Welcome to the Co-op Fee Comprehensive Review page. This space is a growing and changing project page dedicated to providing you with the most accurate up-to-date information about your co-op fee. It was last updated on May 11, 2018.
We are currently in phase two of the comprehensive review project. This means we are completing our “Current State Analysis” of the undergraduate co-op fee model, and beginning to provide recommendations and outcomes on our findings.
Throughout this project, Co-operative Education is committed to:
- examining student questions concerning the undergraduate co-op fee
- providing transparency on your co-op fee and how it is spent
If you still have questions about your co-op fee, please visit our FAQ page or contact the project team. Visit the project scope page to learn about what the project team has been doing since the comprehensive review began in July 2017.
Your top co-op fee questions:
Top findings from phase one:
Here are some of the themes and findings we've heard from students throughout this stage of the project:
- You want a better understanding of what the co-op fee is, and why you pay it.
- Feedback and questions received by the Comprehensive Review team are being answered and posted on the FAQ page as the project progresses.
- You want the $729 co-op fee broken down - It should be easy to see what the co-op fee covers.
- The fee review website has been updated with a visual breakdown of a single co-op fee instalment which shows how the fee is allocated to each resource category.
- You want to better understand and even be involved in the process for how the co-op fee is set each year.
- You want more clarity on when you pay the co-op fee based on your academic program.
Breaking down the costs
Our project team has worked to find the clearest way to break down your fee. It's not as simple as looking at individual units and their budgets, as many of our staff members work to support different areas of co-op. For example:
- A person in a communications role provides communications support across a variety of categories - they may spend 15% of their time on the co-op employment process, 15% on employer relationship management, 25% on faculty and institutional relations and 45% on new business.
- A co-op career advisor, on the other hand, would spend 100% of their time working on student advising, support and programming for students preparing for their first work term.
We've taken into account every role and expense funded by your co-op fee and sorted them into seven distinct categories of work/costs - take a look at the budget breakdown below and see where your $729 went this past year.
For more information on how the Co-operative and Experiential Education portfolio is structured, visit our organization chart on Waterloo’s secretariat website.
The co-op budget
Our budget number of $18.9 million reflects the actual co-op fees collected during fiscal May 1, 2016 to April 30, 2017. Learn more about how this number is calculated on our FAQ page.
Your $729 co-op fee
Work categories/costs
We've taken into account every role and expense funded by your co-op fee and sorted them into seven distinct categories of work/costs below. We are working to show how much of your co-op fee supports each work category.
Co-op employment process - $59
In fall 2017, there were almost 14,000 interviews in the first ten days of the first interview round. That’s a 15 percent increase in interviews (including in-person, phone and web-based) over last year. On a single day in October, there were more than 1,700 interviews.
Every term, our co-op program grows. With so many students and employers, it's critical that the core employment process functions as planned. Some key areas that are supported with this funding include:
- setting up WaterlooWorks prior to the start of term, making sure it's ready for the incoming users
- approving jobs and validating which clusters/levels they belong to
- scheduling 65,000+ interviews each year
- facilitating interview day services, including all the support for both students and employers (i.e. paging desk)
- running the rank/match process and communicating the results to students and employers
Student advising, programming, resource development - $189
Student success is critical to co-op, and student advising is an important part of that process. Student advising includes, among other things:
- support for all students while on any work term, first through last
- resource design and development that targets the changing and emerging needs and challenges of students in diverse situations
- additional support for first work term students through the Centre for Career Action (i.e. résumé critiques, mock interviews, career advising, in-house and custom workshops)
- full consults, which are typically face-to-face visits, for: any students at a new employer, students on their first or second to last work term, or if it is determined a student needs a full consult based on their eCheckIn responses
- a focus on student success on their recruiting term from the beginning of term until employment
We know that 26% ($4.9 million) of our operating budget goes to co-op student advising, programming, and resource development expenses. We’ve broken this down even further:
- 6% ($1.1 million total, $41 per student) goes toward specialized student support
- includes pre-first work term programming and international advising
- 14% ($2.7 million total, $101 per student) goes toward work term support and advising
- all first work term and second-to-last work term students get an on-site visit
- first time employers get an on-site visit
- provide support and help for students and their supervisors who have issues to work through
- 6% ($1.1 million total, $41 per student) goes toward general recruiting term support
- this includes students who are off-campus for any reason (such as on an exchange)
Employer relationship management - $102
With student enrolment growth comes a higher number of employer relationships. In 2017 we had over 6,900 active employers. Many of the best employers in the world hire from Waterloo, and many hire over and over again. St. Joe's Hospital just hired thirty-five Waterloo students in the fall 2017 term to help transition to a fully digital hospital.
Last year we were named #1 in Canada for employer partnerships, and #4 in the world (QS graduate employability rankings). Nurturing employer relationships is crucial to the success of our co-op program. To maintain this level of employer partnership, this funding supports:
- working with employers to understand their hiring needs
- facilitating info sessions for employers to attract students
- monitoring jobs throughout the process to ensure they are moving toward a hire
Faculty and institutional relations - $22
Academic programming is very much aligned with the co-op program, and communication between faculties and co-op is integral. Co-op must maintain strong relationships within the faculties to support 120+ co-op programs. This funding helps support:
- feasibility studies for new co-op programs
- program reviews for existing co-op programs
- liaising and strengthening relationships across each of the six faculties and other campus institutions
New job development - $82
The University's employer network stretches across 60+ countries. In 2017, Waterloo onboarded more than 1,400 new employers. Our business development team connects face-to-face with prospective employers at hundreds of events, trade shows and meetings across North America each year.
New business is a priority to ensure the growth of Waterloo co-op. This funding supports:
- increasing the number of students hired as well as diversity of programs employers hire from
- onboarding of new employers - this includes coaching on funding opportunities, program options, hiring procedures and effective student coaching/evaluation
- using a research-based approach to explore prospective employers and industries
Infrastructure and administration - $129
Last year, more than one million co-op job applications were processed by WaterlooWorks. This led to 67,500+ interviews and 19,100 work terms. The infrastructure and administration supports all five of the previously listed areas of work. This funding supports:
- technical support for posting, interviewing and hiring
- WaterlooWorks licensing and maintenance
- management and administration
- process improvement, pilots, and new program development
- external relations (e.g. association work, delegation representations)
University central costs - $146
University central costs account for our department’s continuous access of centralized resources and services on campus. This includes overheads such as: management of building and space costs (Plant Operations), employee benefits (Human Resources), access to university technology networks and tech supports (IST) and more.
These central costs are automatically deducted by the university and are not considered part of the operating budget of the co-op program.
Co-op at Waterloo
The University of Waterloo has more co-op students than Canada's next two largest post-secondary co-op institutions - combined.
In fact, about one-third of all university co-op work terms across Canada are filled by Waterloo students.
With increased size and diversity comes increased complexity. There are 150 full-time ongoing staff members that make the University of Waterloo co-op program possible. There are also contract and casual staff that support the co-op process for special projects and at peak times each term.
Curious about our numbers? Take a look at this interactive chart below.
For more information and metrics around co-op, visit our 2017 Annual Report.
