KEY THEME: Undergraduate students appear less satisfied with their university experiences.
The 2023 Middle-Years Student Surveymarks the 29th cooperative study undertaken by the Canadian University Survey Consortium (CUSC). The 2023 survey involved 29 universities and almost 12,000 students from across Canada. Past surveys involved between 24 and 29 participating universities with a range of 15,248 to 22,537 students completing the survey.
| Middle-Years Survey | Middle-Years Survey | Middle-Years Survey |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 29 | 11,585 |
| 2020 | 29 | 20,449 |
| 2017 | 24 | 15,248 |
| 2014 | 25 | 22,537 |
Recommend university to others (Net Promoter Score)
Students were asked to rate the likelihood that they would recommend their university to others on a scale from 0 (not at all likely) to 10 (extremely likely). The Net Promoter Score (NPS) was calculated, where detractors (rating of 0 to 6) are subtracted from promoters (rating of 9 or 10), Over the last two surveys, there has been a significant decline in the NPS for universities, dropping from -1 in 2020 (27% minus 28%) to -13 in 2023 (22% minus 35%).
Commitment to university education (% ‘strongly agree’ or ‘agree’)
Students were asked to rate the commitment to completing their undergraduate program. The graph below illustrates students’ future plans concerning their educational pursuits and commitment to their current university. Although there has been a slight increase in the past two surveys of students indicating that they plan to go to college the following year instead of returning to their studies, the vast majority (around 90%) indicate they plan to complete their degree at their current university.
Expectations and experience
When asked about whether the university has surpassed, met, or fallen short of their expectations, there has been a decrease in students who say their experiences have exceed expectations coupled with an increase in those who say their experiences have fallen short.
Perceptions of university program (% ‘strongly agree’ or ‘agree’)
Overall, the vast majority of students are positive about their program. However, there has been a slight decline in students’ agreement in a few areas, most notably that they had adequate information about their program from the university before enrolling – dropping six percentage points over time.
Perceptions of effort (% ‘strongly agree’ or ‘agree’)
Among four statements assessing students’ abilities and efforts, the statement willing to put a lot of effort into being successful at a university has consistently received the highest rating. However, trend lines indicate that fewer students agree that they can deal with stress, dropping eight percentage points over time.
Satisfaction with decision to attend this university
When students were asked to assess their satisfaction with their decision to attend the university, the majority expressed contentment; however, the proportion who are very satisfied has decreased by three percentage points in each of the past two surveys.
2023 Methodology
Each university participating in the surveys generated a sample of eligible students. In some cases, universities provided all eligible students, while others provided a random sample of students. In 2023, response rates by university ranged from 7.5% to 51.3%, with an overall response rate of 21.5%. This yielded 11,585 students who completed the survey.
To compensate for the discrepancies between the population of middle-years students among participating universities and their sample population, results have been weighted. Non-responses were excluded from these analyses.