Moving Through, Moving On, Persistence in Postsecondary Education in Atlantic Canada, Evidence from the PSIS

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This report provides new and unique empirical evidence on postsecondary education pathways in Atlantic Canada based on the data from the Postsecondary Student Information System (psis). This study covers postsecondary students in public institutions at all levels of study--college, bachelor's, master's, Ph. D. and first professional degrees--with the emphasis on college and bachelor's students. The focus is on students who start new programs over the period of study, years 2001 through to 2004, and then observing who, in each year of their studies, graduates, continues in the same program, switches programs or leaves postsecondary education without graduating. The number of students who leave and then return to postsecondary studies and the number of students who graduate from a program and then continue in their studies are also identified. Students in this study can be tracked longitudinally as they move both within and across all institutions in the Atlantic. The research file used for this study was created by Statistics Canada using psis data from the Atlantic region. One of the key objectives of the psis is to provide information that will enable researchers to perform studies of student mobility, pathways and their relationship to education and labour market outcomes. The research file includes one longitudinal record for each postsecondary student who studied in Atlantic Canada at some point during the years 2001 through to 2004. The term "longitudinal" means that, as the student progresses through the postsecondary system, the psis record will provide a cumulative history of their postsecondary activity. It is the longitudinal nature of the database that allows for statistical studies of student mobility, pathways and their relationship to education and labour market outcomes. The research file contains 337,000 student records. The results reported here might be of interest to academics, institution administrators, postsecondary policy makers, and others with an interest in these dynamics, including even students themselves, not only in Atlantic Canada, but also across Canada, and possibly even in other countries. Appended are: (1) Selection criteria for sample 1; (2) Additional provincial findings; (3) Institutional-level findings; and (4) Comparing the yits and psis (and other proposed checks). (Contains 39 tables, 2 figures, and 39 endnotes.) [Funding for this report was provided by the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation and the Council of Atlantic Ministers of Education and Training (camet).]

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