Institutional Surveys

Survey Administration

IAP regularly coordinates and administers campus-wide surveys including:

Results are typically available by Faculty and Program. If you are interested in survey results, please send a request to IAP through the Survey data request form.
Survey instruments, descriptive, and summary reports for current or past IAP-specific surveys can be accessed via the survey links above or through IAP's Borealis Survey Repository.

In addition, as a result of COVID-19, the university has undertaken several surveys to help with operational planning. A repository of surveys is available for internal users through the Institutional Analysis and Planning COVID-19 Surveys Repository. To gain access to this repository, please send a request to IAP through the Survey data request form.

Survey Schedule

IAP surveys are regularly administered according to the the schedule below. For scheduled surveys administered by other campus units, please see the IAP survey calendar (Outlook).

Schedule of IAP surveys
Surveys Frequency Last administration date Upcoming administration date

NSSE

Target: First-year and final year undergraduates

Every 3 years Winter/spring 2023 2026

CGPSS

Target: Master's and doctoral students

Every 3 years Winter/spring 2022 2025

CUSC First-Year Survey

Target: First-year undergraduates (sample of ~2,000)

Every 3 years Winter/spring 2022 2025

CUSC Graduating Student Survey

Target: Final -year undergraduates (Sample of ~ 2,000)

Every 3 years Winter/spring 2018

2024

In field: Feb 1 - April 7, 2024

OUGS

Target: Undergraduate alumni

Every year 2022/23 (2020 alumni)

2023/24 (2021 alumni)

In field: Nov 3, 2023 - Mar 31, 2024

SES

Target: Undergraduate students (sample of ~10,000)

Every fall and winter Winter 2024 Fall 2025

Equity Census

Target: All students and employees

Ongoing 2020/21 Ongoing

Survey Management

IAP helps to coordinate non-academic research surveys administered to the any Waterloo population per Policy 55. These surveys, as defined in the Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS2) as quality assurance or assessment, administrative, program review, evaluation surveys etc. are to be reviewed by IAP while those conducted for academic research purposes require ethics clearance through the Office of Research Ethics (ORE).

University stakeholders interested in conducting a survey at Waterloo should review Waterloo's survey process outlined on the Survey Administration Process webpage or Flow-chart.

To begin the survey review process, complete the Survey Review Form.

Partnership with the Statistics Consulting and Survey Research Unit (SCSRU)

IAP has partnered with the Statistics Consulting and Survey Research Unit (SCSRU), formerly the Survey Research Center, to develop and administer several campus-wide surveys to students, alumni, faculty, and staff.

The Student Experience Survey (SES), the first survey administered through this partnership, aims to understand students' perceptions of their academic and non-academic learning environments and their experience at the University of Waterloo. These topics are explored through questions about student general well-being, perceived efficacy of various instructional modalities and learning supports, and opinions on various strategic initiatives. Find out more about the survey on the SES survey main webpage.

If you would like help planning and/or administering your survey, please contact SCSRU by email or complete the Survey research services checklist form.