMF_FMGD_DAM/Root/5012_NGS_END/

Impact of years to graduate (undergraduate and graduate degrees) on wages

Question
A student is looking for data in order to conduct a regression analysis.

She writes I am “trying to see if taking gap years or just taking longer time to graduate for other reasons will effect the wage of that person.The data that I am looking at should have wages, and some other variable that will be able to tell me if the person took longer time than expected to graduate.”

Data on level of degree obtained is available, but we can’t locate anything on years to complete the degree. Canadian data is preferable, but U.S. would be taken if necessary.

Additional Question
Would number of years taken to complete a graduate degree be available as well? I am looking for Canadian data.

Answer
Subject matter has provided the following suggestion for this request:

“I took a look at the NGS codebook and there is variables that would provide you with the duration of an education program. The variables [that] would give you the start date of the program are:
- PR_Q06A - In what year did you start your program at (your educational institution)?
- PR_Q06B - In what month was that?

Then the variables [that would give the end date of a program are]:
- PR_Q11A - In what year did you complete the requirements for your (certificate / diploma / degree) program? By "complete the requirements" I mean write the last exam, submit the last paper, report or assignment, or successfully defend your thesis.
- PR_Q11B - In what month was that?

If we use these 4 variables we are able to find the duration of the program.”

I was unable to locate any additional surveys apart from the NGS; this would be the best source to start with.

Followup Question
Thankyou but unfortunately, those variables aren’t included in the PUMF. The income variables aren’t either. In this case, the student needs it for a paper so a custom tabulation, even if available, will be out of the question.

However, for the future, are custom tabs available on the NGS?

Followup Answer
Unfortunately those variables are only available in the Masterfile. As for your question, subject matter has confirmed that it is possible to create custom tables for the NGS.

Institutional identifiers and the National Graduate Survey

Question

Does the NGS data (e.g., master file) have institutional identifiers for Canadian post-secondary institutions from which respondents received their last degree? The questionnaire seems to indicate no. If not, are there any other StatCan surveys with post-secondary institutional identifiers?

Answer

Please see Cansim Table 477-00621, 2, 5 - National graduates survey, post-secondary graduates by province of study and level of study.

Also, the Post-secondary Student Information System (PSIS) is a national survey that enables Statistics Canada to provide detailed information on enrollments and graduates of Canadian public post-secondary institutions in order to meet policy and planning needs in the field of post-secondary education.

National Graduates Survey

Question

Will there will be a new National Graduates Survey, one that will cover our “post- recession” era? The status of the IMDB record indicates that this is an active survey.

Answer

The last NGS was in 2007 (class of 2005), we had a PUMF, no FOG (follow up graduate class). The next NGS will be in 2013 (class of 2009/2010), no PUMF, no FOG. We are aiming for the end of March 2014. The NGS is a survey that looks to see what graduates are doing 2 years after graduation (i.e. class of 2000, surveyed in 2002). The Follow-up of graduates survey (FOG) is a survey that looks to see what NGS respondents are doing 5 years after graduation (i.e. class of 2000, surveyed in 2005)

We will have NGS 2013 (class of 2009/2010) but there will not be a FOG and the master will be in the RDC.

More NGS Questions

Question

We have another NGS question... Any help would be greatly appreciated - here is my student's request:

"I am looking into brain drain, and am interested to see the differences in wage earnings of individuals who moved to the US with how much they would have earned if they stayed back in Canada. My supervisor and I looked into the NGS data and couldn't find the wage variable identifying the individuals who moved to the US and the field of study of those who did move. It'd be great if you could inform me whether these variables are available or not, and the name of the variable"

Answer

Subject-matter specialists in the division that manages the National Graduates Survey (NGS) have provided the following information in response to your student's question. As the variables they list are not available on the NGS 2005 PUMF, the student may wish to see if the RDC analytical file could be used for this project. Data for the variables listed below would also available on a custom basis for a fee.

"Here are some variables that you can use. Not sure if they’re what you’re looking for.

You can only use the information for job held last week. We do have income for 2011 however this does not tell us if respondent lived in the US for 6 months and is now back in Canada.

