KEY THEME: Students are working more and reducing debt.
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 | Participating universities | Completed surveys |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 29 | 11,585 |
| 2020 | 29 | 20,449 |
| 2017 | 24 | 15,248 |
| 2014 | 25 | 22,537 |
Student employment
The proportion of middle-years students who work while attending university (excluding co-op) has risen by six percentage points over the past four surveys. Students are more likely to be workingand the average hours worked has increased to 18 hours per week, up almost 10% from 2017 and 2020.
Top sources of financing education
Although family tends to be the predominant source of funding for students’ post-secondary education, the proportion who rely on this source has slowly been trending down over time (64% to 56%). This has been coupled with an increase in the proportion of those receiving university scholarships and awards, from 33% in 2014 to 39% in 2023.
Average amount of financing
The typical 2023 middle-years student requires about $17,500 to fund a single year of their education, which is 10% to 20% lower than past surveys. In part, the decrease in debt (see page 2) may be due to a decrease in the average amount students say they require to finance their education.
Student debt
The biggest source of debt is government student loans. The increases and decreases in the proportion of students that have debt are lock-step with changes in those relying on government student loans. There have been slight decreases in students taking on other forms of debt, which may be a reason why the proportion that have debt in 2023 is the lowest over the last four surveys.
Results for 2023 show that middle-years students have the lowest average debt levels over the past four surveys when adjusted for inflation. The typical student with debt carries about $21,000 in debt, which is 20% to 30% lower than past surveys.
Perceptions of finances (% “strongly agree” or “agree”)
Over time, there has been very little change in the proportion of middle-years students who believe they have the financial resources to complete their program. However, the proportion who believe that a university degree is worth the cost has been declining steadily over the past four surveys, dropping by 14 percentage points, from 65% in 2014 to 51% in 2023. Given that the students’ debt levels and the cost of university have been trending favorably, this may be more reflective of perceptions of their education than the costs.
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.