To make the survey shorter, institutions will provide some of the demographic and academic data from their information systems, e.g. citizenship and gender.
ID This is a unique identifier that your institution creates and assigns to each student in the sample. This is not the student’s official institution identifier. It will be included as a variable in the SPSS and Excel data files that PRA provides to your institution. We recommend that institutions maintain a crosswalk file of students’ CUSC ID and institution ID. Numeric, 10 digits maximum.
First Student’s first name or preferred name. It is better if the salutation in the email invitation and reminders uses the student’s first name because it personalizes the email and makes it look less like a mass email. Text, 50 characters maximum.
Email Student’s email address. Include the full email address. If you have more than one email address for a student, put each address in a separate field (Email 1, Email 2, etc.). For example, you might have a student’s institution and personal email address. In order to increase response rates it may be advantageous to try to reach a student at both email addresses. PRA will send the invitation email and reminder emails to all of the email addresses provided. Text, 250 characters maximum.
CIP Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) code for the student’s primary program in two-dot-four (xx.xxxx) format. For example, a general Biology program would have a CIP code of 26.0101. If a student is enrolled in more than one program (such as a double major), you can include the CIP code for the second major in an optional field in your sample file. Text, 7 characters.
Use the Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) Canada 2021 Version 1.0 available on Statistics Canada’s website at https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/e133360f-ae6c-4a7a-8715-850a7a3d7932 to code students’ programs according to field of study.
Sample Standard sample, special sample, or admin sample. Values: standard, special, admin. Text, 10 characters maximum.
Length Normal length of the student’s program. Values: 3 = three years, 4 = four years, 5 = more than four years, 9 = unknown. Numeric, 1 digit.
Age Calculate each student’s age as of September 1, 2024 rounded up to the nearest whole number. Values: any whole number (no decimal places), 999 = unknown. Numeric, 3 digits.
Citizenship Values: 1 = Canadian, 2 = permanent resident, 3 = international/ visa student, 9 = unknown. Numeric, 1 digit.
Gender Values: 1 = female, 2 = male, 3 = other, 9 = unknown. Numeric, 1 digit.
Load Enrolment status in Winter 2025 (or Fall 2024 if Winter data is not available). The definition of full-time and part-time should be determined by your institution’s guidelines. Values: 1 = full-time, 2 = part-time, 9 = unknown. Numeric, 1 digit.