All Posts Tagged With: "survey"

University grads prefer Liberals

July 22nd, 2010 • Carson Jerema

But that doesn’t mean the census debate is igniting a culture war

A new Ekos poll released today suggests that university graduates prefer the Liberals over the governing Conservatives. Ekos president Frank Graves says this “trend” might reflect not only discontent over the great census crisis, but is also indicative of “a deeper structural divide between the educated elite and what Galbraith calls the ‘not so rich.’” By “not so rich” Graves is referring to “college graduates.” In other words, we are in the midst of a culture war, the census debate is the catalyst, and the line is being drawn between the university educated and the college educated. Too bad Ekos’s own data doesn’t appear to support that conclusion.

The two-week survey, conducted between July 7 and 20, shows that 29.9 per cent of those with a university degree would vote Conservative against 32.0 per cent who would vote Liberal if an election were held tomorrow. For the college educated the numbers are 34.8 per cent Conservative and 23.7 per cent Liberal. Apparently this is what Graves means by a “deeper divide” between the “educated elite” and everyone else.

For that speculation to have even a whiff of credibility, wouldn’t it have to be shown that the divide has actually deepened over time, say by tracking Ekos’s own polls? If the numbers are substantially different than they were in May or June, before the phrase ” long-form census ” found its way into newspapers on an almost daily basis, than Graves might have a point. But that isn’t the case.

In the Ekos poll released June 24, results were nearly identical to the July poll. University grads still favoured the Liberals (34.3 per cent) over the Conservatives (29.0 per cent) and college grads still preferred the Conservatives (34.1 per cent) against the Liberals (23.7 per cent). Despite these largely unchanged numbers, support for the government among university grads in fact increased in July over June, if only a little (0.9 per cent) and decreased for the Liberals by 2.3 per cent. While support among college grads for the government also increased between June and July, (0.7 per cent), support for the Liberals among this group was unchanged. Hardly a widening cultural chasm.

Now, as the Globe points out, the second week of the July survey does appear to show a drop in support for the government among university grads (to 28.3 per cent) and a rise in support among the “not so rich” college educated ( to 38.7 per cent). Even these numbers, however, appear to be consistent with long-term trends as opposed to a sharp divide precipitated by recent events. The Ekos poll released on May 24 had support for the Conservatives among the university educated at 31.6 per cent, but it was 27.8 per cent at the beginning of April. In the May poll 36.0 per cent of college graduates supported the government, while the April poll had the number at 34.4 per cent.

Removing the long-form census may be bad public policy, and it might be fun to argue that university graduates (with their apparently superior understanding of data collection) would be particularly irked, and it might also be fun to argue that college graduates (with their obvious affinity for “red meat” policies) are ecstatic over no longer having to fill out lengthy census forms. But, this week’s poll is just another in a long list of polls that demonstrates shifting support for this or that party according to level of education. That’s not to say it has nothing to do with the census debate; however, even if these changes in polling numbers were the result of what’s in the news, and they might very well be, there is nothing special about it.

To be clear, Graves was only offering “speculation” over the presence of a “deeper structural divide.” But shouldn’t even speculation, particularly coming from a company that boasts the scientific accuracy in its polling, be based on evidence?

Photo: Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff speaks to University of Manitoba students: Ashley Gaboury

Party time: Penn State takes title for top U.S. party school

July 27th, 2009 • Macleans.ca

School also tops “lots of beer” category in Princeton Review survey

Penn State University is now the No. 1 U.S. party school.

The school known partly for its football tailgate weekends and fraternity and sorority scene snatched the title away from the University of Florida in the 2009 Princeton Review survey of 122,000 students nationwide. Florida, last year’s winner, finished second in the annual survey released Monday.

It’s the first time Penn State has finished first in the dubious category. The school has been on the list the last seven years and ranked third in 2008. The listing covers Penn State’s main University Park campus in State College.

“These rankings are not more than popularity contests,” said university spokeswoman Annemarie Mountz. She noted that groups on the social networking site Facebook have urged members to make Penn State the top party school.

“It’s a badge of honour at this point. Nationwide, kids want to pump their schools in these surveys,” Mountz said. “It’s not connected to reality.”

The rankings were part of the Princeton Review’s “The Best 371 Colleges” annual guide. On average, there were 325 respondents to the survey per school, which Mountz said amounted to less than 1 per cent of the University Park campus’ enrolment of 43,000 students.