CIP of program completed in Canada in 2005
PRCIP1
PRCIP2
PRCIP1AG
PRCIP2AG

Respondents who worked last week
LF_Q18 - In what country was this job located?
You might want to exclude those who said OTHER
LF_Q85 - Including tips and commissions, what is your (hourly/daily/weekly/yearly etc.) wage or salary, before taxes and other deductions?
LF_Q87 - Is this amount in Canadian or American dollars?

Respondents who have taken programs since graduation in 2005
These questions are important as a respondent might have had a BA in 2005 and now have an MA. This would influence your outcome.

EPCIPAGa
EPCIPAGb
EPCIPAGc
EPCIPAGd
EPCIPAGe
EPCIPAGf
EPCIPAGg
EPCIPa
EPCIPb
EPCIPc
EPCIPd
EPCIPe
EPCIPf
EPCIPg
EP_Q11a
EP_Q11b
EP_Q11c
EP_Q11d
EP_Q11e
EP_Q11f
EP_Q11g
EP_Q16a
EP_Q16b
EP_Q16c
EP_Q16d
EP_Q16e
EP_Q16f
EP_Q16g
EP_Q17a
EP_Q17b
EP_Q17c
EP_Q17d
EP_Q17e
EP_Q17f
EP_Q17g"

I hope that this information is helpful. If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

National Graduates Survey

Question

Good afternoon everyone!

Can someone please confirm that the name of the Institution for the respondents in NGS exists in the Master Files? I have a Graduate student looking to apply for RDC access but needs to know whether she will be able to identify the educational institutions in the file? Also would it be possible to obtain a copy of the questionnaire for the Master Files? The questionnaire that we have access to states that it is the "Release Questionnaire" which leads me to believe it is the questionnaire that links to our PUMF files.

Answer

Our education contacts have confirmed that it is not possible to identify the institution on the NGS Master file and that there is only one questionnaire (which is the same for the PUMF and the master file). They sent me one as an example and it also includes the expression "Release Questionnaire".

Additional Question

I have to admit that this is a bit shocking - I thought for sure we'd be able to identify institutions. So I have to ask is there any geographic identifiers in the Master file? I don't see any in the PUMF.

Answer

The author division has indicated that the analytical file includes a provincial level geographic identifier.

Inter-Provincial Migration - Students (Additional Question)

Question

Hi all,

This is a similar question to previously asked, but I thought I'd give it a shot to see if there might be a special publication or another source I might be missing.

I have a researcher looking for data on student mobility between the Canadian provinces in the past 10 years. She's specifically interested in students from Atlantic Canadian provinces who migrate to other Atlantic provinces for university purposes.

I'm fairly certain universities themselves have this data through their registration records, but is there anything else I can suggest?

Answer

The following Postsecondary Student Information System (PSIS) table may be of interest: University enrolments, by province of residence of study, annual (number), 1992/1993 to 2008/2009. It shows the province in which the student resided when they first applied to university crossed by the province they are studying in and is available on the DLI FTP or the DLI website at http://www.statcan.gc.ca/dli-ild/data-donnees/ftp/psis-siep-eng.htm. (I asked our education contacts about this table and they indicated that it could be helpful but also mentioned that one of the variables is sometimes not well-reported, and that its use may be limited.)

Our education contacts also indicated that the National Graduates Survey (NGS) includes variables that could be used to study student mobility. The NGS was however only conducted in 1990, 1995, 2000 and 2005 and the researcher would need to apply for access through a RDC or submit a request for custom (fee based) data because the variables of interest aren't on the public use microdata file. Our contacts also explained that "The NGS survey is using graduating students only (students who graduated and left the province and completed a diploma), more specifically: Among all of the graduates who lived in the Atlantic provinces before studying, who graduated in 2005, x% left the Atlantic provinces and x% did not."

I hope that this information is helpful. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any other questions.

National Graduates Survey 2000

Question

DLI has the NGS follow-up survey; class of 2000, but not the NGS 2000?

Why is this?

Thanks. We've had a request for it.

