Report on Martime university graduates released
Posted Jan 18, 2011 05:12:55 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission is releasing the results of a survey of recent grads from 2007.
The researchers caught up with the students in 2009, two years after they had all completed their first degrees at a university in the Maritimes, to see how they felt about their experiences and resultant debt loads.
The survey was conducted with 3,000 graduates, and answers from 1,702 were used to compile the reports.
It looks at where graduates were two years after graduation, including where they live, where they work, and how much university debt they still have.
The survey showed 95 per cent of Maritime university graduates in the 2007 class were at least satisfied with the quality of teaching.
83 per cent said it was worth or well worth their time, but when the dollars and cents get figured in that number dropped.
About half of students who were able to complete school without borrowing money felt it was a worthwhile experience. But only 22 per cent of students who took on more than $45,000 thought it was worthwhile.
Geography was also a factor in retaining graduates after they were finished with their schooling. A little more than half of graduates from universities in Nova Scotia actually are Nova Scotians, while 24 per cent were from Ontario. In 2003, only 12 per cent of graduates from Maritime schools were Ontarian.
Only a quarter of native Nova Scotians ended up leaving to find work in other parts of Canada, but 71 per cent of those who initially came from another province left after school was finished.
The survey also showed that nine per cent of graduates were still unemployed 2 years after graduating.