Penn State also finished first in the categories “lots of beer” and students who pack the stadium. Beaver Stadium is one of the largest U.S. sports facilities, seating more than 107,000 for football games.

After Penn State and Florida, the top five institutions on the party schools list were the University of Mississippi, the University of Georgia, and Ohio University-Athens.

Guide author Robert Franek said every school in the survey offered “great academics.”

Highlights

April 22nd, 2009 • Macleans.ca

Ontario Colleges Key Performance Indicators Survey

The 2008 Key Performance Indicators survey found generally high levels of satisfaction among Ontario college graduates, their employers and college students.

Among the findings:

• 93.3 per cent of employers were satisfied with how Ontario colleges had prepared their graduates for the workforce

• 88.9 per cent of 2007-2008 Ontario college graduates were employed within six months of graduation (down slightly from 90.5 per cent in the previous year)

• 82.7 per cent of graduates were satisfied with the usefulness of their college education in achieving their goals after graduation

• 78.4 per cent of students were satisfied with the overall quality of services, programming and resources available at Ontario colleges

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Who took part

How the survey was done

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How it was done

April 22nd, 2009 • Macleans.ca

Ontario Colleges Key Performance Indicators Survey

In 1998, the Ontario government mandated the province’s 24 colleges to collect data for Key Performance Indicators in five areas: graduation rate, employment rate, graduate satisfaction, employer satisfaction and student satisfaction. The purpose of the annual study is to provide college administrators with feedback on the quality of their programs, as well as to provide accountability information to the government and other post-secondary stakeholders in Ontario. The KPI results for graduate employment, graduate satisfaction and employer satisfaction are used to distribute performance funding to the colleges. In addition, the results of these surveys provide prospective students with valuable information when making their post-secondary choices.

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Graduates are contacted by telephone and asked for their comments about their college programs and their experiences since leaving college. In order to interview grads six months after graduation, surveys are conducted at three points during the year, each period lasting for eight weeks. If graduates give their consent, their employers are also contacted. A four-week Employer Satisfaction Survey is conducted by phone shortly after each graduate survey. Employers are questioned about how well they feel the college has prepared its graduates to meet their needs as an employer. They are not asked to evaluate the graduate. In the 2008 survey, more than 39,350 graduates completed interviews out of a total graduate population of 59,235. Nearly 8,000 employers took part in the survey.

Meanwhile, student satisfaction surveys are paper based and conducted each February with results tabulated by an external survey consultant. All students beyond first semester are surveyed. More than 109,000 college students completed the latest survey in February 2009. In addition, surveys may be conducted in advance for students in co-op and clinical placements who are unavailable to be surveyed in February and for students who are approved for such non-traditional program delivery options as online or weekend courses.

Note: When displaying the survey results, Maclean’s has ordered the colleges in descending order according to the percentage of survey participants who chose “Very Satisfied/Satisfied” as a response. For the Graduation Rate indicator, colleges are listed in order of those that had the highest percentages for graduation. The Graduate Employment Rate indicator is displayed alphabetically, however, as many factors in addition to post-secondary training can affect employment rates. For its part, Colleges Ontario advises that when considering the survey data “college-to-college comparisons (ranking) could produce misleading results, because of college size, local employment conditions, program mix and graduate demographics. The data from each college should be considered on its own.”

Who took part

April 22nd, 2009 • Macleans.ca

Ontario Colleges Key Performance Indicators Survey

Each year, 24 Ontario colleges survey current students, recent graduates and their employers to collect data for Key Performance Indicators (KPI) in five areas: graduation rate, employment rate, graduate satisfaction, employer satisfaction and student satisfaction. The 2008 survey reflects the views of more than 109,000 college students, 39,350 graduates and almost 8,000 employers.

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How it was done

Highlights

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Institution as % of B.C. Average: To allow for a more accurate and fair comparison among different types of institutions, the DACSO survey takes the scores from the left-hand column and adjusts them to account for the different program mixes at each school. Each school’s percentage result shows how it would have placed if all institutions in the survey had its program mix. One hundred percent equals the provincial adjusted score; 101% is 1% above the provincial adjusted score; 99% is 1% below.

Source: http://outcomes.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/Publications/