Answer

The DLI collection includes a public use microdata file (PUMF) for the Follow-up of Graduates Survey - Class of 2000 but we don't have one for the National Graduate Survey (NGS) - class of 2000 as a PUMF wasn't produced for the National Graduate Survey (NGS) - class of 2000. We asked our education contacts about this and they explained that "It was decided to produce one PUMF for the class of 2000 that included both the NGS and the FOG in order to produce a more comprehensive PUMF for the FOG-Class of 2000. If a NGS PUMF were to have been released it would have reduced significantly the breadth of information that was released on the FOG."

Music Grads and Employment

Question

Can the DLI resources answer the following question: "the number of music majors who get jobs when they graduate?"

Answer

This may be available as a custom extraction (for a fee) from the National graduates Survey (NGS). The variables in the NGS survey PUMFs unfortunately wouldn't allow you to answer the question as the industry and instructional program groupings are too large. Visual and performing arts, and communications technologies instructional programs seem to be grouped together as are Occupations in art, culture, recreation and sport.

The music department at UVic or an industry association may have statistics on this subject. Other DLI Contacts may have some helpful suggestions for your as well.

National Graduate Survey 2005

Question

Looking back through the DLI-list emails - there was talk about a PUMF for
the NGS2005 in June 2007 - then request for info regarding a joint 2000-2005
PUMF in January 2008.

Wondering whether we could get an update on this file? I have a faculty
member looking to use the 2005 data if its available.

Answer

Data from the NGS 2007 (Class of 2005) are currently available by request
only. Here is the associated Daily release.

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/081218/dq081218f-eng.htm

There is no PUMF yet but I will ask the author division if there are plans
to produce one. If there are, I will ask for an estimated release date. I
noticed that in the past, they have provided us with data tables as well so
I will ask about getting some for the DLI collection.

On Dec. 9, 2008, I announced the availability of the PUMF for the Follow-Up
of Graduates Survey 2005 (Class of 2000).

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/dli-ild/data-donnees/mhonarc/dli-ild-msg/msg14253.h
tml

I am 99% certain that this PUMF includes some of the NGS 2002 (Class of
2000) data but I will confirm that with the Division.

I will follow-up on all of this as soon as I have the full story.

***
Regarding the NGS, I have confirmed the following with the author division:

1. For the NGS 2007 (Class of 2005), data has been released (master files only) which means that custom requests can be produced at a cost.  There will be an analysis report released sometime early this year.  From that, the division may be producing some tables however, nothing is confirmed yet.

2. There is no PUMF for the NGS 2007 and at this point they are not discussing it.

3. The NGS 2005 (class of 2000: follow-up) graduates PUMF that was just released does include some variables from both the NGS and the FOG.  If you look at the codebook, the first page (table of contents) tells you what variables come from NGS and FOG.

I hope this answers all your questions.  I will keep you posted if I hear any updates regarding plans for a NGS 2007 PUMF or data tables.

NGS (National Graduates Survey)/FOG PUMFs

Question

Could we get an update on when/if a pumf is likely, please? Researchers are starting to see publications based on the RDC data, and want to be able to verify/expand these analyses, but can't, which is frustrating for both the researchers as well as us. If they can't verify the results, they often won't quote them or use them in teaching either, which sort of defeats the purpose of doing the surveys in the first place.

And no, a couple of excel tables of aggregate stats from the 2005 FOG is not a sufficient sop.

Answer

The latest information we have about the availability of pumfs from either the NGS 2000 or FOG 2005 is:

"pumf in March 2004 (dlilist 2003/02/03);"
"availability of a public use microdata file uncertain, maybe by spring
2006 (dlilist 2005/09/19);"
"April 2006 (dlilist 2006/01/19);"
"Production of a pumf currently on hold due to workload (dlilist
2006/07/12); "

Educational Recycling

Question

I have a researcher interested in educational recycling which is obtaining and additional post secondary credentials at lower to equivalent levels. He is particularly interested in those who have either (a) diplomas or (b) degrees in engineering fields?

Answer

The first thing that came to mind was the National Graduate Survey. Granted the data is fairly dated at this point - the most recent data is from 1995.

I did notice that the questionnaire had a section called Section H. Education after graduation

One of the questions was: HA1
Since your graduation in 1995, did you complete diploma or post-secondary degree since graduation in 1995?

