Student Pathways and Graduate Outcomes

Files with linked data from the Statistics Canada, Postsecondary Student Information System (PSIS) and tax data can be used to examine the trajectories of students who pursue postsecondary education (PSE) programs and their post-schooling labour market outcomes. On one hand, administrative data on students linked longitudinally can provide aggregate information on student pathways during postsecondary studies such as persistence rates, graduation rates, mobility, etc. On the other hand, the tax data could supplement the PSIS data to provide information on employment outcomes such as average and median earnings or earnings progress by employment sector (industry), field of study, education level and/or other demographic information, year over year after graduation. Two longitudinal pilot studies have been done using administrative data on postsecondary students of Maritimes institutions which have been longitudinally linked and linked to Statistics Canada Ttx data (the T1 Family File) for relevant years. This article first focuses on the quality of information in the administrative data and the methodology used to conduct these longitudinal studies and derive indicators. Second, it will focus on some limitations when using administrative data, rather than a survey, to define some concepts.