Starting on Page 237 of the PDF document for the Codebook, the relevant information is available
http://www.statcan.ca/english/Dli/Metadata/ngs/1995/ngs95cbk.pdf

Graduate Salary Information

Question

I had thought that this would be an easy find--my mistake. If it should have been an easy find, my apologies. I think that the information is likely in ESIS (Enhanced Student Information System), but this doesn't appear to be part of the DLI collection. Is there any way to get the following information short of paying for a custom tab?

I would like to know the average salary after 2 years (or 3 or 4 or 5 years) for people graduating with a BA in communication in Canada. Several years ago, a sessional we had hired in Mass Communication had extracted that information from Statistics Canada.

His information compared the salaries of people who had a BA in communication with those who had a community college degree with those who had a BA and then went to college. In all cases, the straight BA came out significantly ahead (especially when compounded over 10 or 20 years). He had the statistics after 2 years, after 5 and after 10.

Answer

ESIS would not be the best source for this information as it tends to be administrative data from the universities themselves. However, I am not sure if you looked at the National Graduate Survey (NGS) or the follow-up surveys?

If the information can not be found in the PUMF, a custom extraction can be done - but starting at $1000 and taking weeks to complete.

1995 is the most recent NGS data we have in the DLI collection. The production of NGS 2000 is still on hold (but I heard they are actually working towards it, but it is at the bottom of a long list of priorities. We will see some basic tables and analysis at some point, the release of custom tables which will be provided free of charge to the DLI, and then the PUMF). No date provided.

The best I can offer is that there is a Master file for 2000 and the user can order custom tabulations at a fee. There is no data yet
available for 2005.

National Graduates Survey 2000

Question

Any word on when the NGS 2000 will be released?

Answer

Production of the 2000 FOG (Class of 1995) PUMF and the 2002 NGS (Class of 2000) PUMF are currently on hold. Due to the workload of the NGS/FOG project team coupled with a lack of dedicated resources for the PUMFS there is no timeline available for the release of the data files in question.

Education Survey

Question

I have a researcher who is in the process of putting a proposal together, but has some questions regarding availability of some surveys:

1 - University Student Information System - which I believe is now called the Enhanced Student Information System

2 - Post-Secondary Education Participation Survey (PEPS)

3 - NGS2000 - will there be another round of this survey in the future?

Answers and Responses

1. Statistics Canada response:

1) ESIS is not available to the DLI. If your user wants access, it will be a custom tabulation from the division at a cost (unless he/she can find the data in a report).

2)PEPS is not available to the DLI. If your user wants access, it will be a custom tabulation from the division at a cost (unless he/she can find the data in a report).

3) NGS2000 microdata, should be released by the end of the 2006 fiscal year, but this is very tentative and the release date will more than likely be delayed.

2. These are the titles listed as being part of the RDC:
http://www.statcan.ca/english/rdc/whatdata.htm

I did not see any mention of PEPS and ESIS. The question would best be answered by the RDC program itself though
(http://www.statcan.ca/english/rdc/network.htm).

3. NGS2000 PUMP is hopefully going to be released by the end of the fiscal year. The 5-year follow-up to the 2000 graduates is on-going and will be released. When is unknown at this time, but pls. tell your client that NGS is an on-going survey and data is released periodically.

National Graduates Survey 2000

Question

I have a researcher enquiring about the NGS 2000, any idea if we can get our hands on this one?

Answer

The file is not yet available and this is the reply I received from the division:

Unfortunately, I can't give a date. We still need to prepare the actual file, present to the Microdata Release Committee and then address any concerns they might have. Depending on the nature of those concerns, we have to make a second presentation to them for approval to release. All these things take time.

They are hoping to have it out by the end of April 2006, but that seems like a very ambitious goal.

International students and immigration status

Question

Statistics on the number and source countries of international students in the Canadian post-secondary system who have applied for/been granted permanent resident status subsequent to graduation.

It was suggested to her that DLI products would help. Can anyone suggest which one? I looked through the list and found the National Graduates survey but when I read the description and checked the questionaire it did not seem appropriate.

Answer

I just confirmed with our Education Division and we can provide university enrolments/graduates by country of citizenship and
immigration status from 1992 to 2001. However, we do not have data on how many students remain in Canada after they finish school.